editor's blog

Yoga-abode is clocking 5,000 unique users a month for the first time since its launch in March this year. The site is now collecting 30,000 page views a month and has doubled its visitor numbers month-on-month as more yoga enthusiasts join up.

Forthcoming developments include a classified advertisement section, video streaming and podcasts, as the interactive element of the site is expanded.

The team at yoga-abode would like to thank its community of users for their enthusiasm and support in continuing to spread the word.

For more information on signing up with yoga-abode.com, click on http://www.yoga-abode.com/node/5. Why not ? its free! 

When did you last laugh? I mean really laugh – you know, that roaring, full-body, out-of-control laughing you probably did so much of a child. If you’re anything like me, you’ll struggle to remember when. Yet laughing is good for us – and a trend is gathering pace to encourage us to do more of it. Welcome to the off-beat world of laughter yoga, and laughter gyms.

On her website, www.laughtergym.com, ex-language and drama therapist Amanda Bate lists the manifold benefits of laughing properly.

Apparently, 16 million of us fail to enjoy a proper belly laugh even once a day – and the amount we laugh on a daily basis is a staggering three times lower than it was in the 1950s.

So much for increased wealth bringing increased happiness: the reverse, it would seem is true. As Bate points out, often, these days, we rely on others to make us laugh – whether that’s the TV, or round-robin jokes, instead of using our own (often deeply hidden) child-centric selves to create our own fun.

So why is laughing good for us? Laughing 100 times a day – am I unusual in laughing only half a dozen times a day at the most? – is equal to a ten minute workout on a rowing machine.

It’s akin to ‘internal jogging’, such is the workout it brings to the internal organs. Laughter also decreases blood pressure and gives the respiratory, abdominal and diaphragm areas a workout.

There’s more. According to Bate, belly laughing reduces levels of stress hormones; increases the level of cancer-zapping cells in our bodies, and boosts the immune system.

It also, I’m lead to believe, encourages positive thinking, relaxes the whole body and unleashes inhibitions, breaking down the self-consciousness that, as adults, we have learnt.

Given the manifold benefits of having a damn good, hearty laugh, I am beginning to wonder we’re all so miserable most of the time.

All is not lost. There’s a fast-growing industry doing its best to counter our negativity: laughter yoga clubs and gyms are spring up all over the country, the media has been shouting about the trend, and laughter clubs and holidays are springing up to shake us out of our gloom.

Worlwide, there are now over 5000 laugher clubs, with The States, as ever, leading the trend. The website www.laughteryoga.org even boasts of a series of Laughter Yoga conferences taking place in the US this year.

The correlation between laughter and standard yoga is not as tenuous as you might first assume. Both work on massaging the internal organs and help deepen breathing and relaxation and fight stress. Both help to bring us out of ourselves, and our daily lives, and induce a sense of wellbeing.

In the UK, www.laughteryoga.co.uk is just one company organising regular workshops and evenings. I’ve made a pledge to myself to Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway and sign up for a class or two. Anyone care to join me?

Image Source: Adam Wolszczak - FOTOLIA

A naked bike ride, river festivals and allotment open days are among a series of events taking place across the Capital during London Sustainability Weeks.

The event, to be held in The Capital from June 4 to 18, will also include the Camden Greenfair, a weekend of Open Garden Squares, and West London Green Festival.

London Sustainability Week is timed to coincide with United Nations World Environment Day, which has been running since 1972.

For more information, or to book an event, see  www.lsw2006.org/final/index.php

Google’s news service – whereby themed news stories are emailed to subscribers on a daily basis – has come up with a notably trivial snippet among the more serious stories. Apparently, logging onto www.bunnyyoga.com will help you reach a “totally Zen state” with a series of animated, educational Bunny Yoga poses.

I’m more inclined to agree with the claims of Fred Kluth, the animator, that the site’s good for a “giggle and a guffaw”. Kluth aim’s, apparently, were to illustrate the benefits of yoga’s sun salutations and charge the atmosphere with “Zen mastery”.

Unfortunately the bunny’s lithely performed asanas failed to propel me to the promised state of Zen bliss – but the cartoons are entertaining enough and ripe for sending out as an email link to friends. It’ll no doubt help to ease the hours of desk-bound boredom at work.

Trivial as the site is (and it’s no worse for that), this kind of light-hearted entertainment serves as a refreshing antidote to the sometimes heavy, slightly high-minded claims sometimes associated with yoga.

Hardly a week goes past without new research suggesting yoga’s life-changing health benefits (see yoga-abode’s news stories for more!) or a new yoga style claming hundreds of instant converts.

All this is to be applauded and encouraged: the increasing mainstreaming of yoga is unreservedly a Good Thing.

It’s just that it’s easy to get caught up in all this seriousness and forget a fundamental point: yoga should be fun, and suitable for all. The most important thing is to give it a go and not to take it, or yourself, too seriously in the process.

And if an animated rabbit on your computer screen helps inject some humour and light-heartedness into your yoga practice, long live www.bunnyyoga.com and other sites like it!

Research on yoga’s health benefits and ability to reduce stress for women is about to get underway in The States.

Researchers at the Ohio State University (OSU) medical centre hope to collate solid evidence to back up long-standing claims that yoga can reduce stress and susceptibility to disease.

Study investigator Dr William Malarkey, yoga practitioner and endocrinologist at the centre, says: “We recognize that most disorders have a stress component that shows up very early.

“If we can make small adjustments earlier in life, rather than waiting until we have a disease diagnosis, this will provide benefits for our own longevity. You can’t change your gene pool, but you can change your behaviour.”

Image source: Leah-anne Thompson - FOTOLIA