Craig Whitley, USA: The beginning of 2006 was a trying time for my wife and me. I’d left my job to re-enter private practice as a hypnotherapist and life coach, and it wasn’t going nearly as well as I’d expected. Then we decided to buy an office, but the stress of preparing the new office while still seeing clients and trying to move had us getting on each other’s nerves.

Shortly after the move, my wife decided to go to a Yoga retreat for a few days, and to our great joy, she discovered Laughter Yoga. We both immediately knew that we wanted to get trained as leaders, and did so at the first opportunity. We recognized that we could use this powerful tool in our private practices, and immediately began doing so, as well as starting two Laughter Clubs in our area. The joy we felt during and after running a session, and the great feedback we received from participants led us to take the next logical step and train with Dr. Kataria to become certified teachers, which we did in the summer of 2007.

Since then, we’ve trained dozens of leaders and shared Laughter Yoga with groups ranging from seniors to attorneys to social workers and addiction counselors. I’ve found Laughter Yoga is a perfect compliment to my training in hypnosis and NLP, and it has become a first choice when it comes to approaches that change a person’s state instantly from stuck to more resourceful. It’s also helped me be more consistently joyful and recognize that I always have a choice, and can always choose to lighten up and laugh. Finally, my goal of expanding my practice to include being a paid public speaker has come true in ways that I couldn’t have imagined prior to learning the skills of Laughter Yoga.

My wife and I now enjoy a happier, healthier, more joyful marriage. We share our laughter with all we meet, and look forward to the continued growth of our personal and business lives fueled by the joy and passion we feel for Laughter Yoga.