Sebastien Gendry
Sebastien Gendry is the Founder and Executive Director of the Laughter Online University (a leading provider of online education on the therapeutic uses of laughter) and the American School Of Laughter Yoga, LLC (the oldest and largest provider of Laughter Yoga education in North America). As a sought after professional trainer, he travels over 70,000 miles each year and has trained hundreds of laughter professionals throughout North America, Europe and Australia. He is a licensed Yoga Teacher and Energy Healer, as well as one of five Master Laughter Yoga Trainers in the world. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and numerous other national mainstream media in the USA.
He is the author of a series of reference ebooks and DVDs on Laughter Yoga.
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Full Biography
Typical is not a word that describes Sebastien Gendry. Born and raised in a small French village, he has lived in places such as Paris, Munich, Vienna, Florence, Hong-Kong, Calcutta, Mumbai, London and Los Angeles while crafting a compelling professional record.
A man of talent, global glamor and international appeal, he has managed to preserve a palatable connection to his own country and culture, and is like France’s thoughtful heartthrobs.
He is the Founder and Executive Director of the American School Of Laughter Yoga (the oldest and largest provider of Laughter Yoga education in North America) and of the Laughter Online University (a leading provider of online education on the therapeutic uses of laughter). A passionate and charismatic individual he played a major role in introducing Laughter Yoga in the USA. He is also one of five Master Laughter Yoga Trainer in the world. He served for 2.5 years (2005-2007) as World Operations Director for Laughter Yoga International. He was the first to introduce Laughter Yoga in Russia in 2008.
A man of global vision and great generosity of spirit he travels over 70,000 miles every year to train several hundred Laughter Yoga Professionals in North America, Europe and Australia.
A seasoned businessman, he combines a rare skill set of technical, sales & marketing as well as creative abilities. As he likes to put it “I learned my many trades in many professional lifetimes by reinventing wheels and then working out why they don’t go straight.” An entrepreneur, he started his first business in England at age 25 and grew it with his two partners to a multi-million $ company within 3 years.
An intuitive teacher, he is emotionally open and intensely thoughtful. He projects a combination of earnestness, recklessness, adolescence, mischievousness and yet has a mature introspection that is much more than intriguing. He is playful with people from all walks of life, and manages to expand their mind in a trivial manner. He encapsulates and shares the power of positive and playful energy and creativity.
A charismatic and articulate speaker, he has been featured several times in the US media (The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, Associated Press, CBS News, Telemundo, Celebrity Fit Club, KCAL 9, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Inspire, and more). He has also appeared at prime time on national Indian television.
His sensibility communicates across social and cultural barriers, giving him a chameleon quality. His richness lies in the fact that his intelligence and curiosity have granted him a much more complex understanding of life. He is like a throwback to the old school gentlemen era and his persona magnifies and radiates.
He holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration from the University of Angers, France, speaks five languages, has run 5 marathons and 1 ultra marathon, and loves to push his own limits.
He strives to inspire and empower others to live healthier, happier lives. His life passion is a field of knowledge he refers to as “Folk Wisdom”: what anybody can do anytime, anywhere, at no or minimum cost to get better in body, mind and spirit. An experienced Fitness Trainer and Hatha Yoga Teacher, he is also certified in 7 other forms of mainstream alternative healing therapies (massage, acupressure, energy work) which he has used on a one-on-one basis with over 1000 people.
Life unexpectedly led him to emigrate to the USA in the early 2000. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
In His Own Words
Laughter Yoga has played a major role in shaping who I now am. I spent the first decade of my adult years in an inner state of confusion. I conformed with society and what I thought was expected of me: my father had worked hard all his life, so I too worked hard. In my head this was what it meant to be a man. I became a workaholic who thought he could handle the stresses of a successful business, but still I felt miserable. It was a time when I routinely worked 60 to 70 hours per week running my own company in England.
I could do things better and faster than anybody else and never learned to delegate. The more business flourished, the deeper the dark and narrow hole I called work became.
It got so bad that eventually I sensed and saw myself dying in a self-made box of anger and sadness. I felt that I had crashed and burned. All the work, the awards and my successful business partnership, which seemed to define who I was, stopped being priorities. At age 31 I decided I would not die the richest man in my cemetery and closed shop. I changed lifestyle, job, country, and pursued activities closer to my heart.
Things improved, and yet “joy” still eluded me. I had lost my confidence and a sense of who I really was. I claimed inner peace, but my face didn’t know it. I rarely smiled, and was so convinced that I could laugh anytime I wanted to that I never did. Life unfolded primarily in my head. I did not own the emotions of my body, and constantly played the victim role. There was always someone or something to blame when I felt bad.
Then Laughter Yoga came along. One day I read an article about the emerging movement of Indian Laughter Clubs and found myself instantly on fire. While I could not make any sense out of what appeared to be adults behaving like idiots in public spaces, I deeply resonated with the idea of “laughing for no reason.” My heart knew something that my mind couldn’t get. Within three weeks I was on a plane to Mumbai, India, some 8,000 miles away. I had to learn more.
Here is not the place to expand on what happened next. It wasn’t much, and it still is everything. I discovered that I could laugh as and when I wanted to, and that this could make me feel good even when everything in my life seemed to be going astray. It was so profound that it triggered a cataclysmic reaction in my brain. The mask fell. I stopped being who I thought I should be and started being who I really wanted to be. I learned to always take full responsibility for my actions and how they made me feel.
I am greatly indebted to Dr Kataria for having followed his own light. His inspiration to laugh as a form of exercise did not change my life. It still is much better than that. It changed me.
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