CHILEAN LAUGHTER TOUR DAY 2

Here we are enjoying day two of our Chilean Laughter Tour. We had a fabulous lunch at the famous vegetarian restaurant El Huerto.


Here are some beautiful views of the towering Andes you can see from Santiago.


We had coffee with Towsha’s friends Roderigo and Claudia. We had a fabulous conversation with them.



Here is the sunset view from Tosha’s house.


Then we headed off to Tosha’s weekly laughter club. Here is the building in which it meets.












I was presented with this hat, which says laughter yoga in Spanish.


Afterwards, Tosha hosted a party at her house for the laughter club. We enjoyed coffee and tortes and more laughing, singing and dancing.



We also met Tosha’s daughter, Denise.

THE LAUGHTER TOUR HAS BEGUN

In case you haven't heard, William and I are on a laughter yoga tour of Chile. My friend, Tosha Tobias, is the only laughter yoga teacher in Chile and she invited us to come and experience how laughter is transforming her country. We arrived today and will be here until September 25th. My goal is to blog about this adventure as much as possible to keep all of you up-to-date on our discoveries.

Here is a picture me with Keith Soderholm. He's one of the laughter yoga leaders I've trained. We had a layover in Dallas on our way to Chile so we saw Keith and even attended a laughter club meeting together at the Cosmic Cafe.


Here I am with Tosha at the airport—so glad to have finally arrived!


Today, we mostly rested from our long journey to South America but we did have a bit of a walk around the neighborhood to see the beautiful mountains.


Here William and I are with Tosha. Laughing already!


Stay tuned for more details! We will be doing lots of laughing and speaking.

LAUGH FOR THE HEALTH OF IT!

My laughter friends, Jill and Dan Johnson of Joyful Living Yoga in South Dakota (pictured above), have created a laughter yoga resource that is so wonderful you need to know about it. It is a professionally produced CD called "Laugh for the Health of It."

Jill and Dan explain that their intent in creating this CD is to allow you to have "what you need, when you need it." If you need a laugh, it's here. If you need relaxation—it's here. Or if you need some motivational music to get your day started, that's here too!

This CD is a true laughter yoga treasure. There lots of things on it to support your laught life. Specifically, it includes:

• A fun and helpful introduction to laughter yoga

• A warm-up session

• 20 laughter and breathing exercises 

• 10 Minute Guided Relaxation
• 3 Fun Dance Tracks to Get You Moving!

Dr. Madan Kataria, laughter yoga founder, is very excited about this CD. Here's what he has to say:

“Laughter is the best medicine! With this Laughter Yoga CD, Dan and Jill will have you laughing your way to better health and less stress from the first giggle!”

One dollar of each CD sold goes to the International Laughter Yoga Foundation, www.laughteryoga.org, to support the ultimate objective of bringing world peace
through laughter.

I have been enjoying this CD on my own. Yes, even laughter yoga teachers need a boost to get them laughing sometimes. The happy group of laughers on this CD makes me smile and chuckle immediately, even if I'm in the midst of a crabby moment. It is very fun and easy to follow.

My laughter club has long been enjoying the dance tracks on this. If you lead a laughter club, I highly encourage you get this CD for your laughers. It is so fun to dance to the "HO HO HA HA HA" driving rhythm. And they are so long that my club usually gets worn out before the songs are over!

At my last laughter club meeting I explained to them that I would be reviewing "Laugh for the Health of It!" for my blog and that I wanted their opinions. So we laughed along with the CD for our regular meeting. The club members really enjoyed the variety of exercises. What we all like the best is that the laughter rolls on quite long for each exercise—longer than we usually laugh. This made us laugh all the more as we heard the contagious peels of laughter continue to emanate from our CD player. It gave us an intense laughter yoga workout. Some people even had to sit down. The group unanimously endorsed it. This means it has the coveted Lansing Laughter Club stamp of approval!

What's more, we really appreciated the 10 minute relaxation at the end. Jill is an experienced yoga teacher and—drawing upon her experience—she designed this relaxation session very well. Her voice is so beautiful and soothing that it put us all into a state of immediate bliss. There is gentle music beneath her voice that furthers the relaxation. I often do the relaxation portion of our laughter club meeting myself but it was a welcome change to listen to this CD.

