For a long time, I have been inundated with people who want to study laughter yoga with me but are unable to travel to the places in which I am offering seminars. In response, I created a very interactive, six-week on-line course at the Iowa School of Laughter Yoga. Students enroll and are immediately sent a PDF file of my laughter manual and the first lesson. Then a practice CD (Be Laughter), inspirational posters and The Little Book of Big Laughs arrive in the mail. Students put together their practice group and engage in each of the lessons, sending their reports to me as they complete them. I respond to these reports with further food for thought. The course culminates in an exciting graduation ceremony done by phone or Skype in which we go through all of the normal graduation antics: laughing "Pomp and Circumstance," a gibberish graduation address by the valedictorian, the announcement of graduation (with subsequent cheering and total freak-out), and the taking of the Laughter Pledge. Afterwards, their diploma (otherwise known as a laughing degree-hee-heeeee!) is sent to them.
I have found that my e-students are very self-motivated and almost always go on to start laughter clubs and lead a lot of laughter yoga around their communities. It has been a delight to work with people who live far away—yet still engage in learning the joy of laughter yoga.
Recently, I have been working with Linda Williams, a student from Greenwood, South Carolina. Just as she was about to complete the course, she reported that she would be in the Midwest for a family visit. I was in the midst of my September laughing tour, which included presenting at the 2012 All America Laughter Yoga Conference. Nevertheless, we were able to schedule a time and place to meet—and this meant Linda would be driving 2 hours out of her way to make this happen!
So after all that complicated scheduling, Linda and I got to meet face-to-face and have coffee in Coralville, Iowa. It was exciting to have an in person conversation about our lives and our passion for bringing joy and healing to the world through laughter yoga. It felt like we were long-time friends and I was so grateful she spent the extra time so we could meet. Then, we had an AMAZING laughter graduation ceremony right there in the courtyard! I triumphantly presented Linda with her diploma and the nearby coffee-drinkers couldn't help but snicker a bit.
"Laughing Laura's e-course is an awesome opportunity to share in her creativity and guidance. She had great understanding and endurance with me—even when my course took longer than it should because of 'life complications.' The on-line seminar is very well put-together and thorough. It totally prepares you to effectively lead laughter yoga. Getting to meet Laughing Laura face-to-face was the highlight of my course. And it definitely livened up the day for the folks at Starbucks THAT day! Laughing Laura is truly a blessing of love, light and laughter in our world."
—Linda Williams
* I am not currently taking new students with the e-course because I want to make sure I have ample time to mentor each student. If you are interested in future e-learning opportunities, however, please send me an email at laughinglauragentry@gmail.com.
