Traveling with Jeremy Piven: Yes Please

I flipped on the Travel Channel and to my pleasant surprise saw Jeremy Piven riding around India.  Yummy.  Turns out he made a two-part series about his trip there, trying to raise awareness about issues and injustices in India, primarily concerning children.  I didn't watch for very long because even though I love me some Jeremy Piven, I've got things to do.  But I did tune in long enough to watch him attend a "Laughing Yoga" class.

Apparently, laughing Yoga is a new branch of yoga quickly gaining a strong following.  Essentially, the class combines basic yoga stretches with large amounts of laughter.  Big, deep belly laughs from the bottom of your diaphragm.  Tiny giggles from the most nasal part of your nose.  The heartfelt and the superficial.  The creator of Laughing yoga formed this new brand because he believes that laughter promotes good health and that happy people live longer; fusing these beliefs with the already well known benefits of the yogi lifestyle is bound to create superhuman longevity.  Or something like that.  After the session everyone went around hugging each other, appreciating one another's presence, deepening their sense of community in a sometimes estranging world.  

Mr. Piven didn't seem too keen on the class, but it sounds like a fabulous idea to me.  Yoga is one of the most sensuously wonderful experiences; it creates a self-awareness of your body while simultaneously increasing the love for your body.  And laughing is far and away one of my favorite activities, because life is too short to not find things amusing.  Add those two things together?  Amazing.