I've been selling these CDs so quickly at my live events that I ordered more from Joyful Living Yoga and have added it to my on-line store, The Laughter Shoppe. It is a valuable resource that I want to help make available.  So check it out today. You'll be glad you did!  HA HA HA!

THE GREEN DOVE—ARTICLE ABOUT LY

One of my many amazing laughter yoga students is Rhonda Locklair. She just got this article published in The Green Dove, an online weekly magazine filled with feature stories, interesting facts, videos and interviews designed to inspire, surprise, teach and enlighten. I'm so proud of Rhonda!

Laughter Yoga from the Heart

July 31, 2009

By Rhonda Locklair

I have started several articles on my favorite subject of Laughter Yoga, but repeatedly ended up stuck. Stuck?!? That just seems impossible being that I could talk endlessly on the subject. Also impossible because I am an incredible research nerd and would love to spout out numerous quotes and research findings on this topic.

I’ve stalled all the way around trying to decide what would be the best approach to this and I finally figured out that I would just have to let the research wait for now. In my quest for valid information about this topic, I am going to finally let it all rest and just write from my heart and tell my story of Laughter Yoga. All the research can wait for later.

Laughter Yoga found its way into my life at a time when I needed it probably more than I have ever needed it. I had first become aware of Laughter Yoga several years ago, but had no way at that time to attend any classes, but I knew that it was something that I wanted to pursue one day, how, I did not know.

I researched it on the internet and found Dr. Kataria’s site. I was so intrigued because it truly made sense to me. As a long time off and on student of yoga it made incredible sense to me. As a student of life it made even more. Fast forward a few years as I was presented an opportunity to become a Laughter Yoga leader myself. How everything fell into place for this was nothing short of divine timing.

While sitting under my gratitude tree grieving for my father who had recently died of cancer after a four year long good bye period, I had a sudden thought that I should really go take a class in Laughter Yoga. I knew that the timing in my life was perfect for it and that there was an incredible strong pull for it to happen, but had no idea how it would happen due to many life circumstances at the time.

Fifteen minutes later I went into the house and started to check emails. During the time that I had sat beneath my tree grieving and feeling gratitude for my father, I had received an email from a friend that I had met on line through a social site in which we shared our common interests (we are both art-o-mat artists).

She had shared with me that she was a Laughter Yoga Teacher and I had expressed interest because of my research. What a great surprise to find out that she would be teaching a class in a few months and invited me to attend. I was dumbfounded that this had literally fallen into my lap at the time that I sat there trying to focus on gratitude in my time of grief. In that brief flash of time laterally everything had changed for me. What was an impossibility in my eyes had suddenly become very possible.

So fast forward a couple of months and I am on a plane flying literally into a blizzard. Airports were being shut down and every single flight that I had, all three, were late. I was running between each one on course with my new destiny. It was a crazy trip that forever altered my life. I met my dear friend Laura Gentry (of the Iowa Laughter Yoga School) in person and she is now one of my best friends, I became a Laughter Yoga Leader and was able to reconnect with another dear friend that met me along the way for this life changing journey.

I do feel “called” to do this work that I love so much. So all in all this first article of many that I hope to share about Laughter Yoga isn’t really that much about the exercise at all, but about my personal journey with Laughter and how it has literally fallen into my lap over and over again as a healing tool, coping mechanism and way of life. I have personally used it every way possible from pain management to exercise and everything in between I could and will share volumes about all of these and much more. I now lead workshops on various techniques of Laughter Yoga from Stress Management, Creative thinking and even Laughter Yoga boot camp.

Why do I feel so compelled to share this wondrous tool? I literally can’t see where I cannot use it. It works for everything. Everyone can do it and this awesome tool is powerful beyond measure. It keeps finding its way into more and more of my life, so at this point I have decided to just follow the lead and see where it will take me.

Since agreeing to write articles on this subject it has repeatedly found more and more avenues to be included in every aspect of my life. I have recently agreed to post Laughter Yoga videos for a forum for a 100 day raw food challenge. Every book and magazine I pick up offers more and more information and research for me to share on this subject. It is literally at every direction I turn and I am so excited to share this tool and its incredible benefits.

