By Ch Saibaba: Every morning this laughing club risks amused glances and jibes when they look up at the sky, take a deep breath of clear, fresh air, and erupt into wild spontaneous laughter. Members of ABC Laughing Club practising hasya yoga The meetings of ABC Laughing Club are perhaps the most serious health activities happening in the city. The group meets at Picket Cantonment Garden at Secunderabad everyday between 6.45 am and 7.45.am. This is a group of more than 50 people so dedicated to preserving their sense of humour, and thereby their sanity, that they happily give up an hour of their sleep to practice hasya yoga, a workout for your funny bone.By simulating laughter and mirth, one can actually fool those endorphins into doing some overtime, says Madan Kataria, the founder of this unique form of exercise. “Feel-good chemicals are released in the brain when you laugh, but if you waited around for something funny to happen, you could go a whole day without cracking a smile. Now, isn't that a waste of a day?” he asks. Joining the group of merry people and taking a place in the laughing circle seems like a positive step towards health and happiness. Each session, with different kinds of laugh, lasts almost an hour, and consists of warm-up and breathing exercises as well. Then one undergoes the entire spectrum of delight: from grunts to giggles, from guffaws to crackles, from smirks to grins. The club consists mostly of people in the age group of 50 and above, and they say that they have derived real benefits from their morning ha-ha. Blood pressure has stabilised, stress-levels have been reduced and the heart is kept happy with this fantastic form of what they say amounts to "internal jogging". Sreenivasa Rao, an active member of the ABC Laughing Club says, “We have been doing this laughing exercise since1998. Since then, our membership has gone up to 70 and our aim is “Always be cheerful” and we are enjoying and experiencing the same.Source: The Hans India, Image: flickr.com
