Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Diary

Madhuri and I went on a Laughter Tour to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia (Bali) and South Korea last month. Besides Singapore, we were visiting the other countries for the first time. I was very excited and was really looking forward to this trip. The last thing I ever imagined was to find myself writing this article from an Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Singapore. Life really took a twist and left me a confirmed believer in the maxim, ‘Man proposes God disposes.’

Madhuri met with a serious road accident and was hospitalized for more than a week. Sitting besides her in the ICU, and seeing her recover from her injuries, innumerable thoughts about life went through my mind. I never dreamt that something like this would befall us. Read more…

With the grace of God and your blessings Madhrui is back to normal. She is at home in Mumbai and started visiting laughter clubs. Read more…

Off with my hair! Finally, I have been able to get rid of a pretence that I held on for years. I can now enjoy my new found freedom. I am now the ‘Bald and the Beautiful’. Ha ha ha

It all began years ago when like several youngsters; I too set foot in Mumbai with starry ambitions to become a rich and famous doctor. I tried almost everything in my capacity to reach the skies but I soon realized that it was not easy. My quests did not succeed and I slumped into a bout of depression. I started loosing my hair due to stress and soon there was hardly any left. This became a cause of concern to me and my wife, Madhuri, who insisted on masking it with a hairpiece. After much persuasion I eventually gave in and that was perhaps the beginning of carrying my own falsities on my head. I realized that I was not my real self and was pretending in many aspects of my life.

I may have looked good but believe me my slick mop of hair did nothing to make me feel good. I had fallen into a make believe world which was creating a conflict within.

Come 29^th June, 2007, I had had enough. No more masking and no more pretending. I threw my masks away and found my liberty.

What I learnt from my hairy tale was that if you want to laugh and be a natural it is important to find your true identity. The real ‘You’. If you pretend to be what you’re not it will take a lot of energy to hold on to the pretence. It is important to be honest and truthful to yourself. Do not mask your appearance at the cost of masking your happiness within.

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.

After ten years I discover a new technique for using Dr Madan KatariaLaughter yoga to cope with high-stress events & situations.

I want to share with you an experience I had on 26th of November 2006.

Since developing laughter yoga in 1995 I have dreamed of doing my own research to produce quantifiable research of the benefits of laughter yoga in the workplace. Most medical and scientific research on laughter has used humor-induced laughter. I wanted to research using laughter yoga only to measure the difference in benefits if any between mental and body induced laughter.
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I am often asked, Dr Kataria, who is your master, who is your guru? I answer, I don’t have a particular master, I learn from everyone who comes my way.

Let me introduce you today to one of my gurus. Yamma Gucci is a stray dog who lives in my street in Mumbai. Read more…

In Bangalore I often come across ladies standing with their hands joined in front of a tree, or even bowed down touching her forehead on the ground.

Since childhood, I have seen people worshipping trees. They say prayers and make offerings, but I never understood the meaning behind it.  I am also aware of people who worship other aspects of nature like animals, rivers, and mountains. Read more…

On November 22 I visited Athma Shree Educational Institute, a school where 300 children have practiced laughter yoga for 10 minutes during morning assembly daily for five years.

I joined the children assembled in a schoolyard. Suddenly a group of students on the first floor balcony of the school building across the road started shouting Ho Ho ha ha ha leading 300 students in laughter yoga.

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Cancer is the second most common killer after heart disease today. The number of people suffering from cancer is rising constantly. The most common cause of cancer is stress. Extreme physical, mental and emotional stress weakens our immune system.

On 9th November 2006 I spoke at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Breast Cancer Survival Conference in Mumbai. Here is a summary of my thoughts on the subject. Read more…

A few weeks ago I got up at 4 in the morning to work on an writing an article about laughter yoga with cancer groups. Being engrossed I remembered late that Bangur Nagar Laughter Club in Mumbai had invited us to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

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Anne posted a comment to this blog that got me thinking, and I’ve decided to answer her here. She wrote:

“I recently attended a conference where someone led a laughter yoga session for 10 minutes. Some people left the room before and during the session. Is this because they felt angry? Or maybe because they felt “forced” laughter was unreal? How would you handle this?”

Thank you Anne for your interesting question, here are my thoughts.

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Depression, sadness, anger, frustration, drug addiction and alcoholism all stem from an inability to effectively deal with life’s problems and an inability to express pent-up emotions. This is caused by our having too many wants and desires, and unrealistic expectations of comforts and pleasures, and an expected sense of gratification.

To deal with emotions we need to understand how our thinking mind and our emotional mind differ.

Our thinking mind is also known as our intellect or logical and rationalizing mind. It judges and evaluates what is good and bad for us. It is slow in making decisions and is very calculative. It does not believe in taking risks. Decision-making is based on past experiences, value systems and our knowledge-base.

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On 4th November 2006 I arrived in Singapore at 7:30am and was met with laughter at the airport by Avi Liran, a laughter yoga teacher and his wife Ching. Read more…