LAUGH YOUR WAY THERE, THE 2ND EDITION, IS HERE!

Good news, commuters! You don't have to be grumpy as you drive or ride to work. A new shipment of my "Laugh Your Way There" CDs arrived today. In 2008, The Gentry Joint released this original program designed diminish stress on the road. It's been enjoyed by people around the world who laugh their way to wherever their destination may be and arrive in a good mood.

The shipment got here just in time, as the first edition was all sold out! YAY! The last remnants of our inventory was purchased last week at the 2010 All America Laughter Yoga Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Gentry Joint is a most indie of indie labels, so new projects arrive at our house by UPS. As I awaited the delivery, I decided to debut my new flamingo hat. My old one has pretty much been laughed out.

When, oh, when will the truck be here? My flamingo and I waited patiently.

At last, he arrived. And it was our substitute driver, Jeff, a friend I've known since college! He was hardly surprised to find me receiving the packages in my pink attire.

Along with the CDs, two brand new posters arrived. Here I am with the "Free, Indeed" poster filled with 5 of my paintings.

And here I am with the "Fruit of the Spirit Guys" made of William's photographs. They both look so wonderful in person!

Such an exciting day. I just had to share it with all of you, my laughter friends! You can find all 3 of these items at my newly re-designed Laughter Shoppe, which now has it's own domain: www.TheLaughterShoppe.com. Laugh Your Way There retails for $14.95 and the posters are $4.95 each.

Happy Laughing!

LAUGHTER YOGA IS EMPOWERING

I would like to share with you a most exciting experience from my week. On Tuesday, I presented laughter yoga at the Iowa Empowerment Conference in Des Moines. This annual event is for adult consumers of mental health services, transition-age youth and families of children with severe emotional disturbance.

This year's theme was Stepping Up and Stepping Out. The literature for the conference explains that the goal of was: "discovering the importance of each of us to step up and take responsibility for our own wellness and recovery and to step out into vocational and volunteer activities."

Laughter yoga was the perfect thing with which to kick off the gathering. I talked about the importance of laughter as a wellness tool to help people achieve optimal mental health. Then, we laughed our heads off!

One of the organizers, Lori Goldsmith, wrote the following to me about the effect of laughter yoga on the 215 people attending the conference.

"There are no words to express how your presentation on laughter yoga affected the conference attendees! You kicked off the conference in just the right way. They want you back. They want to become trainers, themselves. They wished they could have started everyday of the conference with laughter yoga! Many conference attendee's told me how they were already using the techniques you taught them at the conference.

"One lady told me about how she went up to 3 hotel guests who were eating breakfast and seemed very serious (this was the day there was flooding in local communities) and she went up to them and just started laughing. She said they looked at her strangely and she told them to laugh and they would feel much better. They did laugh with her and told her that yes, indeed, they DID feel better!

"Many others said your session made them feel good and relaxed. Laura, I can't thank you enough for being the opening keynote for this years Iowa Empowerment Conference. I sure hope we see you again next year. I am also hopeful that by then I will be trained in laughter yoga. Thanks again for all of the laughter you brought into our lives!"

Below are photos of the laughter session. You can certainly see the joy that we were all experiencing. How exciting that laughter yoga can empower us to live out our full potential.