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Mark Your Calendar

Friday Evening Laughter Yoga

Third Friday of Every Month,  7 – 8 p.m.

Amp up your mojo for a joyful weekend by joining us for laughing in community.  Roll around on the yoga mat with laughter warm-ups, get your cardiac workout with group laughter exercises standing and moving around the studio  and  finish lying down with a joyful, juicy closing laughter meditation accompanied by my crystal bowls.$10 donation. Such a deal for how good you will feel!

Bodyworks Yoga Studio, 490 Second Street at G Street.  Petaluma. 94952.

Free!  Every Tuesday Morning at 10 a.m.

Generously Hosted by  Merrill Gardens since 2007
4855 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park.
A few miles north of RP Expressway.
707. 585. 7878.

Chair Laughter Yoga Club

Free and open to adults of ALL ages.

Get  the benefits of a rockin’ laughter yoga  practice seated in chairs and wheelchairs. No yoga mat required. Safe cardiac workout. Mood enhancing and oxygenating.  Feel the joy!

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Carmela’s New DVD

Laughing with Older Adults: an instructional tool for
leading joyful chair fitness

Click Here to Watch now!
Three minute video promo for Carmela Carlyle’s new DVD:

This is an ideal tool for CLYLs and CLYTs, or for anyone who wishes to integrate the healing power of laughter into their work with older adults. The almost two hour-long DVD features  laughter yoga practiced seated with elders at different levels of care, from four residential care communities. Carmela created the first Chair and Wheelchair Laughter Yoga Club in the world in 2007 which is also featured in this DVD.

Chapter One: Training – 45 minutes
Lecture, studio interviews with Monnet Zubietta on More Joy: The Television Show and live footage with practical tips for safely adapting Laugher Yoga for older adults. Carmela leads and explains original chair fitness exercises. Overview for working with adults in diverse residential settings.

Chapter Two: Testimonials – 35 minutes
Testimonials from elders effective for promoting the benefits of Laughter Yoga. Endorsements for Laughter Yoga from eldercare, yoga and laughter yoga professionals.

Chapter Three: Introductory Laughter Yoga session – 30 minutes
Demonstrates presenting at an eldercare community new to laughter yoga.

“Carmela is an amazingly talented teacher! I am so impressed with how she manifests Laughter Yoga in different fields. With this DVD, you can now share her professional knowledge and skills in adapting Laughter Yoga for our beloved elders.”

Madan Kataria, M.D.
Creator of the International Laughter Yoga Movement

Order Now!

USA: – BUY NOW
DVD $24.95 and Shipping $2.95:$27.90 total

California Residents: – BUY NOW
DVD $24.95, Shipping $2.95 & Sales Tax $2.25: $30.15 total

Email us at: contact@carmelacarlyle.com for discount pricing for larger orders and shipping outside the continental US.

Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorphin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.

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Use laughter to ease your pain in every day life …

At a recent laughter yoga group one of the members lead his latest solo laughter yoga exercise that he is practices for daily pain relief.  He has been experiencing some back pain and every time he gets into, or out of,  the car it seems that he lets out an exhaling ”AGGHHH” sound.  He did not realize he was doing this until his wife remarked that he was making “ugly noises every time he got into the car with her and again every place they arrived!”
Gentleman that he is, he realized that his painful outbursts were not attractive and came upon a solution. Given that laughter is long exhales and it serves to release endorphins for pain relief, he decided to laugh every time he put his car key in the door and every time he removed the key to get out of his car!  He calls it “Laughing Coming and Going.”

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Sometimes we need to make a little noise to find a little peace.
Quietly meditating and practicing yoga in silence are often presumed to be the direct route to equanimity.  Human beings, however, are hard-wired to relieve stress and pain by making sounds. The sigh of relief or the sigh of  impatience and frustration are two examples. ”Ouch!” is another.  Not that I recommend it, but studies even  have shown that loudly cursing actually showed brain activity for pain relief  for participants in the research.  ”Letting it out” in order to “let it go” takes many forms and not always are they pleasant.
We also use our voices to release sounds of  joy!  Many yoga practices include the use of  mantra and chanting. Some offer bhakti, devotional music and singing.  Laughter Yoga not only offers laughter for the sound of joy, but we also repeat  ”Very good, Very good! YAY!”   At my last Laughter Yoga Class in an Alzheimer’s Community, I invited group members to remember sayings that expressed success or joy. They were happily shrieking “Hip Hip Hooray!’, “Yippppeeee!”, “Way to go!”, “Good on you!”  “Better and Better!” and  “Congratulations!”  with lots of added laughter.  I then invited them to make eye contact with their neighbors and offer thumbs-up  with laughter.  Then we all closed our eyes for a  guided relaxation and every person there  was able to sigh and murmur aaaahhhhhh and then ease into a quiet meditation.  No small feat for those dealing with the anxiety of dementia.
Perhaps you were  taught “If you cannot say anything nice, do not say anything at all.”  Well, that may work some of the time and cut down on harmful gossip, but often we gag on swallowing truths.  At a recent yoga workshop, participants enjoyed releasing  “unspoken truths” with a little something I like to call “Throat Chakra Hairball Laughter.”  Those of you who live with cats know the sound of a cat choking up hairballs. Imagine a whole group of humans (therapeutically) doing that!  Afterwards we laughed and many reported a lightness in their throat.
Instead of “getting all choked up”  release your jaws, your throat chakra and even your worries by laughing. And, studies do show that the more youlaugh … the more you laugh.

