Friends, I must tell you, laughter yoga is not a comedy.” Dr Madan Kataria, a former GP and the creator of laughter yoga, an exercise programme involving prolonged laughter, is talking to more than 100 participants on one of his daily Zoom sessions. “We don’t need to rely on jokes or humour to laugh. We initiate laughter as a form of exercise – and it turns into a form of genuine laughter when you practise.”
I soon find this out for myself. As my screen lights up with workshop participants from all over the world, a mosaic of raucous giggles, my forced chuckle swiftly becomes a belly laugh.
