Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Diary

Currently I am busy shooting a video and writing a book on how to laugh alone and I thought that this story clearly retells the fact that it is possible to laugh all by yourself. Try it, you’ll laugh too. I did.

So the story goes— On 29th September, 2006, I was traveling from Mumbai to Frankfurt on my way to Hamburg for laughter leadership training. I was sitting in the plane for almost eight hours till I reached Frankfurt after which I had to wait another two hours to catch the connecting flight to Hamburg. After being on the plane so long I was completely exhausted.

I desperately needed to laugh. Normally, I laugh every day all by myself at home or in a hotel room but it was a bit tricky to laugh in the airport, especially when I was surrounded by so many serious people. I was thinking and soul searching - How should I laugh? I first thought of going to the toilet but what if there were many people? It would not work. Then I hit upon another idea– why not sit on the toilet seat and laugh without making any sound but even then I was worried about the people.

As I was still toiling with the idea and playing around with my mobile phone a sudden thought struck my mind. Why not use the cell phone and pretend to talk to someone and laugh. There was no way anyone could figure out whether I was talking to someone or laughing with someone. I didn’t lose even a second and placed my mobile phone to my ear and started laughing slowly and gradually, and before I knew I was laughing hysterically. Not a soul could make out what was going on. I laughed for nearly 10 minutes. I was fully recharged and felt great. Later, I did my breathing exercises.

On reaching Hamburg I shared this idea with the participants of my workshop and they all felt it was a great discovery.

Well, nowadays, I am using my mobile phone more for laughter yoga, as it is frightfully expensive to make calls from a mobile phone with international roaming facility!!!

Next time you see anyone laughing on the cell phone, remember he or she could be a laughter club member, and you can start doing Ho Ho ha ha ha..very good, very good Yeah.

I would like to quote two lines by Bill Huntley:

One needs no reason laughter acts alone,
To do it neatly in the crowd,
Always use a cell phone

Telephone laughter Buddy
It is a common practice among the laughter club members, all over the world, to share a laugh with someone over the phone on a fixed day or time which is mutually convenient. The context is unconditional laughter without any reason.

As it is difficult to o a laughter club everyday as it may not be in your area this is a very innovative way of practicing laughter exercises and reaping all the benefits of laughter. Many a times there is a lack of motivation and one does not feel like laughing alone. To have someone on the phone lines at times like this will make the process interesting and inspiring. The advantage of having a laughter buddy is that in case one is busy, the other person will remind one of laughing on the line.

People were initially apprehensive about telephone buddy laughter as they thought that it encroached upon their privacy, comfort zone and was a nuisance. They had written it off even before trying it out. But life doesn’t work that way. If you laugh with someone and share a lighter moment, all the privacy issues of comfort zones and inconveniences will disappear against the benefits of laughter that you will receive.

Another economical option of doing laughter yoga is through Skype. This is popular free Internet telephone service and one can laugh with anyone anywhere in the word with the added facility of webcam. All you need is to download a messenger from www.Skype.com and have broadband Internet connection and a headphone.

Skype also has to telephone connection service where 10 to 20 people can log on to Skype messenger and laugh together.

This is a beautiful way of connecting with people around the world as we have laughter clubs in more than 55 countries now. It will provide an opportunity to develop international laughter connection.

We are launching telephone laughter body project very soon through our web site.