Tag: #LifeSkills

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ Relax & Recharge in 10 minutes ☆

YOGA NIDRA IN SITTING POSTURE

If you remain busy during the day, and feel fatigued any time, this, very short, guided relaxation is especially designed for you.
Sit comfortably for a while and just follow the instructions. You will feel relaxed and recharged in less than ten minutes. Give it a try!

YOGA NIDRA IN A SITTING POSTURE

If you remain busy during the day, and feel fatigued any time, this, very short, guided relaxation is especially designed for you.

Sit comfortably for a while and just follow the instructions. You will feel relaxed and recharged in less than ten minutes. Give it a try!

YouTube link: ⇓⇓⇓⇓

Usually the practice is done while lying down. This short version is especially designed for those who want to relax and recharge in a sitting posture at their workplace, airport or park in the quickest possible time during the course of their busy day.

Yoga nidra, in it’s present form, is a beautiful gift to humanity by Swami Satyananda Saraswati who founded the Bihar School of Yoga.

Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ I Teach Happiness ☆

my quest for happiness has been fun..

i read Confucius, Buddha, and Aristotle..

savoured chocolate, wine and good company..

was a laughter professor for some time..

dug deep into behavioural science to discover myself..

had a long lasting affair with Positive Psychology, Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi and Lyubomirsky..

tried learning a few trade secrets from the happy monks Matthieu Ricard and Dalai Lama..

did research on yoga nidra and discovered the wonder world of Swami Satyananda Saraswati..

all these streams continue to trickle in the background..

i continue to learn, but it’s high time now to give back..

i, therefore, teach happiness..

Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ State Bank of India Grooms Its Staff With A Dash of Laughter ☆

What would you say about a club that grooms a hundred youngsters every week to laugh for no reason? Chetana Laughter Club has the unique distinction of taking a few thousand young officers along the pathway of self-triggered joy during the past one year. State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana) has been set-up at Indore to groom young bank officers. During their training, the officers have a brief tryst with laughter yoga. It is used as an ice-breaker at the beginning of programme and as an energizer in between the sessions. Besides, there is a full-fledged laughter session every Wednesday evening.

Debrati Dey, probationary officer came to the institute from Kolkata unaware of what was in store for her. She says, “The laughter session was one laugh riot. Every time a new exercise for laughter was introduced, it instantly generated excitement and contemplation of the possible outcome. One of the phrases which everyone chanted after every act was ‘very good, very good, yay!’ It is a simple phrase without any actual meaning .But when you clap your hands and say it loud, the phrase brings out its actual magic. It became an instant hit and a college anthem for us. In this era of ‘survival of the fittest’, Laughter club has the guts to say ‘ survival of the happiest ‘. I didn’t realize through the course of the session how it had a positive biochemical effect on my cardiovascular and nervous system. It’s only when I got back to my room that I could see myself happy, de-stressed and re-energized.”

Another probationer, Mohit Kumar says, “This laughter club is truly fascinating. It enthuses us in so simple a way. It has filled us with confidence and positivity. Hats off to chetana laughter club!”

The institute is fully laughter enabled. All faculty members are trained laughter leaders. “It has been observed that laughter yoga is conducive in creating a good environment for learning and community living. The experiment has been very valuable and fruitful for all at the institute,” feels Vijay Puri, faculty who loves to attend all laughter sessions. He tells us, “All the participants invariably imbibe the chants of ‘very good very good yay’ during their stay and it soon becomes their mantra. This is something they will never forget in life.

Gradually, they realize the virtues of unconditional laughter for their health and well-being.”

“I feel that laughter yoga is suited to the Indian psyche and the participants feel relaxed after laughter session. It is a voluntary activity available to our participants and there is no compulsion“, says K K Iyer, director, state bank foundation institute (Chetana), Indore.

Laughter yoga which initially started as a social club movement has now entered the business world. By introducing laughter yoga for staff, corporates have reported happier workplace, increased efficiency, better communication, team work and reduced stress levels.

