30-Apr-07
 We have a beautiful new logo for World Laughter Year 2007. Click on the image to see a larger version. It is available for free download for anyone promoting the event.
LAUGH ANGELES
Dr Kataria will start celebrating World Laughter Day in Laugh Angeles after completing a CLY Teacher course on 5 May.
Join us in Belvedere Park, 4865 e 1st St, L.A. for: 11:30: Picnic On The Lawn WITH clowns, jugglers, face painting & musicians; 12:30: Taiko Drummers, 1:00 – 1:30pm: Grand Opening Laughter Session; 1:30: Laughter Competition, 3:00pm: Musical Concert with Scott Huckabay.
IRVINE CALIFORNIA
Dr Kataria will continue the celebrations at Orange County Heritage Athletic Park, Yale Ave, Irvine California.
The program includes many styles of dancing from around the world — watch or DANCE!; group singing, poetry reading, guitar sing-a-longs; Laughter Yoga, Art Contest, Photography Contest; massage therapists to soothe your aches; a Dream Treasure Chest Workshop & more!
LA details at http://www.laughangeles.com/world-laughter-day-06program.php
Irvine details at http://www.hahayoga.com/
19-Apr-07 Filed under: LY News — Dr. Madan Kataria
Readers Digest Canada have invited me to launch a nationwide smile campaign in a major media event in Toronto on 19 April. If you’re in the area please join us for a great laugh-in!
Press release
Media advisory follows: Photo opportunity - Reader’s Digest launches their Smile Campaign
TORONTO, April 19 /CNW Telbec/ - Reader’s Digest Canada invites you to
start spring with a smile and a belly laugh with the launch of the Smile
Campaign. Join Reader’s Digest, Dr. Madan Kataria and members of the High Park
Laughter Club for a half-hour session of Hasya yoga (”laughter wisdom”).
Reader’s Digest representatives will also be handing out smile cards to
encourage the public to share a smile - with friends, family or even a
complete stranger.
The event will be held on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 from 12:00 noon -
1:00 p.m. at the Toronto Eaton Centre, Trinity Way, 220 Yonge Street.
WHAT: Reader’s Digest Smile Campaign Launch
Public “Laughter” Yoga session
WHERE: Toronto Eaton Centre
Trinity Way (mall entrance to Sears, main floor)
Media desk sign-in located between the western mall doors and the
entrance to Sears
220 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M5B 2H1
WHEN: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
WHO: Dr. Madan Kataria, Founder, Hasya Yoga
Peter Stockland, Editor-in-Chief, Reader’s Digest Canada
High Park Laughter Club
17-Apr-07
 Creative laughter yoga teacher Jeffrey Briar of Laguna Laughter Club has announced the 1st “Laughter at Sea” cruise, from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico departing October 12-15.
This fun and laughter filled vacation includes a morning Laughter Club At Sea, a Laughter-Go-Round (share new laughter exercises inspired by the day’s excursion in Ensenada), “Stress-Free in Seven Seconds” — laughter practices which catapult us quickly into joyfulness and freedom from worry and a “Grand Gibberish Reception”.
Jeffrey will also present his new multimedia presentation “The Birth, Care and Feeding of a Successful Laughter Club”.
Cruise on Royal Caribbean’s luxurious “Monarch of the Seas” cruise ship — in addition to the laughter yoga program activities include 24-hour fine dining, live stage show nightly, gym, spa, swimming pools, jacuzzis, rock climbing wall, basketball courts, dancing in several lounges, duty-free shopping, and a full casino.
The cost of the 3-day weekend, including laughter programs, meals, and three nights’ lodging is from $410 per person. Space is limited and prices will increase – quick registration is recommended.
For information contact the Jeffrey at Laguna Laughter Club phone/fax (949) 376-1939, or e-mail info@lyinstitute.org. Register for the cruise at www.connectiontocruise.com
15-Apr-07
 It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to see that a church in America has adopted laughter yoga as their health ministry to their community.
