Joe Hoare

Awakening the laughing buddah within

AWAKENING THE LAUGHING BUDDHA WITHIN
A story, a manual, and a guide to help you awaken your own Laughing Buddha within. By Joe Hoare and the Barefoot Doctor

Click here to download the FREE introduction in a pdf

'It triggered a healing for me as I suddenly realised quite profoundly 2 things: I am not alone and I am deeply loved.'

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Here's my interview about the book on BCfm radio with Andrew Parsonage,
(just after 11am, 13th April.)

nls: natural laughter skills
(laughter yoga, laughter therapy, healing power of laughter, and ‘factor X’)
emower you through passion and playfulness, to:
- boost your zest for life,
- improve your relationships
- reduce stress
- ease anxiety & depression
- boost your confidence and intuition.

'Laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.' Byron

Opportunities include:
1.'Awakening the Laughing Buddha within'
Retreat, 27/29th Sept, Glastonbury
2. Laughter Bootcamp
Saturday 13th July Conway Hall, London
3. Bristol Laughter Club
monthly sessions

See below for full details

1.'Awakening the Laughing Buddha within' Retreat, 27/29th September,
Glastonbury :
Read a comment about the last one here. See some pictures here, here, here,
and here.
Here's the flyer. Contact me for more details.

2. Laughter Bootcamp Saturday 13th July Conway Hall, London.
Come and laugh, release, energise, enjoy, connect, get ecstatic. Hone your laughter skills. Leave feeling energised, empowered, optimistic, inspired, connected and better resourced.
Prices £75 / earlybird £65
Contact me for more details.

3. Bristol Laughter Club monthly sessions (next one 18th June 2013) - info

Dr David Hamilton writes:

‘I worked with Joe on our Kindness & Laughter day and STRONGLY recommend
his Natural Laughter Skills and Laughter Yoga to anyone wanting to know how
laughter impacts every aspect of our consciousness, performance and happiness’.

Tim Wheater writes:

'Joe is an authentic healer of the heart......his natural charisma brings laughter and light to the eyes, ears and soul.
thank you Joe for the good vibrations experienced by all !'

4. Festivals: Sunrise, Glastonbury, Colourfest, Healing World, Buddhafield, Quest, Green Gathering, One World, Shambala,

Quick 2013 schedule includes:
Bristol Laughter workshops: next one - 18th June

Laughter Retreats in September
Laughter Facilitation skills 1st/2nd March, 1st/2nd November 2013

Podcast : click to hear this podcast for Alternatives, London.

What you missed in 2012 included:

Laughter Retreat in May and September

NLS (Natural Laughter Skills) workshop at Alternatives, London, 9th June

Chalice Well 'Unity' conference, 10 June

Interrogate! Festival, Dartington 14th October

The Little Big Om with the Barefoot Doctor and Basement Jaxx, 12/12/12

Got any questions? Get in touch today.

Background information. What is nls: natural laughter skills?

NLS: Natural Laughter Skills is based on Gelotology, the science and practice of laughter, and includes Positive Psychology, Appreciative Inquiry, Laughter Yoga, NLP, and Mind-Body medicine.
It has an inherent flexibility which stimulates genuine, spontaneous, good-natured laughter.
Because of its flexibility, it provides resources and insights for every-day life, work and relationships.
It has 5 key elements:
- physical awareness, the happy posture: walk the walk
- generating positive feelings, emotional awareness: feel the feelings
- upbeat communication: use the language, speak the words
- developing a positive frame of mind: think the thoughts
- connecting: live the life

What is laughter yoga? The 5 key points as desctibed by Dr Kataria:

Laughter Yoga is a unique exercise routine developed by the Indian physician Dr Madan Kataria. According to this concept anyone can laugh for no reason, without relying on humour, jokes or comedy.
Laughter is simulated as an exercise, within a group, with eye contact and childlike playfulness. It soon turns into real, genuine laughter if you are willing to participate.
It is called LAUGHTER YOGA because it combines laughter exercises with yogic breathing which brings more oxygen to the body and makes one feel more energetic and healthy.
The concept of laughter yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One gets the same physical and physiological benefits and you soon find that the fake laughter becomes genuine.
The first laughter club was held in a park in Mumbai in March 1995 with only 5 participants but now there are over 6000 laughter clubs in 60 countries - just showing that there is a need for laughter all over the world.

I trained in Laughter Yoga with Dr Kataria in 2002 and 2003, and Laughter yoga is one aspect of the Laughter Facilitation Training which I set up in the UK in 2006.

Laughter yoga is also at the heart of the monthly Bristol laughter workouts (www.bristollaughterclub.com). These workouts are the UK’s longest running uninterrupted monthly laughter sessions, having started in 2003.

What was the Laugh-a-thon?

Laughter was all the rage this spring. First there was the 1st National Sponsored Laugh-a-thon in London, then there was the Cheltenham Science Festival.

At the Laugh-a-thon, hosted by Mind Body Spirit Festivals, 50 people gathered to practice their ‘sustained chuckle’, and we were delighted to be joined by Matthew Jay Lewis from Hollyoaks. He and his mum came and were enthusiastic players. We started with a lighthearted yet vigorous laughter workout where we used Laughter Yoga techniques with others devised in the Bristol Laughter Club and the Laughter Network. We became progressively less British - you know, cut off, unexpressive, stiff upper lip, and more, well, European - expressive, spontaneous, even verging on the flamboyant. Fortunately everyone was able to retreat to their Britishness every so often so they could regroup and remind themselves of their roots! We stimulated our laughter reflex, remembered what it felt like, practiced it lots, and finally settled down to two good long sustained chuckles which lasted almost an hour.

This event was also a fundraiser, and we raised almost £3000 for the British Heart Foundation, were filmed by BBC London news and were broadcast to a few million viewers that evening. Not bad for a first!

This momentum carried over to the Cheltenham Science Festival where the theme had been picked up by Professor Kathy Sykes who wanted it on her ‘stress’ panel. The audience here numbered well over 100, listened closely to Angela Patmore’s effective debunking of the stress industry, including her dramatic flourish when she unrolled this list of 300+ conflicting definitions of stress!

From then we moved on to the Positive Psychology aspect of laughter and the Norman Cousins healing power of laughter story, and the audience decided they were up for a go. They had taken onboard that first, it was good for them; second, that they enjoyed it!; and third, they probably didn't do it enough. So almost, not entirely Kathy assured me with a chuckle, the audience took part in a classic Ted Heath chuckle, shoulders bouncing up and down vigorously, and because they were so game, we decided to ramp it up a bit.

So, here was this 100+ audience, average age 65+, sitting with their shoulders bobbing up and down chortling away, and then they turned and shared this chuckle with people either side. Oh! lala! This was the heart of merrie ing-ur-land, and yet they loved it. So did Kathy who won plaudits for this panel and apparently it was referred to glowingly all week.

Do you want a laugh-a-thon? Raise your profile? Do some fund-raising? Ring me on 07812 159943, or

E-mail :

It′s time too take laughter seriously - Dr Madan Kataria