A presentation on laughter yoga was made at the local head office of SBI at Bhopal by laughter yoga professionals Radhika Bisht and Jagat Singh Bisht. The audience included the staff, senior officials and their families. They appreciated it very much. Mr S K Mishra, then chief general manager, who is now a deputy managing director of the State Bank of India, the largest bank of this country, desired that an audio track be recorded containing instructions for a brief laughter session. The track is played every morning at 11 o’clock over the public address system at the local head office and more than five hundred employees spread on five floors of the building chant ‘very good very good yay” and laugh in unison every working day.

A brief energizing session of laughter yoga was conducted by laughter yoga professionals Radhika Bisht and Jagat Singh Bisht at the beginning of bipartite meeting between state bank of india management and staff federation representatives at hotel Sayaji, Indore earlier this year. It was attended by the DMD & CDO, CGM (HR), CGM (Bhopal Circle), several senior officials of the Bank and all the top leaders of state bank staff federation from all the circles. The energizing effect of the session was felt and appreciated by everyone.

Presentations on laughter yoga have been arranged twice at the state bank academy, Gurgaon before officers from all over the country. It has also been showcased at the state bank staff college and state bank institute of information and communication management located in Hyderabad. The staff of SME credit processing centre and stressed assets recovery branch at Indore have found the laughter yoga sessions very invigorating. A laughter yoga session for bank guards, assistants, probationary officers and faculty was conducted at the state bank learning centre, Goa. It was a unique experience as all of them laughed from their being level making it absolutely difficult to distinguish differences in their grades as they laughed like kids. The laughter virus has meanwhile spread to other centres – Kanpur, Lucknow, Goa, Nagda, Nagapattinam etc. – through some well meaning trainers and officers.

The journey of laughter for the State Bank of India (SBI) started on the 13th of September, 2010 when the laughter club of state bank learning centre, Indore was inaugurated with a bunch of newly promoted officers. Whoever came to the learning centre after that had a brush with laughter yoga. They laughed every morning with a small group of willing laughers from all the groups who poured in week after week.

A good number of probationers from State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad have also undergone basic sessions of laughter yoga at the institute in Indore.

I have had the privilege of introducing laughter yoga in the SBI and laughing with thousands of my colleagues. The bank has given me bread, butter and a respectable place in the society. Now, it is time that I give back something to this great institution. I am sure my humble contribution will bring cheer to some of the souls here.

I would like to be remembered as a messenger of love and laughter when I retire from the Bank.

Jagat Singh Bisht

Retd. AGM and Faculty, State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana), Indore

Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ Laughter Goes Skin Deep ☆

About three years ago, we had gone to make a small presentation on Laughter Yoga at Viscus Infotech – an IT company based inIndore. The CEO of the company felt that Laughter Yoga would be helpful in enhancing the creativity of the software professionals by relaxing their minds and activating the right brain. The session was well appreciated and later on the young CEO himself conducted laughter sessions for his staff. Such actions make the workplace vibrant and full of positive vibes.

After the session, a young lady Ranu came up to my wife Radhika and said that she had liked the session and wanted her husband to also experience it. We invited them to our Suniket Laughter Club which meets on Sunday mornings. Though the park was far and it was difficult to get up early during winter, they braved the cold and came all the way to laugh with us. We knew it was not practical for them to continue this for long and sure enough after some weeks, they stopped coming. A couple of years passed by but they could not forget the chants of “Very Good, Very Good, Yay” and laughter reverberated in their minds in moments of solitude.

What happens is that over a period of time, laughter which starts as a simple exercise routine, penetrates skin deep and changes our outlook towards life. We become more loving, caring and sharing.

It seems Ranu had not taken off Laughter Yoga from her mind at any point of time. It was only due to her household and professional engagements that she had to keep away but the laughter stream was always trickling inside her.

We were more than pleasantly surprised when we received this video clip from her on World Laughter Day (WLD):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ZAArH9Y_k

It is undoubtedly the sweetest greeting we got in many years on WLD. It touched our hearts to the core! We could sense the deep feelings that must have percolated in her heart and soul before she started playing with the child. To me, this singing, dancing, playing and laughing with your child and imparting a happy attitude towards life is the ultimateParadise!

Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ A Laughter Club Dream ☆

Man Pasand Garden is a beautiful park in the posh New Palasia locality of Indore. I am here after almost two years.
Earlier, whenever I took a long morning walk along with my wife Radhika, we always stopped here to relax for a while. Almost on all such occasions, we dreamt of starting a Laughter Club here.

As I sit here, I find people slowly moving towards a green enclosure and clapping joyously. They move their hands over their heads and burst into an uproarious laughter. I realize that this is a new Laughter Club. Within minutes, I am there taking deep breaths and laughing intermittently with them.

I am told that this club – Laughter Club of Man Pasand Graden – started by A L Jain, affectionately known as Raja Babu, is just six months old and has been adjudged as the number one club among the 65 clubs inIndore. The members are growing steadily as more and more younger people are joining the club.

Ram Kishan, tech savvy at 72, tells me that the attendance had started declining a couple of months after the club was inaugurated and he thought about using social media to boost it. His devotion to the club is commendable. He shoots videos and pictures on a daily basis and uploads them on YouTube, Facebook and also shares them with the club’s WhatsApp group each and every day. It is ensured that every member present on the day is reflected in the pictures and videos. The members enjoy watching themselves laugh on their cell phones throughout the day.

Their average daily attendance is well over 70 and it is perhaps the only club in the world which meets every day in two batches, one at 7 am and the other at 8.30 am.

When I introduced myself and they came to know that I am associated with the Laughter Yoga University in Bangalore, they invited me along with Radhika to conduct a laughter session for them. Once home, I told Radhika that our dream to start a club at Man Pasand Garden has been fulfilled by some divine intervention and we have to conduct a Laughter Yoga session there the next morning. She was pleasantly surprised.

The laughter session was simply out of the world!! And the club members were so full of energy and enthusiasm. Everyone there loved it, especially the Laughter Meditation towards the end.

You may watch glimpses of this session through this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpDtIV_XR7U

Highly inspired, the members decided to felicitate us in a public function. Though we told them not to indulge in such formalities, they insisted. When we reached the park next morning, we found more than a hundred people waiting for us including the founding members of the club, representatives of other Laughter Clubs in the city and the elected political representative of the area.

The felicitation was really warm, affectionate and full of laughter. We were offered flowers, sweets and a shawl as a mark of honour for which we thanked them profusely.

On behalf of the Laughter Yoga University, we presented a cap and a hat with the University logo to the leaders of the club, Raja Babu and Ram Kishan, as a memento of love and recognition for their dedication and selfless service to the community.
We shall ever cherish the happy memories of Man Pasand Garden and the wonderful club members. Many of them have expressed a desire to undergo Laughter Yoga leader training with us which we will be arranging in the near future.

Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ Laughter Yoga with Commandos ☆

I took a morning flight from Indore, halting briefly at Mumbai, which touched Bengaluru by noon.

As I came out of the arrival gate, a pleasant surprise, which I had not dreamt of, overwhelmed me. I shall write about it in a separate blog sometime later, not now, as it is a different subject matter altogether.

We proceeded to the Laughter Yoga University; just about 20 minutes drive from the airport. Dr Madan Kataria, the Laughter Guru, whom I adored, was here. I touched his feet and he introduced me to his young team.

Before I could settle down, he said, “We will have lunch now and then, within an hour, we are leaving for an interesting assignment – Laughter Yoga with the Commandos!”

The Centre for Counter Terrorism was a couple of hours drive from the university.

Over a cup of tea, the trainers there told us, “The commandos are here for training. They have a strict routine. They get up at 5 am and go to bed only after 11 pm. The whole day they have strenuous physical activity as well as theory classes. They feel a lot of stress, fatigue and are sleep deprived.”

We were taken to an indoor shooting range where 30 commandos were waiting for us.

Dr K greeted them with laughter and said, “We know that you are going through a very tough routine. You don’t get enough sleep. The physical activities you do the whole day are exhausting. You are away from your loved ones and being combat ready at all times drains away all the energy.”