The ‘Our Savior’ Lutheran Church in Lansing, Iowa sent Pastor Laura Gentry to train as a CLY Leader. She started the first laughter club in Iowa in their church, but within three weeks the group became too large and moved to a nearby community center.
Pastor Laura is coming to Los Angeles to train with me as a CLY Teacher so she can spread her ministry of laughter further afield by training more laughter leaders.
The church is proud to be known as the laughing church and has changed the church Web site to www.laughinglutherans.com.
The laughter club is extremely successful and growing fast. Its been reported in the US Lutheran website.
  
Here are some testimonials from their members:
“Laughter Yoga is so powerful. After each meeting, I feel totally exhilarated, tingling with happiness and impressed with the widened sense of well-being that I have! ”
—Melanie Wittman
“A lot of people get too serious but here you can just cut loose and act any way you want. It is so nice to feel free to be yourself!”
—Gary Jones
“The time goes bam. You get to giggling and it’s gone. It feels so … oh honey, you just come home feeling like, woo, you really feel good. It makes your whole evening.” —Avis Davis
“I think if people would come to Laughter Club on a continuous basis, they’d see a big difference in their day to day living. It really relieves stress and helps you meaningfully connect with other people.”
—Gene Scott
“It’s fun for the whole family. Our three year-old totally loves it!”
—Vern Timmerman
“I’m really surprised how quickly our church’s Laughter Club has taken off. It is a good ice breaker for people to get to know one another. It’s such a fantastic outreach that it’s hardly a laughing matter!”
—Congregational President, Don Thran
13-Apr-07
 Because of the recent explosion of interest about laughter yoga, the Dr Kataria School of Laughter Yoga is in the process of preparing a series of self-study modules.
These are short self-study courses for people who are seriously interested and wish to learn more about laughter yoga. They will not lead to professional certification, which requires personal training with properly qualified laughter yoga teachers who provide practical training and personal guidance.
- The first self study module will provide an introduction to laughter yoga, including a brief history and the theory & science behind laughter yoga.
- Another module will cover the practical side of laughter yoga, how laughter yoga sessions work, warm-up exercises, group dynamics and introduce different styles of laughter yoga for special groups, for example fitness, social, seniors, schools, hospitals and more.
Further modules will deal with laughing alone and laughter yoga for special groups.
All modules will be prepared and presented by Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of laughter yoga and will include the latest techniques and developments in this rapidly developing field.
LAUGHTER YOGA CERTIFICATION
Laughter yoga recognizes two levels of professional certification. These are taught in face to face group training sessions and will never be offered online.
The first level of laughter yoga certification of CLY Leader (Certified Laughter Yoga Leader) requires a minimum of two days of training with a certified teacher. Some teachers extend the course to three days to provide additional skill training.
In addition to completing the training, leaders are expected to be familiar with the content of Dr Kataria’s book ‘Laugh for No Reason’. Contact your local laughter leaders or teachers for information about CLYL training courses in your region.
The second level of certification is the CLY Teacher (Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher). This is a five day training course currently offered only by Dr Kataria, who travels to provide training in different parts of the world. See Dr Kataria’s training schedule here.
Further training modules are in development and will be made available when they are ready.
Laughter yoga is constantly developing as improvements and breakthroughs are made in techniques, exercises and scientific research. We have instituted an ongoing education program to upgrade the skill levels of our existing laughter yoga leaders and teachers to make sure that all participants get the best laughter yoga services possible.
12-Apr-07
On 7th January 2007 we were invited to a 6th annual laughter competition day organized by Aarey Walkers & Laughter Club.
 They invited 10 laughter clubs from western Mumbai. The unique feature of this year’s competition was that each laughter club was to send 10 members to present a “Theme Story”, incorporating laughter exercises into their stories.
It was amazing to see the creativity and playfulness that laughter club members have developed over the years. These ordinary people have developed a remarkable sense of humor through laughter.
