There’s a scene in the movie Mary Poppins where Uncle Albert (played by Ed Wynn) gets stuck on the ceiling of his sitting room, buoyed upwards by uncontainable glee. Uncle Albert, it seems, was given to fits of laughter that literally lifted his spirits—along with the rest of him—right off the floor.

According to Madan Kataria, a Bombay, India-based physician, author of Laugh for No Reason (Madhuri International) and founder and president of Laughter Clubs International, laughter may indeed be the best of all medicines. Kataria has developed a form of laughter therapy called Hasya Yoga (hasya means laughter in Sanskrit) that combines deep, controlled breathing and stretches with various types of forced laughter.

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A great article about Livin’ Large, which just happens to be the name of my new group coaching program!

Midway through her first yoga class, Kay Erdwinn wanted desperately to disappear.

Erdwinn had come to the class, not far from her Southern California neighborhood, in search of a noncompetitive, inwardly focused way to exercise. Instead, she found a teacher who demanded that she upend her five-foot-two-inch, 260-pound body into Halasana (Plow Pose).

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The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

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$3 a day for food. $3 A DAY for food.

That’s the food stamp challenge. Can you do it for 7 days? If you do, let me know by commenting on this post.

Please, watch this short video, The Price of Hunger…