The commandos felt that here is someone who understands their plight and empathizes with them. They were now willing to listen.
Dr K said, ”We are here to show you ways to relax, build stamina and be happy!”

We then had an out of the world experience of laughter yoga and meditation for more than an hour. The commandos were all smiles. Fully relaxed!

Each one wanted to shake hands with Dr K. We could feel the gratitude in their eyes. The tough exterior of the commandos had melted and the child within was visible all around.

We too felt blessed and realized that we owe a lot more to them.

On our way back, Dr K shared, “How fulfilling this experience has been! I am feeling really good.”

He continued, “We had conducted a session with the commandos earlier too but this time it was something different. We shall not leave it mid-way. We shall depute one of our teachers here for as long as they want who will also train their trainers to conduct laughter and breathing exercises.”

Dr K spoke to their superintendent and sent one of our star laughter yoga teachers, Vinayak, to be with them all along the day for a couple of days.

Vinayak was with them from early morning till late night. Whenever the group energy drooped, he shared some laughter and breathing exercises. The effect was magical.

The trainers told us that the commandos were now more willing to learn, responded cheerfully to their commands and shared a lot of positive energy as a team.

They laughed during breaks, doing their own versions of the laughter exercises and would allow Vinayak to leave the place.

(Thank you, Vinayak, for the splendid efforts! We are looking forward to a blog with a detailed account of the experiences you had there which you alone can share.)

Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer,  Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ Laughter is a Universal Language☆

Laughter is a universal language. It knows no barriers.

This was proved when we conducted a two-day laughter yoga and meditation programme for a small group fromUzbekistan. The group included a child psychology teacher, fitness trainer for seniors, tour conductor, and yoga trainer.

During the first day, we focused on the four steps of laughter yoga – clapping and chanting, deep breathing, childlike playfulness and laughter exercises. After the exercises, seventy-three year old Viktorina said, “I feel light, very light. I am ready to fly in the sky like a bird!”

Sixty-six year old Valentina found great value in the inner spirit of laughter and the health benefits of laughter for the seniors. She is a fitness trainer for the old people inTashkentand would be adding laughter exercises to her repertoire when she goes back.

On the second day, the participants experienced laughter yoga meditation. Laughter flowed like a fountain. Their bodies and laughter mingled like milk and water. Zulfiya described it as an out-of-the-world experience.

They also created a number of new laughter exercises – splash splash laughter, soap bubble laughter and angry cat laughter. The chants of “Kharasho, Kharasho, Yay!!” (Very Good, Very Good, Yay!!) reverberated in the surroundings, creating positive vibes all around.

Marina, as a child psychologist, could sense the latent potential in laughter yoga for developing soft skills in children like communication skills and creativity. She loved the value based laughter exercises like appreciation laughter, argument laughter and forgiveness laughter, and found them specially valuable for the children.

Angelika, who has done the certified laughter yoga leader training with us twice at Rishikesh, expressed her gratitude for the life changing experience. She teaches laughter yoga back home inTashkentand is happy transforming many lives there.

Our special thanks to Ivan Skofenko for doing all the ground work for bringing three groups from Tashkent to Rishkesh during the last two years and helping us as an interpreter and translator of the highest caliber. He is a trained yoga teacher and has undergone certified laughter yoga leader training with us on three occasions. We appreciate Ivan’s sincere devotion to the cause and the good work he is doing in propagating yoga and laughter yoga inUzbekistan,KazakhstanandKyrgyzstan.

When the participants learned that Radhika conducts free yoga classes on a daily basis atIndore,Indiaand a number of ladies have benefitted from them, they requested her to impart lessons in traditional yoga also. She readily agreed to their request. They will be cherishing memories of the yoga sessions early in the morning in the serene surroundings of Rishikesh – the world capital of yoga – for a long, long time!

Radhika & Jagat Singh Bisht

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ The Five Elements of Well-Being☆

Twenty-three hundred years ago, Aristotle concluded, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

Everyone aspires for happiness but it remains ever elusive. After years of research, the positive psychologists claim to have discovered the elements of authentic happiness and well-being.

