good evening as most of you may know
death started out as a platform for new
ideas on the field of technology
entertainment and design people close to
me can tell you that technology is not
my cup of tea as a matter of fact I
think I’ll be the last person on planet
earth to know how to operate a simple
smartphone so we’re not talking about
technology tonight how about
entertainment
I’m sure nervous speakers on stage can
be very entertaining to us the public
but I’m not that they here to do that
about design I can tell you a thing or
two because I’ve designed and redesigned
my professional career many times from
the business owner to the taxi driver
from the chef cook to the massage
therapist from the teacher to the
cleaning lady from the academic nurse to
the traveler we can go on and on and
that would be behind the scope of this
evening what I’m here to do today is to
tell you my story a story that started
out about 10 years ago at midnight I
woke up feeling very restless
disorientated disconnected in distress I
was lying on a mattress and this
mattress was on the floor of a business
I was owning here in Williams that the
two operating business I knew something
was wrong immediately as soon as I woke
up but I didn’t know what it was but I
wanted to find out I can remember as a
child my parents and grandparents would
sit quietly staring into nothingness
when they were pondering a problem this
is what we call nowadays meditation so I
fluffed up maybe
and I took a seat in about two hours and
sitting in silence this inner voice
spoke to me and said you are in this
situation because you have not lost for
a long time I said what this is not the
inner voice it’s an inner demon what is
what is he rambling about what this got
to do with anything but how I’m feeling
with my low spirits but then I thought
do I have something to laugh about
I mean it’s just buried a young sister
she died at the age of 31 leaving behind
a baby and a toddler no reason to laugh
right my husband I just took off
mumbling some abracadabra about digging
wells for the poor in Africa he never
said that the wells had feminine legs
and wore skirts so you go and fail her
reason to laugh my business partners had
just taken off with my successful
business strategy implemented it right
next door to me
successfully reason to laugh I was very
annoyed with this lady called Mary she
was a former French teacher turned into
a crack addict she was wheeling and
dealing maybe long as in my own backyard
as a matter of fact she was so smart she
saw some of my own stuff to me while she
was still robbing me blind no reason to
laugh and did I mention I wasn’t having
any sex at all at that time and I was
putting up weight so the reasons can go
on and on why I was feeling the way I
was feeling I knew I was in some dark
coming back to the here and now here in
this conference with a title bridging
the gap I want to give this title my own
personal touch
and call it bridging the inner gap why
where it was on that mattress that was
my inner gap to me I was in the depth of
depth and I wanted to come out so where
does the inner gap come from what causes
it
do you have an inner gap I can tell you
a secret everybody has an inner gap some
of us it develop it’s in our childhood
early childhood
it could be situations with our parents
it could be situations at school
bullying it could be later on that
you’re going with stones in your stomach
to your work it could be toxic
relationships there’s so many things
that can feed this in a gap and make it
wider now the clue is how to deal with
this inner gap because pressure from
communities from your own dreams from
the expectations of others may bird than
this inner gap more and more and it gets
bigger and bigger situations behind your
control can also influence this inner
gap things like a divorce bankruptcy
illness death in the family betrayal any
attack on our heart in our mind can
cause this inner depth to grow acts of
terrorism so we can continue most of us
don’t notice that we have this inner gap
we are in denial of it or we try to fill
the gap with drug abuse alcohol abuse
some of us will even try to escape the
gap and then you get stories about oh I
didn’t know she was so unhappy we just
had lunch yesterday and today she jumped
off the bridge I’m sure you can
recognize some of the things I’m talking
about when I was on that matters I had
just one rope to pull myself
of this abyss of the inner gap and that
was the voice which was not the inner
demon but inner wisdom and the voice
said you have not loved for a long time
that was the only rope I had so I turned
to good old Google
I said behind my computer at two o’clock
in the morning and I entered anything
they had to do it laughter lack of
laughter depression the benefits of
laughter and every time again I saw a
word that I did not know hatha yoga
what was this I figured hatha yoga was
laughter yoga that is the explanation in
English and I was active in the field of
personal wellness for many years I never
heard about this yoga so I saw on the
computer then it was a big gathering in
New York of people who have practicing
laughter yoga so I bought a ticket and I
went to New York I was so surprised and
amazed at their stories and work
laughter yoga had done for them how they
were getting out of there in a death
because of this tool I was so interested
that I decided to buy another ticket now
to Bombay India and to get all the
information and the teaching I could and
I became a laughter yoga teacher and I
go further and practice and I am a
laughter therapist so laughter yoga was
my tool to get out of my inner gap I’m
sure each inner gap is different and you
will find your own tool what I want to
do today is share my tool with you so I
want to invite you to stand up empty
your hands free up your hands put a
smile on your face because we are about
to energize ourselves we are about to
feel good so just bless the disco get
smile on your face if you wish even if
you don’t feel it loose up your hands
let’s start to shake them and when we do
and he’ll slash the arms all the way up
and let them come down exhaling again we
do it again inhale stretch stretch
stretch and bring them down slowly very
good you close your eyes and you put the
fingertips on your head and you start to
tap and hahaha
your chest your arms again you hold body
belly
hahahaha both of your legs very good
inhale inhale inhale stretch out and
bring in again bring the arms down and
now we in here we close the body inhale
close the face gross everything and let
it loose
we do it again inhale hold it hold it
hold it and let it go once more in and
hold it hold it hold it you can do it
and let it go shake the body very good
inhale slowly bring back the arms down
very good and now we scoop all this
beautiful energy we’ve created together
it put it to the heart hah we do this
again take it and we fill our hearts
with this good energy and now we can
share it haha with other people no we
can share it with the world
hahaha now in the universe hahaha
with their back into the universe share
away the world
hahaha with others haha for ourselves
ha ha very nice we take a seat slowly we
take a seat and we embrace ourselves yes
job well done
very good very good I love me and you
don’t love you I love me very good and
we love the world again
I love me and I love Curacao but before
everything I love me I take care of me
and close your eyes and feel yourself
feel your body leather laughter roll
very good
feel your body and thank yourself thank
you very much I know I know with time
you will find your own tool or probably
you have your own tool already this
works for me to keep the gaff to the
minimum to bridge the gap every day
again to escape the mattress in the
middle of the night if we can bridge our
inner gaps we can bridge all kind of
other gaps we can bridge the gaps
between economies countries religion and
I guess there’ll be less war in the
world
I thank you [Applause]