Resident assistants take break from training with "Laughter Yoga"
Uproarious laughter filled the hallway outside of Pearce Hall’s auditoriums as students performed over-the-top gestures mixed with serene stretches and poses.
Several dozen resident assistants gathered to let off steam one morning last week when they practiced “laughter yoga,” a reprieve from several days of training for their roles as mentors and arbitrators in the coming year.
“This is the midway point of training for them,” Wheeler Hall Director Sara Olsztyn, a Rochester Hills senior said. “Yoga is all about the breath, it’s all about breathing and being present in the moment.”
The students’ training began Aug. 6 and ended Saturday, with their laughter exercise occurring Aug. 12. The break from training was a relief for many of the RAs who listed “anxious,” “tired,” “hungry” and “stressed” as some of their key feelings at the meeting leading up to the lesson.
That was before they spent just under an hour doing poses including cocktail laughter, appreciation laughter and “Soul Train” laughter, where two laughing lines were formed to greet students who strutted down the middle.
Afterwards, some of the more popular responses included “fresh,” “relieved,” “recharged” and “exuberant.”
Lake Orion junior Jim Leszczynski, an RA at Kesseler Hall, was one of many to attend the training session.
He said he assumed the role because of the impact an RA had on him in his earlier days at Central.
“He was the guide that I needed to become part of a community,” Leszczynski said. “His enthusiasm and interest within residence kind of spread.”
He said the most rewarding part of being an RA is watching residents begin and develop within the halls.
Jessi Boehme became a Larzelere Hall RA because she wanted to be a resource to her fellow students and make connections with people.
“(My favorite part is) meeting all the new freshmen when they’re moving, because they’re scared but I’m not,” The Muskegon junior said, “so I try to be super excited and peppy for them.”
Boehme practices yoga regularly and hopes to integrate the fitness lifestyle into her hall programs.
She still enjoyed the brief break afforded by laughter yoga.
“It was a good way to get things out of your system,” Boehme said. “It made you feel awkward and kind of ridiculous but it was still really fun.”