The first element is Positive Emotion about the past, present and future. Expressing gratitude, forgiving and forgetting, counting blessings in daily life, having faith, trust, confidence and hope, and being optimistic are some ways to generate positive feelings.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that happiness is not something that happens. It is, in fact, a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. He says, “People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any one of us can come to being happy.”

The second element of well-being is Engagement or Flow: being one with music, dancing, rock climbing, football, chess, or even work. It’s time stopping and self-consciousness is lost during absorbing activity. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement with life.

Viktor Frankl, in his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, says that happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.

Meaning is the third element of well-being. Human beings want meaning and purpose in life. A meaningful life consists in belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the self.

John Stuart Mill feels, “It is by being fully involved in every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by looking for it directly.”

People pursue success, accomplishment, winning, achievement, and mastery for their own sakes. The fourth element of well-being is Accomplishment and an achieving life is a life dedicated to accomplishment.

There is no denying the profound influences that positive relationships or their absence have on well-being. Positive Relationships is the fifth element of well-being.

Is there someone in your life whom you would feel comfortable phoning at four in the morning to tell your troubles to? If your answer is yes, you will likely live longer than someone whose answer is no. George Vaillant, a Harvard Psychiatrist has discovered this fact.

Martin Seligman, in his new book ‘Flourish’, says that well-being is not a thing, like happiness, but a construct. No one element defines well-being, but each contributes to it. The way we choose our life is to maximise all five of these elements by deploying our highest strengths to meet the highest challenges that come our way.

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]

Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)

☆ Tashkent to Rishikesh for Laughter Yoga ☆

A small group of laughter lovers – including a young fashion designer, a scientist, an engineer, a doctor, a psychologist, a teacher and two yoga teachers – flew down from Tashkent to Rishikesh, known as the world capital of yoga, to learn the basics of Laughter Yoga. All of them had a background of yoga but had come to India with an eagerness to master the happiest workout in the world – Laughter Yoga.

We conducted a 2-day certified laughter yoga leader training programme for them covering theoretical and practical aspects of Laughter Yoga including the inner spirit of laughter, laughter meditation and guided relaxation.

The programme was well appreciated by all the participants. Here are some of the feedbacks received from some of them:

“In my normal life, I do not laugh much. Here, I discovered that I have so much laughter hidden inside me. Everyone seems to have an infinite capacity to laugh. And, it feels so good. My daughter is also here with me. Now, we will go back home and it is going to be a happy, cheerful place forever!”

“I am a psychologist and have found the concept of Laughter Yoga to be very useful. Laughter can be a good tool for healing. I shall be applying in practice what I have learned here.”

“I have found a new way to engage with my grand children. We are going to sing, dance, laugh and play the whole day. The kids are going to find the fun based laughter exercises really interesting.”

“I am a yoga teacher and have included Laughter Yoga in my curriculum after I came to Rishikesh a few months ago and learned it from you. I have come along with one of my students and we have got deep insights into laughter and meditation. Laughter has enormous potential for healing depression and aches. “

“I also came here in April 2013 to undergo Certified Laughter Yoga Leader training. After going back to my country, I organized several laughter retreats in the mountains on the weekends. The retreats have got fantastic response as laughter touches the innermost core of being. I have also been to two neighbouring countries, namely Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and made presentations on Laughter Yoga before large groups. I propose to come back here for Laughter Yoga soon with a group from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.”

This was the second certified laughter yoga leader training organized in Rishikesh for nationals from Uzbekistan this year by us and three participants had come for the second time again in the programme due to their sheer love for Laughter Yoga.

Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga, who had visited Kazakhstan recently, extends best wishes to all the new certified laughter yoga leaders and appreciates the efforts made by Ivan Skofenko, Tashkent for propagating Laughter Yoga in Uzbekistan and the neighbouring countries.

Founder: LifeSkills

Seminars, Workshops & Retreats on Happiness, Laughter Yoga & Positive Psychology.
Speak to us on +91 73899 38255
[email protected]