Practicing Happiness

Practicing Happiness. I was first introduced to this practice by an eighty-nine-year-old yogi from India, I never met a senior citizen who was so astonishingly fit. He could do every difficult yoga pose perfectly. He was supremely happy. He laughed and smiled a lot and seemed to live in a place genuine warmth.

I heard him at an international yoga conference in 1976 in Chicago. He taught a class on "Laughter Yoga". He began by quietly chuckling after he made eye contact with each person in the hall. This made some of us uncomfortable. He chuckled with amusement. Some, in the crowd began to laugh, and it became contagious. Soon everyone was laughing. By the end we were laughing so hard tears arose.
I never found a teacher like that again, but I would like to see if we can come close to that moment of lightness.