Be a Laughter Yoga Televsion and Video Star 

Lights! Cameras! Laugh!

Tuesday, October 19th at 9:30 a.m.

Please join us at Merrill Gardens Retirement Community for the video shoot of our Arm Chair and Wheelchair Laughter Yoga Club which will be featured on the cable television show More Joy: The Laughter Television Show and for my upcoming training  DVDs. I want to include your story about LY! This video needs you!

The yoga mat may be a  “magic carpet ride”  for some of  us, but it might feel more like “having the rug pulled out from under you” for others. As a  Yoga Therapist, I very much want everyone to have access to the healing benefits of yoga and  so I have developed  and taught several Chair and Wheelchair Yoga Classes over the years. Some of  the classes are done  completely seated for people who cannot stand on their own at all, some have been for folks who can use the chair for supported balance poses and  “Downward Dog” pose with hands on the seat of the chair.  Beautiful  “Sun Salutations” can be adapted for a  chair yoga practice and a vigorous workout is quite accessible. Core-strengthening is a key goal for many people and we can do that seated too.

Chair Yoga is not only effective for people with  so-called disabilities.  I like teaching  “Desk Stretch Yoga” for people in the workplace who do a lot of computer work. I hesitate to call the classes “Yoga for the Working Wounded”, but sometimes when I looked at the stiff shoulders, tightened jaws and pained look on their faces, the title did cross my mind.  So much good yoga can be done while seated at work!  Our wrists, lower backs, hips, shoulder, necks and jaws respond quite gratefully to yoga in the workplace chair.

I believe that Seated Yoga can be  wonderfully effective way for beginners to focus on the really important part of yoga, pranayama, yogic breathing.  Learning to extend the exhale and move with one’s breath while getting the feel for “inhaling up and exhaling down” is a vital part of  the Yoga practice which can be learned while seated. Practicing beginning meditation as part of my Chair Yoga classes is also another key part of the yoga practice that lends itself well to being seated. So, there really are some advantages to the chair practice.

My Arm Chair and Wheelchair Laughter Yoga Club in Rohnert Park was the first LY Club in this country dedicated to practicing laughter yoga seated for adults of all ages with diverse mental and physical challenges. And we get quite a good workout and lots of  laughs without doing the standing group laughter exercises that are the usual fare at LY Clubs.   Nor do we lie down on the floor for a closing laughter meditation, but we still finish each session with a juicy  solo laughter meditation.    I teach several  Chair Laughter Yoga  groups to elders every week, many of whom use walkers and wheelchairs, and they always remark how they feel so “alive with such a good workout” doing the practice.

When  I offer Laughter Yoga at professional conferences in auditoriums the audience is always seated and that has given me an opportunity to really get them moving and laughing while seated. Of course, I do aim to bring them up  to standing, waving their arms and laughing and shaking hands with each other, but I  have learned to adapt the practice, even for the  very able-bodied, to get the benefits while sitting on their bums.

So, if you have been considering “trying yoga”,  or if you “used to practice yoga on the mat years ago”  and worry that your current body might not like being on the floor, consider the many benefits of a Chair Yoga practice.

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 Petaluma Film Series Presents

 Documentary Film  ”Laughology”   

Sunday. October 10th. 7:o0 p.m.

Aqus Cafe  189 2nd Street at H Street.  Petaluma, CA 94952
(707) 778-6060

Join us for a  showing of  the  new documentary film  “Laughology” (2009, 65 minutes)  and a Community Laughter Yoga session facilitated by Monnet Zubieta, M.A., Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher, Sebastopol and Carmela Carlyle, M.A., RYT and organizer Paula Swanson, Laughter Yoga Leader, Petaluma.

Laughology tells the true story of how Albert Nerenberg, a Canadian journalist became a Laughologist following a family tragedy when he and his wife lost their parents and in their grief   “lost their laugh.”  This fun documentary reveals new information about the nature, power, origin and development of laughter in a multicultural context. There are also several scientists who discuss the latest proven medical evidence for laughter’s powerful healing effects. Nerenberg travels from Canada to the USA, India, London, Alaska and Tanzania in search of  his laugh. Some of the elements of the film were chronicled in Nerenberg’s popular series in the Montreal Gazette on “Positivity.”  Laughology makes the case that the laughter fitness trend has scientific basis and includes an interview with Dr.Madan Kataria, M.D., the creator of the contemporary Laughter Yoga movement.  Doug Collins, revered as having the “most contagious laugh” in the whole wild world is also interviewed so you can surely count on a few good laughs! Join us for a fun evening of laughing with community. 

Folllowing the film you will have the opportunity to try a little Laughter Yoga  with yours truly, Monnet and Paula. Invite your friends!  $4 Donations will be  graciously accepted for The Petaluma Film Series Program.