So much for an article jam packed with information, research and health benefits. I felt compelled to tell my side of the story which is multifold. Being in a state of wonder and gratitude even in the worst of times can unfold a future that you can never imagine and the impossible can literally happen in the blink of an eye that change your world forever; laughter being the bridge that connects between barriers, both real and perceived.

The Barefoot Artist, Rhonda Locklair, is an artist, raw foodist, Laughter Yoga leader and self-confessed “gratitude goddess having the best day ever”. Rhonda is a regular contributor to The Green Dove, with Laughter Yoga from the Heart her first installment.

Here's a photo of Rhonda and me enjoying a good laugh together.

THE FUNNY SIDE OF FAITH

I was mentioned in an article called "The Funny Side of Faith" in Ode Magazine. The entire issue for August 2009 is about laughter and my congregation, Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Lansing, Iowa, was noted for the laughter we induce by celebrating Holy Hilarity Sunday each year.

The section of the article about faith and humor is by Carmel Wroth. It reads:

THERE IS NOT MUCH HUMOR IN THE BIBLE. But some Christian churches make up for that by posting witticisms on their outdoor signboards, such as "Does life stink? We have a pew for you," "Google cannot satisfy your every search" and "Read the Bible. It will scare the hell out of you." (Create your own virtual sign at the Church Sign Generator: says-it.com/churchsigns). Laura Gentry, pastor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Lansing, Iowa, brings the humor indoors. Gentry's been known to give sermons in a pink feather boa and lead her congregation in gales of laughter. She's also among a small number of Protestant pastors to adopt a medieval tradition known as risus paschalis, or "Easter laughter," in which priests tell humorous stories around Easter. Contemporary pastors call it Holy Hilarity Sunday. "The resurrection is God's joke, the banana peel of the Christian faith," Gentry says. "When Christ rose from the dead, that was the great joke on death." On Holy Hilarity Sunday, Gentry's congregation dresses up in silly costumes, and even does the bunny hop to the hymn Lord of the Dance. The point is to experience laugther in church, in pastoral counseling, even at funerals. "It's one thing to say, 'I don't fear death,'" Gentry says, "but to laugh out loud somehow drives the idea home. It embodies our theology." —CW

Here's a photo of the article at Ode (page 43, August 2009).

Double click it to enlarge:

Click here to read The Medicine of Mirth: Why a laugh a day keeps the doctor—and the cardiologist and the psychiatrist away from this same issue of Ode. It features the teacher I first studied laughter yoga with, Sebastien Gendry.

LAUGHING IN TEXAS

On Friday, June 26, five new laughter yoga leaders graduated from the Iowa School of Laughter Yoga, as pictured above. A typical occurrence, right? It would have been an ordinary laughter seminar, except for the fact that it was happening in...TEXAS! That's right, the Iowa School of Laughter Yoga is moving beyond the borders of Iowa.

This seminar was held at the beautiful Park Cities Yoga studio in downtown Dallas. The connection was made by Julie Hanson (pictured below with me). We were college friends who recently reconnected on Facebook. She suggested I come to Dallas and put me in touch with Jeff Farrell and his wife, Donna, who run the yoga studio.

It was a wonderful seminar with amazing, laughing women.  

Below are some laughter session shots of us frolicking in the lovely studio.

And the laughter conga line!

In this shot, we are giving Rosenda a laughter blessing.

Then we laughter blessed Jeff.

Here's a shot from the laughter graduation ceremony as the laughers take the "Laughter Pledge" and vow to be life-long laughers.

Debbie excitedly gets her laughter diploma!

And here's the group of happy grads from left to right: Rosenda Cephus, LaTasha Derrick, B.J. Ellis, Julie Hanson, Laughing Laura and Debbie Segerstrom. Congratulations, certified laughter yoga leaders! I'm so proud of them.

Testimonials from this seminar:

"I just wanted to say i truly enjoyed your presence and all the wonderful new things you taught us. You have a gift to share and a you've opened a door for me that cannot be closed. I feel free and less self conscious of what others think of me. I feel that I can share my personality and laugh with everyone. At work everyone keeps asking me if I'm still laughing and I get the giggles. I'm smiling ten times more than before and I smile all the time. I feel more like myself everyday and I am enjoying this voyage of discovery. On Saturday I taught my 1st session at the studio. And they loved it. They were having a blast at the end of the session and could not believe I'd just learned this liberating celebration. Thank you, Thank you so very very much! I don't think I can thank you enough for coming."

