Johanne Bouchard, Canada: I started the Laughter Club of La Prairie-Montérégie, QC, Canada five years ago. As a leader, I like laughing weekly with the members and interacting with them. I even practice laughing alone together with proper breathing exercises and humming. This has made a significant difference to my body, mind and soul. As a child, I lived with a single mother who ...

Richard Romagnoli, Italy: Becoming aware of laughter yoga for me was not a coincidence, but simply magic! I was doing shopping in a small shop in Puttaparthi (South India) and I noticed that there was a small book titled “Laughter for no reason”.Since I was a child, I dedicate myself to the art of magic and illusionism, who for twenty years is also my profession (in Italy and around th...

Marcia Wyman, USA: I used to run my own archery business for 25 years, but last year on July 24th I had a strMarcia Wyman I Laughed Away All My Troubles! oke that incapacitated my left side totally and I spent 4 days in the hospital. The prognosis was that I would have more strokes in the future and that I’d have difficulties with my left side. Needless to say, my archery business had to be ...

Monnet Zubieta, USA: My first laughter club experience was with Sparkie Lovejoy. After doing the Laughter Yoga Leader training with Jeffery Briar she was inspired to start a daily laughter club to support her commitment to laugh every day for 40 days. The Santa Rosa Laughter Club met every morning about 10 minutes away from my house. Sparkie’s laughter sessions were playful and energetic fil...

Dr. Ute Meinel, Egypt: I owe the fact that I became interested in Laughter Yoga to my father, which is a bit of a paradox. My father, an academic with a scientific background, widely read and traveled was a very rational and serious man. He was proud of his intellectual capacity of getting to the bottom of things through critical questioning. Early on in life, I too became skeptical of everything ...

Daniele Berti, Italy: In high school I was convinced that the best thing while dealing with politics is to be happy and produce happiness, but when I tried to do it, I realized it was not possible because you had to accept to work for someone and their interests. I thought maybe if I promoted a feeling of comfort, it might be an ideal instrument to provide that state of happiness, but after some t...

Helen Szollosy, USA: I come from a ‘good-hearted’ but challenged family of 7 children, a creative/vaudeville-type funny dad who worked 42 years for the Bethlehem Steel Co., and a mom who left her nursing career early on – to raise 7 children. My mom, as was her father, brothers and my dad’s dad and a brother – were challenged with alcohol addiction. A dark humor co...

Elaine Nieberding, USA: My finding Laughter Yoga was quite unexpected — but it feels like “destiny”! As a holistic nurse, I’m knowledgeable about lots of different relaxation, stress release and energy medicine approaches to health and wellness. In the hospital oncology unit setting where I work, I frequently teach deep and focused breathing for pain relief, relaxation, emo...

Tommy Westerfield, USA: I have had a dramatic life. Like many people who have had dramatic lives with genuine suffering and trauma, I became addicted to drama as a normal way of living with no proportion or sense of perspective. And, like many people, I thought, I must have healing; I must discover the meaning of my suffering and search for a new path in how to live – but how? As soon as I a...

Cathy Urroz, Mexico: Over a month ago, my son, daughter in law and two friends of theirs were subjected to a nightmare of an assault and robbery. After six hours of being kidnapped, they were left in the middle of nowhere in a mountainous area, barefoot, with no sweater or coat. They had to walk another six hours across the range looking for help, which they found in a very humble and poor family ...

Lesley Lyle, England: It was a scientific journey rather than a spiritual one that brought me to Laughter Yoga. Coming from a background of NLP, Clinical Hypnosis, Clean Language and Positive Psychology, I wanted to find effective ways to promote positive emotion. A chance reading of a magazine article that I read (coincidentally on a flight to Mumbai) led me to enquire about Laughter Yoga Club...

Richard G Bhanap, Mumbai: I found myself participating in and then leading my first Laughter Yoga session quite by accident a few years ago. It was all triggered by a serious sporting injury which kept me out of action for nearly 4 months. But the story really starts more than a decade before that. While visiting relatives in Nasik, near my hometown Mumbai, I was woken very early one morning by so...