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Laughing on Laguna Beach

9th March 2007 by Helena 3 Comments  

You probably thought I couldn’t get any loonier, what with the smart-lipo, fake hair and convertible car. But this morning I find myself on a beach in southern California, running towards the sea, clapping my hands and mimicking a sea-lion. This kind of behaviour is all perfectly normal at the Laguna Beach Laughter Yoga Club and I have to say, there are worse ways to start the day. (Maybe not for the sea-lion.)

A laughing matter

I join a group of people who meet at 7.45 am every morning to laugh (it’s no laughing matter if you have to leave LA at 6am to get there in time.) The club is run by Jeffrey who has been a Yoga teacher for 34 years and laughing since 2005. He is 52 but doesn’t look a day over 40. Proof, if it was needed, that laughing is the cure for ageing. Mind you, he has a pretty nice life. Instead of staring at people’s armpits on the district line first thing; he watches dolphins leap in and out of the water from one of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen.

His laughter group varies in size from day to day but as far as I can make out there are four or five who come every day. One of them has a large family and has been known to show up with twelve of them on some days.

The idea is to laugh for your health, use it as an exercise. The benefits are huge; not just do you feel better by releasing endorphins, but laughing helps control high blood pressure, increase stamina, increases blood supply to internal organs and a host of other things. It’s also great for stress, which as we all know is a killer. So what are you waiting for?

Actually it’s quite hard work. I find after a while my face muscles start to ache, which just shows what a miserable type I must be. And I’ll be honest, at times I feel slightly foolish, like when three gorgeous, well-built, tanned, toned (not that I was looking) Laguna Beach lifeguards walk by dressed in tight navy blue shorts and T-shirts while I’m busy pretending to be a laughing lawn-mower. Believe me, it’s not a good look. But making a fool of yourself is not something you can think about if you’re in a Laughter Yoga class.

I am impressed with the group, and especially with Jeffrey who is refreshingly sane and good company for someone who spends hours a week on a beach laughing at nothing. They are all warm, welcoming and seem like a very nice bunch of people.

In fact my whole trip has been peppered with nice Americans. I’ve been so impressed at how open and friendly and generous they are. And now I’ve met a bunch of women with normal-sized breasts in Beverly Hills I think I could really fit in here. I might even start a Laughter Yoga Club on Venice Beach.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Life, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: beach, laguna, laughing

3 thoughts on Laughing on Laguna Beach

  • Peggy says:
    9th March 2007 at 4:53 pm

    So do you think my decision to marry my boyfriend because he makes me laugh is the right one? He’s the only man I have ever met who wakes up smiling and has me laughing within two minutes. Not only every day, but generally at 5:30 in the morning!
    Your posts from America have also brought welcome laughter this week as I try to get all my tax issues sorted with the French administration–never a laughing matter. As you know, the people recruited by the “fisc en France” are selected for their sadistic tendencies, cruel demands for that one piece of paper you don’t have, and unwillingness to ever crack a smile.

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  • Suze says:
    15th August 2007 at 8:42 pm

    I am so glad that you met some regular Angelenos! There is a regular beach yoga class held on Venice beach that is wonderful if you are ever in LA again, Laguna is lovely but the drive from LA – not so much. Not much laughter, but a great experience.

    And I highly recommend staying at Casa Del Mar or Shutters in Santa Monica, right on the beach.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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