Here are some of the examples of theme stories from the competition:
 The award winning story was about an American couple coming to visit laughter clubs in India. Each group member wore an outfit representing a different state in India and each was laughing, dancing and talking in a different way. The American couple was amazed by the diversity of Indian laughter clubs.
The story which I liked best didn’t win a prize. It was about 9 laughter club members walking to a laughter club when they found a person lying by the road looking like he is about to die. One said take him to the hospital. Another said No No No nothing doing — there is no medicine like laughter. We’ll revive him with laughter. They checked his respiration and pulse and then started doing laughter exercises around and over him. After two exercises he started moving his fingers and toes. After more laughter exercises he improves further then gets up and start laughing and dancing with them. Ho ho ha ha and no need to go to iCU.
 Another story was about a laughter group that went out on a picnic and did different laughter exercises while they were having food, talking on the mobile, discussing and arguing with each other.
Another club presented a story in which the laughter leader explains about a guest who stayed in his house. The guest was a poet. They made different laughter exercises out of his good and bad habits — for example he burped and farted out loud, made lot of noise while eating. It was very funny.
09-Apr-07
SHOWTIMES UPDATE: East Coast at 3pm, West Coast at 6pm (we think, please check your local TV guide)
 The wave of media interest in laughter yoga that has been building steadily shows no signs of slowing down.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is the latest to express an interest in laughter yoga. Last week they invited Jeffrey Briar and Sebastien Gentry to fly to Chicago to film a laughter yoga session for the show.
I am very happy about this. While laughter yoga gets constant attention from BBC, ABC, NBC, ZDF and many other TV stations, it is most often their news departments who film us.
Oprah is a different kind of show. Her concerns seem to be oriented towards helping her viewers to achieve health, happiness and joy, and that is perfectly in accordance with laughter yoga.
My personal thanks go to Oprah and her team for shining their spotlight on laughter yoga.
I understand the segment will screen this Wednesday 11 April in the USA. Let’s hope they mention World Laughter Day that falls on May 6 this year.
Watch out for it.
06-Apr-07
Despite mismanagement, chaos, corruption and poverty, Indian people strike me as much happier than those I meet in many other countries. The reason is the very strong family system.When you visit small towns or villages in India people treat you like a god. There is a saying in India – “atithi devo bhava” – this means ‘the guest is like a god’, and they really do treat guests like gods.
  After a year of traveling abroad the power of Indian hospitality was again highlighted when my wife Madhuri and I visited laughter club leader Mr. Bhandari for dinner at his home. On entering their home, they put a red mark on our foreheads with a few grains of rice and adorned us with garlands.
The Bhandari family’s two grand daughters sang a welcome song with words ‘you came to our house, we are very lucky, please come again.’
  I was surprised to find that 18 members of the Bhandari family live in the same building. They meet everyday like a joint family though they are living on different floors. They all joined together in the preparation and enjoyment of dinner and they support each other in many ways. There was great feeling of a united family which is not often seen in other countries.
This reminded me of the welcomes that Merv Neal from Australia received and recounted when he visited a laughter club family in Baroda, India under the inter club exchange program last year.
Watch out for our international laughter club exchange program launching later this year. There are hundreds of Indian laughter club families waiting for guests to be treated like Gods.
To arrange homestay in India with a laughter club family please contact raj@laughteryoga.org including details of your laughter club.
05-Apr-07
For the past years I have received many requests from South African for laughter yoga.
Last month Madhuri and I finally set foot in Africa. This has been a dream of mine and I felt a feeling of accomplishment and happiness as we set foot on African soil for the first time in Johannesburg.
We conducted public seminars in Johannesburg and Pretoria and also a laughter leader training course in Johannesburg. South Africa is a beautiful country with warm welcoming people who love to laugh. The laughter energy at some of our  sessions was memorable. I especially remember the great session at Yoga Connection where we met such wonderful people — thank you Carley, laughter-blaster Basho, Alan and all!
