Melanie Rudolph, USA: My mother took her own life when I was just eight years old. This was very traumatic. I don’t remember laughing much as a child and later made decisions in my teenage years that was not always in my best interest. My own healing path in time prompted me to study “Wellness” and I got an M.A. in Wellness Management & an M.A. in Applied Gerontology from ...

Hannah Airey, New Zealand: Hannah is a brand new Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher who took Teachers’ Training in Sydney, Australia, in November 2009. She created a group – The Giggles, which is dedicated to bring Laughter Yoga in New Zealand (Social laughter Clubs, Yoga studios, companies and corporations). She works with Richard and Honalee, as a core group, to promote laughter in New ...

Susie, Australia: I’ve always laughed a lot in the USA, but after moving to Japan, I began to feel I didn’t have enough laughter in my life. Whenever I got together with American friends in Japan, all of us would say how the one thing we really missed was laughter – real belly laughs. Later, an American friend in Japan, asked me to go to Dr. Kataria’s 2-day Leader Traini...

Ramgopal, India: In the year 1995, Ramgopal moved to Mumbai, where the First Laughter Club was born. For the first couple of years, Ramgopal continued with his early morning walk as his routine activity. This routine gave him freshness to carry the day forward. Ramgopal joined the Laughter Club when one started in his neighbourhood. Since then he has been a regular and is now a Certified Laught...

Linda Leclerc, Quebec: I was always described as someone with a sense of humour. Many times in my life, I was able to get people to laugh instead of getting upset or angry. It helped me diffuse difficult situations. Little that I know that laughter was going to be one of the biggest gifts of my life. In 2000, I was in a car accident and ended up seeing physiotherapists every other day for a very l...

Shalani McCray, Australia: About a year ago, I heard a very brief story about Laughter Yoga on TV. My work at the time centred on Preventive health education. My years in private practice had led me to believe that about 95% of all physical condition starts in the mind, and research seemed to back this up. This was a good thing because it suggested there was something we could do about it. I Go...

G.K. Ramamurthy, India: G.K. Ramamurthy is barely three-weeks old member of the Laughter Club of Bangalore that meets at Lalbagh every morning from 7 am – 7.45 am. The 61-year-old senior, Ramamurthy was too immersed in his business and hardly gave a thought to the importance of exercise in daily life. After retirement, he found himself to be fat and was regretting abstaining from routine phy...

Carolyn Nicholson, Mildura: In 2004, I had my own healing business of counseling, Reiki reflexology, massage and spiritual healings. During my meditation, I was guided to look for laughter on the internet and found Laughter Yoga. That was the perfect thing for me. I trained as a Laughter Leader in Melbourne, and started a Laughter Club in Mildura. I then moved to Melbourne and started the Eltham L...

Kym Goodman, Australia: I first experienced Laughter Yoga when the Women’s Wellness group I am involved with decided to run a Fun & Laughter Day in Myrtleford, North East Victoria, Australia in 2007. We invited a speaker to hold a “Laughter Workshop” for us. He explained the marvellous health benefits to us then ran us through a Laughter session. Well, I just thought Wow! It ...

Sparkie Lovejoy, USA: I have been doing laughter Yoga alone for 1/2 hour everyday since my leader training. I have received many “unrelated” benefits…release from hoarding tendencies (cleared out garage, closets, stuff ), am having a lot more fun in my parenting, am way less stressed about money, career, parenting, driving, connecting with people. I used to isolate, you know, ke...

Heidi Bock, Australia: Being a part of the Laughter Yoga Movement was pretty much fate when you work for an organisation that believe in fun, optimism, happiness, quality of life and, of course, Laughter, because at Camp Quality, we believe Laughter is the Best Medicine. My life has always been very easy. I’m lucky that things have just always seemed to work out. I haven’t had to go...

Marja Pirie, Canada: It’s funny that I am teaching laughter as I was never known as someone who made others laugh. I could never remember a joke or think of a witty comment that would illicit laughter. As a child, I grew up in Malaysia to Dutch and Finnish parents. While I loved laughing with my sister and at my father’s silly antics, I soon lost my laughter, as years of boarding schoo...