Dr. Madan Kataria, a Physician from Mumbai, India, developed Laughter Yoga while researching an article called, Laughter, the Best Medicine in 1995. Today, the practice has spread to over 6000 clubs in 60 countries. Laughter yoga combines laughing for no reason with certain yoga breathing techniques and is based on a scientific fact that the body can’t differentiate between fake and real laughter. You achieve the same physiological and psychological benefits.
Check out this video by Dr Sanjay Gupta of CNN Health on Laughter Yoga:
“You don’t need any sense of humor to laugh. You don’t need to be happy in order to laugh. In fact, when you laugh, you develop your sense of humor, you develop a joy within yourself. More than that, Kataria says that the breathing and laughing of laughter yoga will improve your health – even if you have to fake the laughter. It’s a claim backed up by Lee Burke, at Loma Linda University. Burke has found laughter decreases stress hormones, improves our immune system, and boosts endorphins.”
