I have been extremely busy over the past few weeks (months) and haven’t had the opportunity to devote as much time as I would have liked to reporting recent news coverage on Laughter Yoga in the world media. While the names and locations of the stories that are being reported differ, the content of the articles however remains the same. Let’s look at this week’s news for example:

  • A substance abuse center tries to to shed its reputation as merely a gathering place for those addicted to drugs and alcohol by – just guess – offering Laughter Yoga and other healing energy classes. The result: transformation. Read the article.
  • A town on Rhodes Island endorses and sponsors free laughter yoga classes over the summer. That’s cool and nice of them. It becomes even more interesting when you visit the website of Mary, the laughing lady leading the classes: Mary has spent the last fourteen years raising a child with learning disabilities so she knows something about the debilitating effects of chronic stress and anxiety.  After trying tai chi, yoga, meditation, and sundry other remedies, she found laughter yoga. “I could never get good at these stress reduction techniques because I could never turn my brain off long enough to really concentrate on what I was doing.  Laughter works because you don’t need to work at it.  You literally cannot be stressed out while laughing—your body cannot do both at once.  It is instantaneous stress relief.” Mary is a local woman intent on making a difference in her community, and finding out that the more she gives of herself away, the more personal satisfaction she receives. Go Mary, go. You rock.
  • The ABCs of yoga: Which one is for you? This article is from a small newspaper in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It lists mainstream forms of Hatha Yoga and derivative products that people should try (Bikram, Iyengar, Ashtanga, etc.) On that list you find…Laughter Yoga. We’re in Hamilton, Ontario, as well as in hundreds of other cities around North  America people. Laughter Yoga is on the rise, and that’s just the beginning.
  • LOL: Why You Should Laugh Even When You Don’t Feel Like It. This article was published on agingcare.com,  a rather popular website for caregivers. This is a population that gives away lots and tends to receive little. What is the advice given to them? Try Laughter Yoga. It will help you diffuse tension and learn to cope with stress better.
  • Last for today, a bit of international news. Click here to watch a short news report on a French Laughter Club. It’s in French, but you don’t need to understand the words to feel the love that oozes from the man featured in this segment. I’ve seen hundreds such news coverage. This one I like in particular. It’s the story of one man who’s literally transforming his community for the better. How? He leads a weekly laughter club.

Have a Ha Ha Happy week.