Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Diary

Yoga Nidra - The Ultimate Relaxation Technique by Dr. Madan Kataria

In this highly stressed out world today, people have no time to relax and sleep. As a result, they are irritated throughout the day which adversely affects their work performance and lowers their potential.

Just 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to two hours of ordinary sleep. It is the fastest way to recharge and relax both body and mind. Read more…

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…

I want to share with you something that left me really enlightened. All through the years, I have tried to manage my work and time effectively and keep things organized. Usually, a lot of my work has to do with clicking pictures and recording all laughter events and happenings. As a result, I have an enormous collection of photographs and videos which need to be sorted on a regular basis. Read more…

Everyone has needs and wants, and we are all striving to lead happy and fulfilling lives. We do what we can to achieve our goals, but sometimes even our best efforts are not enough. The brain is a powerful and impressive force, but it is also vulnerable and limited, and cannot solve every problem. This is when connecting to a higher power or spirituality can be helpful. Read more…

The basic fact is that human beings want to be happy and do not want any pain or suffering. We all have different needs and desires, which if unfulfilled, can lead to a stressful situation. As we try to achieve these goals, many a times we find ourselves frustrated and helpless. This hampers the accomplishment of happiness and creates anxiety and constant nervous tension. It is then, that the people invoke a higher intelligence or a higher force like spirituality to help them cope with their inabilities and accept reality.

Spirituality is working Smart not working Hard: Spirituality is all about working smart, not working hard. With a spiritual approach one can attain everything that one ever wanted with minimum efforts.  This is how universal intelligence works. Instead of toiling and struggling, one needs to flow effortlessly. It’s like walking with the wind assisting you from behind. All one has to do, is to align oneself with spiritual laws and laws of nature and let these forces glide you to happiness.

Expanding your unlimited potential : Spirituality helps to create new ideas, new visions, creativity, and intuitive abilities to reach our aspirations.  It helps to build a magnetic aura around you that attracts the people towards you. It creates an energy that gives a sense of security, power and fearlessness. 

Better emotional intelligence : Handling emotions is perhaps the most difficult of all human abilities. We spend almost 75 per cent of our time trying to sort out the varied and complex emotions, while the other 25 per cent is spent in emotional reactions to the situation and the people around us. Negative emotions, literally drain our energy and affect the quality of our lives.

Since it is difficult to manage these reactions with a logical mind, one needs to resort to a process that helps us to rise above all that is depressing. This is where the spiritual approach helps us as it has the power to alter the negativity of the mind to a positive pattern.

I have personally used this approach to spread the laughter mission worldwide.  Without many resources and any great assets, I managed to set up more than 5000 laughter clubs in 55 countries. It was spirituality that helped me cope with any obstacles that came my way. It is indeed a powerful tool that helps in realization and fulfillment of one’s dreams and aspirations.

In the forthcoming articles on spirituality and inner spirit of laughter, I will share with you some amazing stories of mysterious coincidences that occurred in my life.  Stay tuned.

It is very hard to give a simple definition of spirituality.

Everything in the universe: human beings, animals, plants, environments, planets, in fact all living or non living material objects — are a part of universal consciousness which is a constant flow of energy.

Our life as human beings is a part of the cycle of this universe. Our birth is a transition of some form of energy into human beings. We are born, grow, and after death our energy continues with the cycle of eternal consciousness which has no beginning no end.

We all belong to this intelligent system — call it universal intelligence or higher intelligence — and we are nothing but a flow of energy from one form into another. We are all related and interconnected as we are all part of the one.

Our ability to find oneness in everything in this universe is called spirituality.

We are diverse — that is the richness of the system. We have different likes and dislikes, hopes and aspirations. When we encounter others with whom we resonate, we find ourselves in unity and oneness with that person. Others who are different from us raise feelings of apathy, dislike or even hatred.

What creates this difference is our thinking or ego mind that has one agenda: I, my and me. This mind starts comparing: I am better or worse or equal to ‘them’. This thinking separates us from others. It creates fears, anxiety, sorrow and jealousy.

We need to overcome this thinking to achieve spirituality. We need to accept and love and help every other person equally. Spiritual unity and oneness comes when you allow people to be who they really are without trying to change them and create a loving environment despite differences.

Your right-hand will never hurt your left hand because it belongs to you. Spirituality is the awareness and sense of belonging towards one and all. When you realize that everything in this universe belongs to me and I belong to everything you are spiritual. There is no duality, no conflict but complete harmony.

This is easier said than done. When we are at an average level of consciousness our ego/mind dominates and pursues a selfish agenda. When we elevate our consciousness to a higher-level through spiritual practices and by following spiritual values, we become more open and flexible towards others and begin to find the inner spirit of laughter, allowing us to become joyful and laugh more easily.

Love & laughter
Madan Kataria

In this series we will talk about spiritual laws which govern our lives, spiritual values and spiritual tools in a non religious way. Stay connected.

It is very hard to give a simple definition of spirituality.

I have been struggling to understand spirituality all my life and to find a simple way to describe it. Recently I was thinking about how the Internet has changed our lives and this parallel came to me:

The entire universe is an intelligent creation — the way it works is in itself a miracle. Consider for example the human body: an egg and a sperm unite and develop into a complex being with many organ systems working together in perfect harmony.

Our heart beats non-stop from birth till death; we breath non-stop; the way our digestion, metabolism, mind, muscles and organs work with thousands of hormones and enzyme-systems all cooperating in perfect automation is complex beyond the scope of imagination.

There are endless species of animals and plants, of planets and galaxies, all working together in perfect complex harmony and amazing unity. The universe is infinite and unlimited. This order and direction is driven by cosmic intelligence or higher mind or simply, God.

How do I see the Internet connection?

Our human mind can be compared to a personal computer with limited knowledge, intelligence and capability. We are not even able to understand the complexities of our own mind, emotions, desires and our relationships with fellow human beings. To live a spiritual life is beyond the comprehension of our human intelligence.

By plugging that same computer into the Internet, it connects and gains access to a higher, comparatively unlimited knowledge and intelligence.

If we as humans ‘log on’ and connect to the higher mind or cosmic intelligence, we gain access to higher knowledge and intelligence. This process of logging on to higher intelligence is known as spirituality.

To log on we need a password. Each person must find his own password. For some it is meditation. For others it may be abiding by spiritual laws and inculcating spiritual values. It can be done in a religious way or a non-religious way.

Each one of us has the ability to log on to the higher intelligence and has a right to use the unlimited potential available there.

This is part of a series of articles on Spirituality. You are welcome to add your valuable comments and make contributions to the discussion.

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…

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.

Read more…