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Community Classes

 
TGIF Laughter Yoga!
Thank the Goddesses It’s Friday! Laughter Yoga Club at Bodyworks

Fridays. October 15.  7:00 p.m. and the Third Friday of Every Month. Also Mark Your Calendar for next class dedicated to gratitude and thanksgiving: November 19.   Warm-ups on the yoga mat and joyful laughter exercises moving around the studio. Solo Laughter Meditation and a crystal bowl closing.  You will feel relaxed and energized and ready for a groovy weekend.  $10. Bodyworks Yoga Studio. 490 Second Street at G St. Petaluma. 94952. Lots of  free parking. 707.769.9933.

FREE: Arm Chair and Wheelchair Laughter Yoga Club
Now EVERY TUESDAY  at 10 a.m.  No charge.  Open to adults of ALL AGES. Get a good workout for your mind, body and spirit. Hosted by Merrill Gardens Retirement Community, Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park. Adults of all ages welcome.  585-7878.

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No previous yoga experience necessary. Training will include how to adapt laughter yoga to practice seated in chairs, for your own self and with clients and colleagues.  All fitness levels accommodated.  Chairs, yoga mats, blankets, bolsters, snacks , manual , certification are all included.

More info on my LY Leader Training Website Page.

Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24
12 – 6 p.m Saturday and Sunday
Bodyworks Yoga and Stress Management Studio, Petaluma

12 CEs for RNs, MFTs and LCSWs AND RYTs for a processing fee. Note: addtional contact hours will be offered by you attending and leading laughter exercises at Carmela’s classes, LY Club or in your community!

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The symbolism of the lotus flower is extremely important in yoga. The lotus flower is a gorgeous blossom with a circle of petals that floats on the water’s surface. The lotus’s roots, however, are extremely long and deep in the mud. The sludge and the mud provide the nutrients to help the lotus grow and achieve its beauty. To yogis and yoginis, the lotus represents human life.

Don’t get stuck in the muck my darling Laughing Lotus Blossoms! One recent study from the University of Texas at Austin found that “those who chuckled while watching a comedy increased the dilatation of blood vessels by one-fifth and this effect lasted up to 24 hours! When they watched a serious documentary or troubling news, the arteries actually constricted by 18%.“ May, 2010, Prevention Magazine. And as you might already know, constricted blood vessels lead to high blood pressure. So, you might wish to be kind to your heart and lay off watching disturbing news and troubling documentaries.

But if you simply must watch the news to be informed, I suggest that you adopt a practice of laughing while viewing! Your brain will automatically send you lots of feel-good hormones and reduce your cortisol (stress hormone) level to help you cope with the distressing news. Extend a big out loud laugh for at least 30 seconds per bad news bite. Maybe this will keep your blood pressure from going haywire, infuse you with some oxygenated brain cells and energize you to take some action to improve upon the situation.

When you do tune into a comedy or light-hearted fare, really take advantage of the opportunity to laugh and extend your laughter for thirty seconds at a time and you might even improve your blood flow by 21% as other studies have shown. A chuckle here and there is good for you, but a rollicking extended belly laugh, even if simulated, works wonders at many levels!

Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorphin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.

Walking Meditation is an ancient practice. Lightly grasping your wrists behind you and resting them on your lower back can add a lovely expansive,open feeling to your heart and ribs and enable your shoulders to drop. Gently dropping your chin “into the present” without “protruding it into the future” is another adjustment to add to the meditative sense of taking each step consciously.

May I also suggest that you also enhance your walk by adding laughter? Pretend you are wearing a Blue Tooth or attach an earphone of some sort if you are concerned what the neighbors think. A group of students and I have been practicing Laughing Walking Meditation and are delighted with the benefits. It is impossible to laugh and worry at the same time, so make your walk a deliciously joyful and worry- free experience by adding a dose of laughter along the way.

Janice Gates invites you to her yoga studio’s community celebration
Saturday, May 8th
T H E   Y O G A   G A R D E N’s  Open Studio 412  Red Hill Ave. #12. San Anselmo, CA 94960  www.yogagardenstudio.com

8:30-9:30 Strong Flow with Margaret Kuffel
9:45-10:45 Gentle Yoga with Catherine Henry
11:00-12:00 Mindful Flow with Ford Peck
12:15-1:15 Qigong & Dharma with Teja Bell
1:15-1:45 Connecting, Q & A, food and drink
1:45-2:45 Laughter Yoga with Carmela Carlyle
3:00-4:00 Therapeutic Yoga with Lynn Weinberger
4:15-5:15  iRest Yoga Nidra with Catherine Henry

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TGIF: Friday Night Laughter Yoga Club.
May  21.   7 – 8 p.m.

Third Friday of Every Month. $10.  Happy Hour with warm-ups  and music  while rolling on the mat and joyful laughter exercises moving around the studio. Solo Laughter Meditation with crystal bowl relaxation is the cherry on top. Amp up your Spring Mojo with this rockin’ yoga class. Bodyworks Yoga. 490 Second Street at “G” Street. Petaluma. CA  94952.

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FREE: Arm Chair and Wheel Chair Laughter Yoga 10 – 11  a.m.      May 4 and 18th. First and Third Tuesdays of Every Month hosted by  Merrill Gardens  Retirement Living in Rohnert Park.  Open to adults of all ages. Safe, joyful exercise  with lots of medical benefits, done seated for folks with health challenges. Great way to get back into your exercise groove to restore your  joy this season. Snyder Lane two miles north of Expressway in Rohnert Park.

