Laughter Yoga
Offered by Jean Marie Marsden

History of Laughter Yoga

In March 1995 Dr. Madan Kataria, a family physician from Mumbai, India, decided to write an article called "Laughter - the best medicine" for his monthly health magazine "My Family Doctor."

The outcome of his research for this article surprised him greatly. Decades of scientific research had already proven that laughter has both a preventive and therapeutic effect. He was impressed by the findings of Norman Cousins, a leading journalist in U.S.A. in the 1960s dying from a degenerative disease, who managed to heal himself completely using laughter as main form of therapy.

The morning of March 13, 1995, Dr. Kataria awoke his great idea: he would start a laughter club. At 7 am he went to his local park and somehow managed to motivate four people to laugh with him. This small group quickly grew to over 50 participants within a few days.

The original format was the turn-by-turn telling of jokes or anecdotes. Within 2 weeks the stock of good jokes was depleted and participants complained. They did not want to listen and even less take part in the telling of stale or vulgar jokes.

Rather than abort the experiment Dr. Kataria had the idea of dropping jokes altogether. What he had observed several times in those first 2 weeks was that when the joke or anecdote being told was not funny, one person laughing was usually enough to get the whole group to laugh: laughter is contagious. He experimented with this idea of laughing for no reason and it worked very well.

The brain cannot recognize self-induced laughter from the laughter from external stimuli, and what to some may seem like a silly and artificial beginning almost always leads into a natural euphoric state of hearty, mirthful laughter.

Dr. Kataria had stumbled unknowingly onto a branch of yoga traditionally called Hasya Yoga (a Sanskrit name for Laughter Yoga). His wife, Mudhuri Kataria, a yoga instructor, helped him build upon the yoga connection of laughter. Together they designed a sequence of simple laughter exercises with gentle yoga breathing exercise (parnayama) for maximum benefits.

A journalist heard of this unusual club and wrote an article about it in the local newspaper. Inspired, people began coming to Dr. Kataria for advice on how to start their own "Laughter Club." Since its humble beginnings in 1995 this unique idea has grown into a worldwide movement of over 5000 Laughter Clubs in 53 countries. Laughter Yoga and Laughter Clubs have been featured in every single major media network around the world.

Health Benefits of Laughter Yoga

In 1979, celebrated writer Norman Cousins wrote Anatomy of an Illness. There he described his potentially fatal disease and his discovery of the benefits of humor and other positive emotions in battling the disease. He found that 10 minutes of mirthful laughter gave him 2 hours of pain-free sleep.

Dr. William Fry from Stanford demonstrated that most of the major physiologic systems of the body are stimulated by mirthful laughter. His studies show that with mirthful laughter you get good physical exercise; you can decrease your chances of respiratory infections; and your body produces endorphins, naturally produced painkillers.

Laughter continues to be studied throughout the world with positive connections found between laughter and: stress reduction healing, pain control, immunity boosting and even the ability to fight tumor cells in cancer patients.

Jean Marie is available for speaking engagements, workshops, retreats, ice-breakers and gatherings of all kinds.

• Corporate Laughter: Stress Management, Team-building, Creativity & Group Motivation All in One!
• Private Events: Infuse Joy into Any Social, Family or Festive Event
• Laughter & Cancer
• Laughter in Church
• Laughter & Education
• Laughter & Seniors