Laughter Yoga

Bring laughter into your life at any time of day–no special equipment needed, no new wardrobe, no expensive classes, not even a sense of humor!

Laughter yoga is all about voluntary laughter–how you can learn to laugh even in the absence of humorous stimuli, and reap the extraordinary, scientifically proven benefits, which include stress reduction, pain relief, weight loss, heightened immunity, and, especially, enhanced mood: If you act happy, you’ll become happy–your body can’t tell the difference!

Children laugh more than 300 times a day, adults fewer than fifteen. But it’s easy to start laughing again. The exercises in this book combine voluntary laughter with yogic breathing to give you a full body-mind workout. And it turns out that laughter is the fastest way to reduce stress and the best kind of cardio: Ten minutes of hearty laughter is equal to thirty minutes on the rowing machine.

With Laughter Yoga, join the growing worldwide movement and discover how laughter really is the best medicine.

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About the Contributors

Madan Kataria, M.D., “the guru of giggling” (The Times, U.K.), is the founder of the laughter yoga club movement that started in 1995 in Mumbai. He has conducted seminars and workshops around the world for such organizations as UBS, Emirates Bank, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Volvo. He has also been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, and ABC, and is associated with an increasing number of medical research projects analyzing the benefits of laughter. Retired from medical practice, he devotes all his time to writing, teaching, coaching, and training laughter leaders in order to foster the spread of laughter clubs. He is the creator of World Laughter Day, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of every May.

Andrew Weil, M.D. (foreword) is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including Spontaneous Happiness, Spontaneous Healing, and Healthy Aging. A world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, he is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.