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New Class with Carmela: Community  Yin  Yoga

4:00 – 5:15  p.m.  May 24. 4th  Monday  of  Every Month. Join us for this deeply nurturing and meditative practice done seated on the mat. Poses are held for three minutes to allow your connective tissue  —  and your mind, to let go, release and relax.  I play my crystal bowls and allow for lots of  quiet time. Bolsters, blankets, mats and pillows provided to support you.  Donations gratefully accepted for Bodyworks Community Yoga Projects. Bodyworks Yoga. 490 Second Street at “G” Street. Petaluma. CA  94952.

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Interested in a small  “Yin Within Yoga Therapy Group” ?
I am setting up a customized group, limited to four women, for a four session series of  yin yoga classes at my Petaluma Office.

The sessions will be deeply devoted to self-nurturance and slowing down to explore the yin within.  I have found Yin Yoga to be a  juicy enticement to meditate, deeply calming  and   emotionally  balancing and wish to share it with you.  Each session will feature a  healing theme with crystal bowls,  inspirational  readings,  and aromatherapy ~   and peacefully grounding poses held for a few minutes each to allow your connective tissue and your mind to release and relax. Time  to be determined by women in attendance.   Call with your preferences.  707.765.9035.

The symbolism of the lotus flower is extremely important in yoga. The lotus flower is a gorgeous blossom with a circle of petals that floats on the water’s surface. The lotus’s roots, however, are extremely long and deep in the mud. The sludge and the mud provide the nutrients to help the lotus grow and achieve its beauty. To yogis and yoginis, the lotus represents human life.

My focus this season is floating our community lotus with some joyful Laughter Yoga to lift us from the muck of  the serious on-the-job risk for clinicians known as Vicarious Trauma.  Repeatedly listening to the traumatic stories and doing hands-on work with those who have experienced  life-threatening traumatic events causes clinicians to internalize these traumas that can alter the way we perceive ourselves and affect our worldview. This goes beyond “burnout”  folks. Secondary trauma affects our core being. And it is a focus of my work with Laughter Yoga in Medical Settings  right now. If you wish to learn more about this stress-syndrome you will find my article and attached research literature on my website’s LY in Medical Settings page.

As a trained  Psychotherapist and Critical Incident Stress Debriefer, with a background in working with hospice, elders, community mental health agencies, rape crisis centers, abused women’s shelters, dementia and private clients for many years, I know first-hand the effects of  secondary trauma and the need for effective healing interventions in healthcare workers’ lives.

My next step to support health care workers, including yours truly, will be taking the iRest Training with Richard Miller Ph.D, modern day Yoga Master and Teacher. I lunched with Richard a few weeks ago and learned  more about his organization’s community outreach model of creating professional teams of  iRest Practitioners to focus on serving groups who can benefit from the deep healing of practicing Yoga Nidra.  He is of course, very well-known for his pioneering work with iRest for PTSD with Veterans and the Homeless, but he and his  iRest practitioners are also interested in training elders, hospice workers and other healthcare professionals, which is my calling too.

Both Yoga (Sleep) Nidra and Hasya  (Laughter) Yoga  elicit powerful changes in our neurochemistry. Both practices invite us to experience the  joy that  is already within us. As part of  his training segment on joy, Richard invites students to join him in laughter for fifteen minutes. Wow!  Pure form dude.

We only needed to a  little bit of  laughter warm-ups at my recent “Vicarious Trauma: Laughter Yoga as a Fun Tool for Coping”  presentation for a group of more than a  hundred nurses at the  March 26th  Nurses’ Alliance Training Day “Nurses Modeling Healthy Lifestyles” in San Francisco. We warmed up with “Cell Phone Laughter Exercise”,  ”No Road Rage Laughter” and my personal favorite, “Naughty, Naughty Nurse Laughter.” I shared the basic symptoms of Vicarious Trauma (not an amusing list, but important to understand before practicing healing laughter) and then the nurses enjoyed genuine laughter in community.

Susan Priano and Lorraine Thiebaud, both Registered Nurses, with years of experience, teaching, training and organizing behind them, and also newly Certified Laughter Yoga Leaders, invited me to present at this nurturing day. I love working with nurses and am encouraged that as more registered nurses train with me to become Certified Laughter Yoga Leaders, they are experiencing the benefits and bringing it to their colleagues in medical workplace settings.

Speaking of nursing colleagues in medical settings, my training partner, the fabulous Teresa Corrigan, R.N., M.A. and Certified Laughter Yoga Leader leads a Free Laughter Yoga Club at UCSF’s Osher Center,1701 Divisadero at Sutter, on  two Wednesday evenings a month at       5:30 -6:30 p.m. Check out her fun group on April 7 and 21 and May 5 and 19.  415.353.7718.

I will be doing another “Vicarious Trauma: Laughter Yoga as a Tool for Coping” presentation for  the The Nurses’ Alliance Conference on May 4th in Sacramento for those of you in that area.

