About Laughter Yoga as discipline

My journey to discover Laughter Yoga

Back in 2018, when I wrote Yellow Factor (formerly Yellow Goldfish) – which covers nine ways increasing H.A.P.P.I.N.E.S.S. in business can drive G.R.O.W.T.H., productivity, and prosperity for customers, employees, and society overall, Stan Phelps and I made quite a few references to the power of Laughter and we dedicate an entire chapter to SMILE (the final S in Happiness) because when we smile we activate hundreds of facial muscles and we send a message to our body to rebalance, to cultivate health and vitality, we feel inner joy and connection to others. You can read more about this in the blog post “The power of Laughter & World Laughter Day“

At the time of writing Yellow Goldfish, I thought that joke, comedy, or some other type of stimulus was needed in order to laugh. I first heard about Laughter Yoga in 2019, while I was looking for a laughter-provoking exercise to do during a Design Thinking Conference workshop. I found a great exercise on YouTube and I kept proposing it in my future sessions or workshops, but without further investigating what Laughter Yoga actually was (as I was actually set back by the word Yoga). It was only in 2021 that thanks to Lara Lucaccioni I learned that it is called Laughter “Yoga” simply because it combines unconditional laughter with yogic breathing, but there are no physical yoga positions involved (even though I also practiced and liked Yoga Flow, I had imagined that I wouldn’t like a laughing version of Yoga). As I deepened my knowledge of Laughter Yoga with Dr. Kataria & Lara Lucaccioni, I started practicing it daily as of 13 April 2021. I started with the Inner Spirit of Laughter course directly with Dr. Kataria in April 2021, then became Laughter Yoga Leader in May 2021, and Laughter Yoga Teacher in August 2021. Since September 2021, I then continued to keep up my daily laughter yoga practice on Zoom at 7:30 (even when all I did was cry or crack a few smiles) with fellow Teachers from the Teachers Training course, and this daily laughter is a practice that very much contributes to my spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational wellbeing (the 5 elements of wellbeing I studied with Tal Ben-Shahar Happiness Studies Academy and I now teach in my open courses), even (and especially) in the most stressful time of my life, when my world was turned upside down last November as my husband got a sudden life-threatening illness and was away from home for 3 months. Since 2021, I facilitate FREE 30-minute “Laugh and Learn” sessions on Zoom. And I want to contribute to bringing more laughter into the world with two more extensive training programs:

• “Stress Buster and Joy Blaster“: 6 weekly session program. Designed to improve your resilience to everyday challenges with practical knowledge to reduce stress and increase well-being by learning more about your mind, body, and heart.

• 16 hours Certified Laughter Yoga Leader Training Program: 4 sessions of ~4 hours + 1 session of 90 minutes. This training is the official training by Laughter Yoga Academy and is designed to learn the facilitation skills needed to lead a group of people through a LY session and meditation. You can start a Social Laughter Club or lead a session with companies and corporations. You will learn the concept, history, philosophy, and different steps of LY which includes 40 Foundation Exercises and how Laughter Meditation works. The training is run by Certified Laughter Yoga Teachers over 2 days or 12 hours. On completion, participants become certified as Laughter Yoga Leaders.

Our complete training offering

After 13 years in corporate in various customer experience roles at leading companies like Forrester Research, Adobe, and Philips, since 2014 I’ve been advising companies and training international professionals on improving Customer Experience, while deepening my knowledge in Happiness and Positive Phycology. Understanding emotions and building empathy capabilities are key competencies in designing and delivering remarkable customer and employee experiences.

Also, like everyone, I’ve had my share of struggles in my professional and personal life, and my personal wellbeing always impacted my professional performance. This is why I’ve taken lessons from burnout and mental health issues and invested in recovery and learning first, and now I share my knowledge and practices in the business world, evangelizing the key role of happiness and wellbeing in business too. The Science of Happiness, Positive Psychology, Non-Violent Communication, Mindfulness, and Intuitive Painting have been game-changers for my personal well-being. Daily practices of laughter yoga, qigong, and heart coherence boost my energy and happiness. You can learn about me and my journey here.

Combining my CX and Happiness knowledge, I created the Happiness Driven Growth Model, a holistic approach that focuses on maximizing the happiness of both employees and customers (so that excellence, profits, and loyalty follow as a result) starting from understanding and nurturing our physical and mental wellbeing as individuals.

Lifelong learning and sharing knowledge are two of my favorite activities. And with these new open programs, I want to support conscious leaders to understand and nurture enriching emotions and make happiness their competitive advantage in business and life. These programs are available as open to individuals or as in-company options.

Watch our Laugherzoom – Laugh & Learn – recordings in this playlist