—LaTasha Derrick

" Just a note to say how much I absolutely, positively LOVED your laughter workshop! So much fun and as you predicted, I know it already has and will change my life for the better. My life is infinitely better for meeting and getting to know you. Keep up the good work! HA HA HA HA!"

 —BJ Ellis

"A BIG thank you for the totally enjoyable seminar!"

—Rosenda Cephus

"I had a great time while sharing laughs with you!" —Debbie Segerstrom "We are SO enthusiastic!" —Julie Hanson

This is only the beginning. I'll be offering laughter yoga leader seminars all around the country. Would you like a seminar in your area? Let's make it happen. Contact me at laughterlaura@yahoo.com or call 563-880-2699. We can laugh world happiness into being!

The Park Cities Yoga Studio plans to have another laughter seminar in the fall. Stay tuned for more details. 

CEDAR VALLEY LAUGHTER CLUB IS GOOD NEWS

HAPPY HEALING

Cedar Valley club uses laughter yoga to relax, energize and heal

That's the title of an article that appeared in the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier newspaper on Sunday, June 28, 2009. It was in the "It's All Good" section. This club was started by some of my laughter students and I am so excited to see how they are spreading the joy. Below is the article by Nancy Justis.

CEDAR FALLS—Laughter really can be the best medicine for what ail you. Just ask members of the Cedar Valley Laughter Club.

"You can't be thinking about the future, or worrying about the past when you are laughing," said Eliz Guyer, one of five local residents who a year ago trained to be a laughter yoga leader. "It's a great exercise to get you to slow down, put things in perspective. You laugh at things more. If you can't control it, you can laugh about it or you can cry about it."

Rick and Bea Koontz first became aware of laughter yoga in 2001 when it was demonstrated at an elderhostel they were attending. Six years later Bea became acquainted with Jen Christiason, a former college friend of the Rev. Laura Gentry of Lansing. Gentry leads the Lansing Laughter Club. She trained under a medical doctor in India, who along with his wife, developed the exercise tha combines laughter and deep breathing techniques to maximize the benefits of a workout.

In early 2008, the Cedar Falls Library hosted more than 100 people for a demonstration by Gentry. Shortly thereafter, Bea, Christiason, Guyer, Kate Hall and Cyndy Franklin participated in a two-day training session to become laughter yoga leaders. In June of last year, they held their first session for local enthusiasts.

"You know when you go out to eat with friends and you laugh and you know how good you feel afterwards?" said Bea. "It's not that people in our group don't recognize awful things or haven't gone through awful things. Good and bad things come from that place where you don't really have words to put around it. Laughter comes out of the same place. It can both heal and energize."

The club holds three 10-12-week sessions during a year. Participants come from all walks of life. Some come on their lunch break; some come directly from work; some are retired; others work in high-stress jobs.

The summer session began June 8 and meets at 12:15 p.m. for a half hour each Monday at the Satori Hospital gazebo, weather permitting. The fall session meets September through November and the winter session January through April. At a recent gathering, 15 people were in attendance, including Guyer's 8-year-old daughter and two first timers who joined regular Ruth Hovelson.

Retiree Kate Nimrod has been one of the most consistent members over the last year. "I like to laugh ad have a good time," she said. "It's helpful. I like being with people."

The 30 minutes begin with warm-up breathing and stretching exercises; move into various laughter exercises, including chants, cheers and songs; and concludes with additional calming breathing techniques.

Guyer says it can be difficult in the beginning to laugh naturally. "At first it felt fake or forced. It didn't feel genuine. Your body doesn't know the difference between fake laughter and real laughter. You get all the same endorphins, lowering of your blood pressure. After awhile it turns into real laughter."

Participants have felt a definite improvement in their daily demeanor. Bea said she is more aware of the present and is enjoying life. "By doing this weekly, it's that constant reminder to lighten up, to energize. It keeps me aware that there is joy and we should cultivate it." Rick says he sleeps better.

Margaret Shay said laughter yoga is a different kind of exercise. "I feel energized," she said. "You can do it on a regular basis, feel the benefits of it, meet new people. It's amazing when you do it for half an hour."