And, I am honored to be offering a keynote  lecture on VT  followed by experiential Laughter Yoga for The Reproductive Health Institute’s Conference on April 9th. Hundreds of  hard-working  Planned Parenthood Nurses from all of our Midwestern States will be in attendance at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Denver.

The first thing I intend to make clear to my Midwest audience is that Laughter Yoga was created by a medical doctor and that it is practiced in 68 countries around the world —- not  just in  California. I might need some creative laughter yoga exercises for gynocological medical settings.  Anyone have any ideas to share for customized Laughter Exercises for this group?   HO HO HAHAHA.   contact@carmelacarlyle.com

Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorphin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.

Spring is in the air!  The season of  fresh beginnings, exuberant growth and the frisky activity of the birds and the bees is alive and buzzing. But for many folks, with the pollen levels topping  the charts, it means seasonal allergy reactions.

I am getting some help from the bees this season by taking a few teaspoons a day of Hector’s Honey Bee Pollen and using  local honey daily in my tea for natural innoculation. I also am practicing lots of Bumble Bee Meditation as an energetic spring cleaning for inside my head. It is a favorite of my Laughter Yoga students who appreciate the buzz of a deliciously cleansed mind after one minute of practice.

First, put a smile on your face and begin by being seated upright with your hips firmly planted in your chair. Feet flat on floor. Lean forward from your waist and then gently move  your whole upper body in a circle, using your abdomen to rotate around in a circle with your head painting a big circle in the air as you move slowly around and around.
Next make a buzzing bumble bee sound inhaling as you need to, but keeping the  “zzzzzzzzzzz” going.

Finally, put your hands over your ears and close your eyes. Keeping the smile and the buzz going, moving in calming circles, visualize the buzzing sound cleansing and clearing your the spaces inside your head, opening your sinuses and leaving your mind springtime fresh!After one minute of this effective spring-cleansing meditation sit still and feel the buzz.

To complete your session, do three Sneezing Laughters:  AAAAAHHHHH AAAAAHHHHH  AAAAHHH  HA HA HA CHOOOO!

FREE: Community Yoga Series at Bodyworks Yoga Studio. Petaluma.
featuring YIN YOGA with Carmela on March 15th. Monday.  4:00 to 5:15 p.m. Join us for a sample of the deeply powerful practice of  Yin Yoga with long-held seated poses  on the  mat. Bolsters and support provided. Nourish your spirit while releasing winter from your connective tissue!

TGIF: Friday Night Laughter Yoga at Bodyworks Yoga Studio. Petaluma.
7  p.m. Third Friday of Every Month. Laughter Yoga for a Fresh Start: March 19. $10. Happy Hour with warm-ups and music rolling on the mat and joyful laughter exercises moving around the studio. Crystal bowl relaxation is the cherry on top.

FREE: Arm Chair and Wheel Chair Laughter Yoga: First and Third Tuesdays of Every Month hosted at Merrill Gardens in Rohnert Park. 10 a.m. Open to adults of all ages. Safe, joyful exercise done seated for folks with health challenges.

Laughter Yoga for Sutter Hospice Staff, Santa Rosa March 5th 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The staff at Sutter Hospice in Sonoma County enjoyed my Laughter Yoga session at their summer retreat and have invited me back for a tune-up!

Vicarious Trauma: Laughter Yoga as a Tool for Coping As a trained Critical Incident Stress Debriefer, I know the effects of trauma and stress and the need for effective interventions to break the cycle. So, I love offering Laughter Yoga Presentations for  hard-working nurses!  They understand the body and truly appreciate the immediate benefits of laughter for stress-relief. Nurses Modeling Health CEU Program hosted by SEIU Local 1021 and San Francisco Dept. of Public Health presents in partnership with  SEIU California Nurse Alliance on March 26th will feature a presentation by me on Vicarious Trauma and Laughter Yoga as a tool for solo practice or with colleagues for reducing the effects of VT.

I will also be a keynote speaker for The Planned Parenthood Nurses’ Conference in Denver, Colorado on April 9th delivering a lecture on the effects of  Vicarious Trauma and leading  hundreds of nurses in Laughter Yoga Techniques alone and with co-workers in the clinics.

More info about classes on my website’s  Schedule Page.

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Art to Ignite The Heart Chakra: Cori Jacobs’ Paintings

In keeping with February’s Heart Chakra theme, I would like to introduce you to a young artist, Cori Jacobs, whose work tickles my fancy.

The heart chakra is not only the seat of compassion, forgiveness,  joy, laughter, balance, and touch, it is also the center for creativity and inspiration.   And, our hands are the instruments of our heart chakra. Maybe you are not a painter, but remember to honor your heart and use your hands to inspire joy in your life with cooking, knitting, touch, gardening and in other creative endeavors to feed your heart.

The first time I experienced Cori’s work around five years ago, I was  deeply inspired and her new work is even more fabulous.  I expect  that  when you visit her website www.corijacobs.com or  see her work in  the galleries listed below, you too, will want to live with her paintings. Don’t delay.  Her work is quickly being discovered.

One look at her work and it is obvious that this gal is a  yogini, a dancer  and deeply affected by indigenous art.  Her glowing ” blue indigenous extraterrestrial Spirit Beings”  predated Avatar by years and seem ancient, fully-present and futuristic, all at once. They dance and  intertwine  with a  playful sense of community that  reminds me of  my yoga classes at their most spirited and harken to Cori’s deep connection with the Huichol community.

