WETHERSFIELD -- Two women go to high five, purposely miss and burst out laughing.

They switch partners and repeat the exercise, filling the room with a cacophony of chuckles and guffaws.

Welcome to Laura Le's laughter yoga class.

No, Le doesn't force her students into pretzels and crack one-liners. Laughter yoga has no mirthful dog or merry corpse positions.

Instead, it is a seemingly silly series of verbal exercises intended to make you laugh, Le explained. In addition to the high fives, those exercises include laughing while shaking hands and lots of "he-he"s and "ho-ho"s. Later, people role play something that annoys them and chuckle as they do it.

"We do intentional laughing, laughing for no reason," Le of West Hartford said. "The idea is to laugh whenever you want to."

That's a good thing because research shows laughter's powerful positive effect on your body, Le said. A good guffaw relieves stress, lowers blood pressure, strengthens the immunity system and speeds healing, she said. It releases endorphins that make you feel good. Laughing 10 to 15 minutes a day burns 40 to 50 calories, so it can even help you lose weight, she said.

People will have the chance to try out laughter yoga Saturday when Le conducts an hour-long class starting at 2 p.m. at the Wethersfield Library. Would-be laughers are asked to register beforehand by calling 860-529-2665.

Le, a Yale University graduate who grew up in Middletown, said she dealt with stress back to her college days. She tried everything, exercise, yoga, tai chi, with limited success.

One day four years ago, she heard about laughter yoga and gave it a whirl. She was immediately hooked.

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Laughter Yoga Class At Wethersfield Library

Lakeview Yoga and Wellness Center has created a big stir in Kenmore with the opening of their new Yoga studio, Healthy Homes and Lifestyles store and Wellness Center practitioners.

Located in Kenmore Square, Lakeview Yoga offers an array of yoga styles to fit any persons schedule.

Offering quality services to our community is a must," said Vidal Bitton, owner. We are committed to offering movement classes for every type of body and every age. Yoga is a lifelong pleasure that heals and nourishes your body. We are honored to bring this healing art to the Kenmore community.

After being honored with a sixth degree black belt, Bitton decided to reopen a new and better facility in the Kenmore area. Bitton combines his knowledge of yoga and his lifelong history of martial arts to promote sustainable movement, calling yoga a "moving meditation that is a lifelong pleasure."

Warm heat is provided in the hot classes and the power and yin classes are taught at normal temperatures. A custom mural graces the cedar lined walls of the yoga studio creating a peaceful setting for hot yoga classes. Customers can look in the mirrors to see water, a sunrise and three beautiful eagles that are peering at yo

The Wellness Center features Christine Suzuki, offering Sustainable Interior Design Services; Dr Wayne Carr, Psychotherapist; Shannon Shaaf of Pure Genius hair salon; Mari Riksheim, LMP of Massages by Mari and Jenny Farnam of Massage Therapy/Esthetics.

All of these businesses are supportive of holistic healthy practices utilizing sustainable materials and resources.

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New yoga center opens in Kenmore Square

March 11, 2014, 9:21 p.m.

A new festival is a brew of beer and yoga and has the crowd flying high, but not in the artificially induced way of your average festival.

I do yoga "so I'm not an arsehole", says yoga trainer to the stars Cameron Shayne.

"Aren't we all trying to be less of an arsehole?" It's a fair point from the renowned teacher and martial artist, famous for training Sugar Ray Leonard, Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox among others, albeit not the sort of floaty phrase you would expect from the peace, love and mung beans yogic crew.

Shayne is among a new breed of teachers and practitioners who are keen to demystify the stereotypes of yoga and make this ancient practice palatable to modern audiences. And he is using an unusual platform to do it.

The Wanderlust Festival that has just hit our shores, after starting in the United States five years ago, fuses food, music, yoga and beer.

The festival begins with a mass meditation and ends with live music. Alongside the kombucha stand sits a "beer and beef" outlet. There is a wine-tasting tent, a "thankful tree" where people write and attach baubles of gratitude, a group hula-hooping on a hill, deep bass throbbing from the DJ and a sea of bottoms raised skyward in the downward-dog posture.

The crowd is flying high, but not in the artificially induced way of your average festival. Here it's more likely to be the result of raw cacao or an animated Aum. That said, it's not your average, navel-gazing yoga festival either.

"We're so much more than a yoga festival," say organisers Jonnie and Jacque Halstead. "We're a mindful living, green living and music festival . . . You don't have to be this spiritual yogi in the mountains to come."

As for the unlikely mix of beer and yoga, Shayne challenges assumptions about what yoga is or has to be.

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Bottoms up for beer and yoga