HARROW LAUGHTER CLUB

LAUGHTER, IS IT THE BEST MEDICINE?

“You’re having a laugh?” my friend asked when I told her about the Harrow Laughter Club and World Laughter Day ( 02/05/2009). I was invited along with my friends to see what this unique club had to offer.

Harrow Laughter Club was formed by Harish Chavda and his co promoter Raj ( surname). It has now been running for 15 months and is proving to be very popular.

The mission of laughter groups around the world, including the one in Harrow is to bring health, happiness and world peace through laughter. Laughter Yoga was founded by Dr Madan Kataria and his research showed that his patient’s symptoms dramatically improved when they followed a series of “laugher exercises” where they “laughed for no reason” at all. Harish Chavda has been personally trained by Dr Kataria.

Harish explained that when we are children we laugh a lot because we don’t take life too seriously. Later as we are conditioned to modern life and its variety of problems, we laugh a lot less. This creates fear and stress.

Laughter therapy, Harish explained can relieve stress, bring more oxygen to the brain and burn calories. It is definitely cheaper then going to the gym!!!

During the session, we had to do 10 different laughter exercises (with movement), each being fun and innovative. These laughter exercises can sometimes be described as role-play where we are given different scenarios to laugh at.

We later promoted the Harrow Laughter Club to the Rayners Lane residents.

One poignant moment that did stand out for me at the Laughter Club was a heart warming picture of a group of Indian children taken in Mumbai laughing at the camera and offering food.  These children live in the slums of Mumbai and the conditions they live in are beyond our imagination.  These children have nothing and they still managed to laugh.  Here in the West most of us have our basic needs met and yet we hardly laugh at all!! I think there is a lesson for all of us to learn here.

I believe that World Laughter Day has definitely made the world a better place. At the end of the day I felt like everyone else: de-stressed, happy, content and free of any inhibitions.  Even my friends and I continued to laugh well into the evening over a pub dinner. I would recommend Laughter Therapy to anyone and to go along and check out the Harrow Laughter Club.

For more information on the Harrow Laughter Club contact Harish Chavda on 07812 690 810 or go to the www.artofeating.co.uk website.