Cori says “For me, painting is love made visible. Each piece is an exploration of a world of color, shape, and form, a layered journey through the imagination, seen through the eye of the heart. It is my hope, through the paintings, to open a window into a space of joy, love, hope, creativity, memory and celebration.”
Over the holidays when I was in Sayulita to teach Laughter Yoga at Om Yoga Studio and staying with my friend, abstract painter, and gallery owner, Dianne Newman,  I had the pleasure to hang out with Cori again and to purchase a commissioned piece  (shown in the photo) that rocks my world.  Look at the golden- horned, orange and pink  La Contorcionista with her leg in the air and her energetic insides all aglow!

Cori Jacobs’ work is featured in Dianne Newman’s Arte de Sayulita Gallery in Sayulita, Mexico (about 30 miles north of Puerto Vallarta) http://www.artedesayulita.com/ and at Dianne’s new gallery, VOCA,  in Venice Beach.

VOCA Gallery Opening featuring the brilliant abstract paintings of Dianne Newman and work by Cori Jacobs is February 13, 2010 from 5 to 9 pm
215 Ocean Front Walk (the Venice Beach Boardwalk)
Venice Beach, CA 90291
310-866-2722

The symbolism of the lotus flower is extremely important in yoga. The lotus flower is a gorgeous blossom with a circle of petals that floats on the water’s surface. The lotus’s roots, however, are extremely long and deep in the mud. The sludge and the mud provide the nutrients to help the lotus grow and achieve its beauty. To yogis and yoginis, the lotus represents human life.

Times are tough. The title of Dr. Kataria’s book is “Laugh for No Reason” and I believe that  his message applies to our current healthcare system. I was recently interviewed by Henry Tanenbaum on KRON TV Bay Area News on Sunday, January 31st and he wisely encouraged me to lead several laughs for the home-viewers to join in so they could experience  the benefits. Henry was a good sport and laughed right along with me and we had a swell time.  Then the next news story came on. It featured an attractive woman looking for a husband and all she required was that he must have good health benefits. She did not ask for a photo of him, just a clean copy of his health insurance policy that would cover the huge bin of her prescription meds she was displaying  for the camera. She was not smiling and neither were we.

So, I remind you to laugh in the face of adversity. Extended, hearty, belly laughter has so many health benefits, not the least of which is elevated mood from time-released serotonin and pain relief from the enhanced endorphins during thes difficult times. Laugh to prevent illness and to boost your immune system.  And please send some healing laughter to Washington, D.C. to promote a better healthcare system for us all.

Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorophin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.

Research shows that red wine and dark chocolate are good for your heart! A regular size dark chocolate bar about 1.5 oz. or a cup of dark cocoa every day can reduce blood pressure by about 3 points. (study from Yale.) The antioxidants and enzymes in dark chocolate, with at least 60% cacao, are the key.  Green and Black’s dark chocolate  bars with crystallized ginger or  organic cherries are nice, affordable choices. Organic Extreme Dark Chocolate 88% by Endangered Species Chocolates is suitably intense.

Sipping only one glass of wine is the key and I have no tips for the hot cocoa. But, I do have some advice for laughter!

Carmela’s Red Wine, Chocolate and Laughter Meditation: Assume a meditative pose with pieces of chocolate attractively arranaged on a plate and one glass of red wine or one cup of cocoa in front of you.  Air is the element associated with the heart chakra, so  focus on your breath. Inhale deeply and exhale with laughter. Sip some wine. Inhale deeply and exhale with hearty laughter. Nibble a little piece of chocolate. Let it melt in your mouth and giggle. If you sense some emptiness in your heart space, fill it with joyful laughter. Smile as you nibble. Smile as you sip. Practice this in a relaxed, conscious, meditative state of  nurturance.  Laughter oxygenates our blood and all major organs making wine and chocolate and yes, life taste even better.

A more traditional Laughter Yoga Meditation: Om Mani Padme Hum means “The Jewel of Consciousness is the Heart’s Lotus” and is the essence of Buddha’s Heart.  (sounds like “Home  Monnie Pod May  Huhm”)  Tibetans believe that whoever embraces it fully will have the good will of others, along with a life of little illness and manageable obstacles. They believe that the roar of the winds and the rush of the rivers, the crackling of flames, the song of the stars, the whispers of plants, the call of all animals , all human voices and indeed, all sounds in the universe are the vibrations within this six syllable mantra.  Wow.                             

Visualize your own heart as a lotus with six green sparkling petals reposing on a disk of the full moon in the center of your body and laugh   Visualize jade green light from your heart wrapping yourself, your loved ones, your colleagues, the difficult people in your life, your animal companions, all beings and plants and planets and the entire creation— all in sparkling green light —-and smile —-and chant Om Mani Padme Om over and over and over into your heart and out to the universe.

Below you see two videos of  Jay Barone and Stacey Jenkins, who regularly attend Friday Evening Laughter Yoga  for their stress relief  at Bodyworks Yoga Studio.

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Research Underway for Next Year’s : Women’s Mexico Retreat with Carmela.

