The Benefits of A-Mazing Laughter

Hidden within the depths of my travel guide for Vancouver was a brief mention of a series of sculpture that sounded like something I needed to check out.  The sculpture series is called A-Mazing Laugther by Yue Minjun.  It is located in the West End near Sunset Beach at the corners of Denman and Davie Streets.

The sculpture series depicts the many faces of laughter.  The sculptures are huge and bring immediate joy to all the visitors that stop to play and mimic the joy of the laughing faces.  The series was installed in 2010 prior to the Winter Olympics and in 2012 became a permanent installation in the city.  We visited just prior to sunset and the golden glow on the statues was gorgeous.  There were people everywhere and everyone had a smile on their faces as they played and interacted with the sculptures.

Laughter has some fun positive side effects...
- You can burn 50 calories after 10-15 minutes of laughing!
- Laughing relaxes the muscles throughout your face
- Really hard laughter counts as ab work...well maybe not but it's worth a try!

Here's a few of my laughter poses...

Make sure you take time to laugh throughout your day.  And keep me posted on whether you are including laughter as part of your core workout routine!