SPIRIT: Laughter yoga

Smile. No, really - smile.

How do you feel?

In 1995, Dr. Madan Kataria, convinced by his research for a scholarly paper that laughter really IS the best medicine, formed a laughter club in a city park in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, to put the theory into practice. Eventually, he combined laughter with yoga, and now the practice has spread around the world. The club's Web site describes the practive this way: "Laughter Yoga is physically-oriented technique that uses a perfect blend of playful, empowering and otherwise "tension-releasing" simple laughter exercises, interspersed with gentle breathing and stretching exercises, rhythmic clapping and chanting of Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha in unison. This is done as a way to improve health, increase well-being, and promote peace in the world through personal transformation. In Laughter Yoga you use laughter as a tool, not an emotion."

OK, OK, it sounds a little silly, but give it a try. I promise you'll feel better afterward - even if it's only because you're laughing at yourself! See if there's a club near you:

http://www.laughteryoga.org/

Even, if you can't find a club to practice with, just remember what e.e. cummings said: "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."

Here are a few more quotes to get you thinking about laughter:

"Laughter is an orgasm triggered by the intercourse of sense and nonsense." - Author Unknown

"I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, 'Ain't that the truth.' " - Quincy Jones

"When people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other." - Alan Alda

"You can't stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh. It's as simple as that." - Jay Leno

"He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh." - Koran

"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." - Mark Twain