Aliza is a certified yoga teacher and laughter yoga leader. She has led laughter yoga sessions, workshops and given talks on the benefits of laughter for professional and community groups all over North America, including for inmates of a men's maximum security prison through the organization Freeing the Human Spirit. Aliza currently teaches yoga and Tai Chi-Qigong in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, where she works for the Nunavut Impact Review Board.
Laughter Yoga is a health and wellness practice in which people develop their childlike sense of play through group exercises that use breath, laughter and movement. You need not be funny or happy to laugh because the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. Even twenty minutes of sustained deep-guffaw-like fake laughter has cardio-vascular benefits that rival an hour of running—yet the practice is gentle enough that anyone of any age and ability level can do it.
Laughter Yoga is based on the asanas of Hasya Yoga. 'Hasya' means "laughter wisdom" in Sanskrit. Hasya is an aspect of yoga that uses self-triggered laughter (laughter for the sake of laughter - or "laughter for no reason") in order to deepen one's understanding of Joy.
Aliza's approach to teaching Laughter Yoga is to incorporate Hasya Yoga and other exercises popularized since 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria and Madhuri Kataria in Mumbai, India. Laughter Yoga is now practiced by millions of people in over 60 countries around the world.
