IT is said to lower stress and boost your health – and a Poole couple will be offering people the chance to try “laughter yoga” for free.

Laughter yoga practitioners Clive and Jackie St James will be providing free classes at a Tesco store for World Smile Day and World Mental Health Day.

They say the practice can be “life-changing” by changing people’s mood and breathing and releasing chemicals in the brain.

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Clive said: “I have been a laughter yoga leader all my life and did not realise it.

“I noticed when I was about three years old that my mum was sad. I did not know until later she had chronic depression. But she really laughed when Tommy Cooper came on the telly – all the family did, in fact the whole country did – so I used to regularly do Tommy Cooper laughter impersonations.

“Laughing just like magic, suspends reality, because it’s impossible to be sad and laugh at the same time.”

He went on to become a top Tommy Cooper impersonator, but the laughter yoga sessions don’t require jokes – only “antics” as people get used to breathing exercises which lead to deliberate and then contagious laughter.

He added: “For me, laughter yoga has been a natural progression over some 10 years, from enjoying the antics in a regular group to qualifying as a laughter yoga teacher and now enjoying passing the skills on to others, knowing how important and beneficial it is – recognised as such by scientists and medical practitioners alike.”

He says laughter is a natural pain killer and antidepressant, helps people heal faster, burns calories and reduces the risk of heart disease.

The laughter yoga classes are at Tesco in Tower Park, Poole, on Friday, October 7, and Monday, October 10, 6.30pm and 7.30pm.

Places are free but those interested should contact the couple via their website, laughter-yoga.co.uk