Chicago Welcomes & Embraces Laughter Yoga!   

Certified Laughter Yoga Leader - Doug Dvorak recently welcomed Dr. Madan Kataria, Founder of America's newest exercise craze - Laughter Yoga. Doug invited Dr. Kataria to Chicago for a press and speaking tour. Dr. Kataria was featured on WGN Radio, Fox News, Crain's Chicago Business and The Daily Herald. Laughter Yoga has been embraced by healthcare and exercise professionals who see and understand the physical, mental and emotional benefits to this simple, yet powerful program.

Doug is the Founder of The Chicago Live Life Laughing Club in Palatine, IL. The club meets the third Wednesday of every month from 7:30-9:00PM at the Palatine Senior Center, 505 S Quentin Road Palatine, IL 60067 (847) 991-1112. Admission is free and all are welcome.

- Laughter Yoga - A Brief History The unique concept of Laughter Yoga and Laughter Club is the brain child of Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India. Any one can laugh in a group for 15-20 minutes without depending upon great sense of humor, jokes or comedy. Laughter Yoga combines simple laughter exercises (simulated laughter) and gentle yoga breathing, which turns into real laughter when practiced in a group.

Laughter Yoga is supported by powerful tools derived from the Western psycho analytical methods as well as Eastern spiritual laws. It will help you to stay in high spirits when life throws up challenges. It will enhance your ability to laugh and smile when dealing with negative emotions, situations and negative or difficult people.

These powerful tools include: how does the human mind work? What is the meaning and purpose of life? Understanding laws of the universe which govern our life? Understanding negative emotions like anger, fear, anxiety, greed, guilt, sadness, lust and attachments.

Simple, Gentle Laughter Yoga is physically-oriented technique that uses a perfect blend of playful, empowering and otherwise "tension-releasing" simple laughter exercises, interspersed with gentle breathing and stretching exercises, rhythmic clapping and chanting of Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha in unison. This is done as a way to improve health, increase well-being, and promote peace in the world through personal transformation. In Laughter Yoga you use laughter as a tool, not an emotion.

These exercises last about 20 to 30 minutes and are adapted to suit the needs, abilities and motivations of the group participating.

A Breakthrough Dr Madan Kataria was the first one to discover and make use of the fact that anyone can laugh for 15-20 minutes without depending upon a sense of humor or comedy. No joke: as of July 2005 there were over 5000 Laughter Clubs worldwide, counting 250,000+ members.

Powerful Because it does not rely on the mind at all, Laughter Yoga helps you to easily distance yourself from your fears, sadness, worries, self-defined limitations, etc. As a result you do not need to be happy, have a sense of humor, or even have a reason in order to laugh. Laughter Yoga bases itself on the philosophy of "acting happiness". We "simulate to stimulate". In time fake laughter becomes genuine and flows out like a fountain.

Universal Laughter Yoga crosses all barriers: age, gender, language, culture, physical abilities, race, religion, political beliefs, etc. Laughter is part of the universal human vocabulary. All members of the human species understand it.

Therapeutic The therapeutic value of Laughter has been thoroughly and scientifically researched in the past 40 years, and its physical benefits proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.

The first scientific research on Laughter Yoga was done in 2003-2004 in Graz University, Austria, by Psychologist Dr Ilona Papousek. We are currently awaiting their official publication in English.

Dr. Lee Berk (World expert in the field of Psycho-Neuro-Immunology) and his research team at Loma Linda University, School Of Public Health, in California have recently started a major and multi-study research project specifically on Laughter Yoga. The aim of this scientific research is to qualify and quantify the impact of laughing for no reason on the human body as well as stress levels. Interim results are expected in the course of 2006.

To promote laughter club around the world we are organizing Laughter workshops, laughter seminars, laughter yoga leader training, laughter yoga teacher's training, and laughter yoga spiritual retreat and laughter yoga holidays.

At present there are more than 5000 laughter clubs world wide and Laughter Clubs have been covered by prestigious television channels like BBC, CNN. ABC (USA), NHK (Japan), Channel 7 & 9 (Australia), ZDF Germany and newspapers, magazines like TIME Magazine, National Geographic, New York Times, London Times, and LA Times, the Guardian, Wall Street Journals and many others. http://www.dougdvorak.com

About the Author

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak's clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. http://www.dougdvorak.com