In Cape Town we were amazed at the great natural beauty of the city, mountains and sea. We ran a leader training course at Cape Town Medi Spa, a wonderful venue — thanks to owner Ian and his team for the great support and hospitality. The laughter energy at the Cape Town course was fantastic.
We have 50 new laughter leaders in South Africa and seeing how well people responded and how committed our leaders are I am confident that laughter yoga will spread very quickly. Already I have reports of sessions being held in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg with plans for laughter yoga in yoga studios, hospitals, townships, orphanages, prisons, schools, offices, MS and cancer groups, an upmarket spa, major companies and more.
The press response was very good, with radio & tv sessions and coverage in major magazines including Longevity and Marie Claire. Special thanks to Janine of LaughSA, Kaz of Total Media, and Nikki of the UPliftment Program for their hard work in support of laughter yoga.
I love South Africa and will return soon.
02-Apr-07 Filed under: LY News — Dr. Madan Kataria
 Laughter Teacher Farah Nazarali from Vancouver rode across Canada last year spreading laughter yoga at her stops en route. She is preparing for a second trip and sent me following report in which she draws some meaningful conclusions about laughter in life:
When my fiance proposed to ride a bicycle 6000km across Canada, my first reaction was a nervous laugh - the kind of laugh that incorporates the rhetorical question - are you insane? However, the release of my emotions through laugher helped me to put things in perspective and seriously consider his idea without fear or anxiety. The idea of seeing Canada by bike sounded like an adventure so I answered in the affirmative and before I could change my mind, we were packing and preparing for our 2 month 6000km journey.
Though I planned to take laughter on the road and facilitate laughter yoga sessions at our rest stops along the way, I had no idea how profound laughter would be and how I would begin to incorporate it on a daily basis.
A Laughable Twist
 Riding a bicycle and laughing are mutually supportive - both are incredibly liberating and reminiscent of childhood when learning to ride a bicycle is a de facto rite of passage. To ride a bike as an adult is to re-live the freedom and spontaneity of being a child when play and leisure are the primary activities in life. When my fiance told me about the bike we would ride (a back-to-back recumbent tandem), it didn’t make sense until I saw a picture and I understood that I would face backwards. Riding 6000km across Canada backwards added a definitively laughable twist to our ambitious journey. Laughing While Pedaling
When we first started riding the bike, I realized how strange we must have looked. The shock and bewildered faces of drivers and onlookers made me laugh. In turn, my own smile and laughter make others laugh. Being able to face traffic and being on such a strange looking bike enabled me to positively interact with drivers and this was part of the fun of riding this bike.
 In fact, riding a bicycle backwards gave me the opportunity to practice laughter on a daily basis. My job as stoker including smiling and waving to drivers for the sake of our safety on the road. We had discovered that it was difficult for drivers to ignore us or act aggressively when I greeted them with a genuine smile. This is the profound nature of laughter yoga - that we can consciously and intentionally contribute to a more peaceful world with the simple gesture of a smile. As cyclist, being proactively positive puts us at a better disposition.
Soon this positive interaction worked both ways. There were days that were difficult, not just physically but emotionally. Spending 24 hours with the same person while under intense conditions is the stuff reality shows are made of - it becomes either an exercise in relationship building or breaking. In fact, tandem bicycles are nicknamed divorcycles because riding a tandem will make or break a relationship. After riding 6000km, I understand why! On the days when my fiance and I argued, I had such a difficult time holding on to my anger because people would smile and laugh when they saw me facing backwards. It took so much energy for me to stay angry and it seemed ridiculous to greet friendly strangers with an angry face, so the smiles of others worked to dissipate my anger and frustration. Read more…
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We have a beautiful new logo for World Laughter Year 2007. Click on the image to see a larger version. It is available for free download for anyone promoting the event.
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