While in Mexico this December, I will be conducting some serious research for my Women’s Yoga and Art Retreat, 2010. It’s tough work.  But gals, I am dedicated. With my local contacts in the area, hostessing skills and group retreat experience, I am planning a creative, nurturing and fun yoga getaway to suit your budget and nourish your creative spirit. Let me know if you are interested!

Alaska Airlines still has non-stop flights to Puerta Vallarta and then it is a 30 mile ride north up  to Sayulita, a charming  fishing-surfing village loved by Northern Californians. With only about 3,000 full-time residents Sayulita  is blessed with lots of good yoga, good food and good waves.

I will be teaching  Joyful Laughter Yoga at Om Yoga Studio in Sayulita, Mexico  under their huge open air palapa. www.YogaSayulita.com

Dianne Neuman, a former hospice volunteer with me in Sonoma County, Abstract Painter, Workshop Facilitator and Owner of  Arte de Sayulita Gallery is also on my retreat agenda. http://www.artedesayulita.com/ I always enjoy painting with Dianne!  Color and abstract art boost my spirit almost as much as yoga.

My trip to the PV area  would not be complete without a visit down to Boca de Tomatlan, a little fishing village  south of Puerta Vallarta, for a few days of boating and snorkeling with my dear friend Leo, who lives year-round in the village and owns a boat. I hope to sign him on as our Salty Sea Captain for you gals who might like a boat ride on your retreat with me next year.

I am delighted that my trip will not include any appointments with my fabulous Puerta Vallarta Dentist. In the past, I have paid for most of my Mexico holiday with what I saved on having crowns done at his modern dental  practice  in downtown Puerta Vallarta.  But no more  cracked crowns, TMD issues, clenching or grinding for me!  I am a poster gal for Laughter Yoga as a cure for all of those ailments which affect about 80% of Americans.  Last month I did a LY Session with 68 dentists at a California Dental Association Meeting and just last week , I did a fun Laughter Yoga Session for the staff of Dorothy Slattery, DDS, in Mill Valley.  Dentists understand the value of Laughter Yoga.

Perhaps you might be interested in a  creative Women’s Yoga Retreat in Mexico:2010 with me next year?  Dental work and herbal infused local tequila are optional.

The symbolism of the lotus flower is extremely important in yoga. The lotus flower is a gorgeous blossom with a circle of petals that floats on the water’s surface. The lotus’s roots, however, are extremely long and deep in the mud. The sludge and the mud provide the nutrients to help the lotus grow and achieve its beauty. To yogis and yoginis, the lotus represents human life.

Sometimes the  ”holiday cheer”  all around us can feel like an unwelcome imposition at best, and a doomed set-up for failure at worst.  I don’t mean to sound like a  downer all stuck in the muck this holiday season, but my many years as a counselor, hospice worker and holiday renegade inform my awareness of the shadow side of this season of  lights.

The holidays can be very painful for those of us grieving the loss of  loved ones. It can also be a sad time if  we are feeling disconnected from our spiritual, religious, family or holiday celebrations of yesteryear longing for  ’the way we were.’

We may yearn for the sparkle of  ‘comfort and joy’,  but get lost in the shadows of grief, sadness or disappointment.

The good news this holiday season is that joy is not reliant on anything. It is a choice. Happiness is fickle. Joy is a choice. Laughter is a choice. You don’t need a reason.

No matter what your holiday season is serving up, choose joy. Even if  it is fleeting, and you cannot maintain it throughout your wait in line at the post office, put  a smile on your face and choose joy.  Choose to gift yourself with joy.

Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorophin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.

My recent Yin Yoga Teacher Training with the delightfully skilled and saucy Erin Fleming, Director of Pilates and Yoga at BayClub Marin, served as a beautiful seasonally-appropriate reminder of the concept of relativity involved in the Taoist traditions of  yin and yan.  The word yin literally means “the shady side of the mountain”, while yan means “the sunny side of the mountain.”  Our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts and our spiritual selves — not to mention the entire universe — are always in a state of balance or imbalance moving between the forces of  yin and yan.

Despite the fact that this is indeed the Yin Season with increasing darkness and wetness accompanied by nature’s call to move more slowly and go within, we are surrounded by a  flurry of  holiday demands. I suggest that you try balancing the yan of  Santa’s HO HO HO  Laughter with a dose of internally generated, gentle Joyful Yin Within  Laughter this time of year.

Gigglin’ Yin  Within: Pretend you are wearing a Blue Tooth. That way, you will not be concerned if others think you are crazy for giggling deeply and chatting with yourself. Or, you may pull out your cell phone, so you can enjoy an  imaginary conversation with  your deeper  self  that elicits a juicy smile and a gurgling giggle just intended for you.

I am talking about a giggle that bubbles up from the deep yin waters of  the dark crystal caves within your belly and lungs and sends a pink flush to your cheeks and lights to your eyes . Gigglin’ Yin Within puts a naughty smile on your lips and ripples a nice internal massage throughout your body.

Practice this Gigglin’ Yin Within while driving, doing yoga, standing in line, at your computer, when cooking and chopping, wrapping gifts, at parties and  especially at family dinners.

