Ohhhhhm?

I went back to yoga class for the first time yesterday.  Ironically, I didn't do a lick of yoga the entire time I was in India.  I once tried, when I was in Rishikesh: the "birthplace" of yoga.  My hotel offered free yoga lessons in the morning, every morning except for the one I inquired.  After that, I didn't have the heart to seek out a class.

I kind of had to giggle when I went back to my gym, though.  There is always the Yoga Guy who Takes Yoga Very Seriously and whose Down Dogs are always somehow the most stationary and yet the most distracting poses in the room.  Then, at the end of class as we wake up from Corpse Pose, we murmur "Namaste" very soberly, very somberly.  I think some of my classmates think "Namaste" means a lot more than "G'bye!"*

Meanwhile, I think back to the mornings I would jog in the park alongside my guesthouse.  I would see classes going on in the open air day in, day out.  The yoga practicers were all ages, all shapes, all levels of flexibility.  Sometimes, men in kurtas and ladies in salwaar kameez would just do yoga outside, by themselves.  And then, every so often, I would run into a group practice of my favorite yoga style ever: Laughing Yoga.

Laughing Yoga is exactly what it sounds like.  You take a deep breath in, then let it out with a big "HAHAHAHAHA!"  That's your warmup.  Then there are a whole bunch of different laughs you can do, like the Lion Laugh, in which you stick your tongue out and bulge out your eyes, and use your whole body to say, "HAAA HAAAA HAAAAA." There were also exercises to cultivate playfulness, and Ho Ho Ha Ha Dancing.

This isn't to intimate that Laughing Yoga isn't serious.  From what I could tell, it did its students a world of good.  Even running by, listening to them, I couldn't help but feel more relaxed.  It was just ironic, as a Westerner, because our stereotypical yoga session is all silence and deep breathing and Taking Yoga Very Seriously.  Maybe I should try my new style in class someday.  First, though, I should probably promise Yoga Guy I won't be laughing at his Down Dog.

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*OK, so I know it means "reverential salutation to you" or something along those lines, but a few weeks ago I was saying it day in and day out to, amongst other people, the hotel manager, my driver, my boss, and fifty small children per day.  So it loses its spark after a while.