Judy Newman, a retired speech language pathologist, will present a seminar on laughter yoga at 7 p.m., Wednesday, August 22, at the Jane O'Brien Chatelain West Bank Regional Library, 2751 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey. This event is free of charge and is open to the public. There is no registration. Laughter yoga is a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter. It is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. Laughter yoga is done in groups, with eye contact, jokes and playfulness between participants. Newman says there is a lot to the saying that �laughter is the best medicine.� She says she enjoys teaching the social, physical and mental health benefits of laughter yoga. �It is an aerobic exercise that you choose to do. It increases the good hormones and decreases the bad ones,� she says. �It reduces stress and anxiety. When laughter is done as a group activity, it becomes contagious and fun.� Newman received her laughter yoga teacher training with Madan Kataria, M.D., the originator and developer of Laughter Yoga, and Sebastian Gendry, the originator of the Laughter Wellness concept. Judy Newman was a speech language pathologist for 32 years, the last 21 in Avondale for the Jefferson Parish Public School System. She retired in 2015. For the last eight years, she has been helping children and adults improve their health with laughter yoga. She has presented for various health and business organizations, including the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, FestiGals, and the National Stuttering Foundation. For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.