You might even dedicate a  Gigglin’ Yin Within to the First Day of Winter, The Winter Solstice on December 21st and then take a well-deserved nap.

Kenwood  Depot on Tuesday Evenings.
5:30 p.m. starts October 27th.  Drop-in!                                                            

.More info on Schedule Page.

Certified Laughter Yoga Leader Trainings : October and November.

BayClub Marin, Corte Madera at October 24 & 25  and November 14 & 15  at  UCSF’s Osher Center. The weekend-long  trainings are  $295.12 Free CEs for RNs  More details on my website’s  LY Leader Training page and LY in Medical Settings Page. 

Laughin’  With  Nurses: PRN!

My  younger sister’s favorite  ”dress-up” and Halloween costume as a kid was a fancy nurse’s outfit  with a  well-stocked medicine bag featuring giant plastic needles and other scary gizmos, a cool little nurse’s cap wtih a red cross, and the best part,  a navy blue cape.  Nothin’ says  “Super-Heroine”  like a cape!   Even after all of those tortured years of  playing patient, I still like laughing and playing with nurses.  

So, on October 25 at 2:00 p.m.  I will be interviewed on a Bay Area radio show NurseTalk: Laughter is the Best Medicine  with Pattie Lockard.  That’s 96.0 AM Radio or streamed live at www.green960.com.   You can tell by the name of their show that these nurses are into laughter! I just hope that they  are not too disappointed with ” laughing for no reason”  instead of me telling some dark-sided wry jokes.   Nurses wearing caps on the radio can be seen at: www.nursetalksite.com  

I have worked for many years on inter-disciplinary teams with nurses and let me go on record as saying that I love working with nurses and I  absolutely adore laughing with them.  However, dining with them is challenging.  I remember a lovely gourmet pizza party luncheon absolutely ruined for me by one of the nurses saying that the stringy mozerella cheese  “reminded her of a patient.”  Yuck!

Nurses understand why laughter works.  All of the medical benefits of laughter are quite obvious to them. They feel it.  One of my fave guys to laugh with who really gets it,  is Jay Barone RN and program director in mental health services at San Quentin. He is a regular at my TGIF Laughter Yoga because he says ” It really works. That’s why I look forward to coming every week.” Class Check out the video of John Cleese visiting a prison with Dr. Kataria on my LY Page.

 I was recently hired to lead  Laughter Yoga at a  Sutter Hospice staff retreat with lotsa  nurses.  I taught them some LY Exercises for road-rage- relief while riding in the car between clients and some basic  tricks for laughing  loudly into their Blue Tooth pretending that someone was on the line when they were hard-up for a laugh at work.  One minute of laughter on the job PRN!

In April, I will be doing a presentation at a conference for hundreds of Planned Parenthood Nurses in Denver. My topic is Vicarious Trauma: Using Laughter Yoga to Ease the Stress. I plan to keep the lecture on how internalizing patients’ trauma can affect them to a minimum  —- and the laughter to the max.

Lucky me!  I  now have a  fun nurse to partner in teaching Laughter Yoga!  Registered Nurse and Certified Laughter Yoga Leader, Teresa Corrigan, assists at my Certified Laughter Yoga Leader Trainings at UCSF where she  is a Biofeedback Practitioner  at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.  Teresa also facilitates a Laughter Yoga Group on Wednesday evenings at the Osher Center on Divisadero. Free. Open to everyone, even nurses.

The symbolism of the lotus flower is extremely important in yoga. The lotus flower is a gorgeous blossom with a circle of petals that floats on the water’s surface. The lotus’s roots, however, are extremely long and deep in the mud. The sludge and the mud provide the nutrients to help the lotus grow and achieve its beauty. To yogis and yoginis, the lotus represents human life.

Rats have a tough time of it in this life but they take the time to tickle one another, and yes, laugh. It has been discovered by scientists that rats emit short, high  frequency, ultrasonic, socially-induced vocalization during rough and tumble play and when tickled. This vocalization is described as a distinct “chirping”  and is known by the rest of non-scientists as Rat Laughter. Humans cannot hear this “chirping” without special equipment. Obviously, rats need to laugh undercover for their own survival. 

The initial goal of Jaak Panksepp and Jeff Burgdorf’s research was to track the biological origins of joy and social processes of the brain by comparing rats and their relationship to the joy and laughter commonly experienced in social play. Although the research was unable to prove rats have a sense of humor, it did indicate that they can laugh and express joy. 

I think the most interesting finding was that rats who most enjoyed tickling and laughing, were the most sought after as sex partners and social company. It appears that rats prefer hanging out with joyful companions too!

However, like humans, as rats age, there does appear to be a decline in the tendency to laugh and respond to tickle skin.  Humans under the age of ten laugh about 450 times a day. After age forty, we get about 15 good laughs a day. And that’s if you are hanging out with the right crowd, those who tickle easily and play.

So, if you and your loved ones are stuck in the muck, take a tickling tip from our friends, the rats.

Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorophin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.

After driving  to Los Altos for a private Laughter Yoga  Birthday Party Luncheon, stopping off  in San Francisco for some errands and a Burmese lunch in my old neighborhood and then driving back over the GG Bridge to see a  late afternoon client in Marin, I was grateful to have  arrived early for my private session.