The Inner Smile With Self Massage

Welcome to this Inner Smile With Self Massage practice. The beauty of this practice is that it is beneficial for everyone, whether you are healthy, ill, or recovering from an illness or surgery.
Following the Generative Cycle of the Five Elements, we cultivate connection, care and compassion towards our yin organs (Heart, Spleen, Lungs, Kidneys and Liver) as well as the whole body. Through self massage, smiling energy, breath, visualisation, colour and affirmations we gently nourish the body, mind and spirits. The key is to connect your mind awareness with the organs. The more you practise, the deeper and stronger your connection becomes.
I offer heart felt thanks to my teacher, Marisa Cranfill, the founder of the YOQI method, for sharing this extended Inner Smile with Self Massage with me. It is an honour to share my own versions with you, I hope you find it helpful.

Transcript

Hello, My name's Freya. Welcome to this Inner Smile with self-massage practice. Today. So you can join me seated. You could stand in a Uji posture. Or you can even lie down so the beauty of this practice is that you can practice it both when you're healthy and even when you are ill or perhaps recovering from an illness or surgery It's a beautiful practice to help us cultivate connection to our precious body with care, Curiosity and compassion. And the more we practice. The easier it becomes to genuinely connect to ourselves and we'll be connecting to our organs, Particularly our yin organs. And we'll be taking a very special ingredient into the practice, Which is smiling energy. So when we smile, This releases feel-good chemicals, Endorphins in the body. So, Let's start. Hopefully you've found your position of practice. We're going to start by massaging our Lao Gong point. So if I let my middle finger in the center of my palm. This is Lao Gong. We're going to massage here. And this Lao Gong point is an important energy gate. It helps us to feel and access Qi energy. Also helpful. So Lao Gong also translates to pericardium 8 so it's the pericardium 8 acupoint let's tap with the back of our palm three times on that point swap to the other side. So finding your Lao Gong point on this side. So we want to activate both our healing hands. This point also helps to relieve anxiety. Helps to balance our emotions. It also gets nicknamed the key point to happiness. So let's tap again three times. And we're going to clap. Rub our palms together and begin to generate warm healing energy between your palms. And once your palms are feeling nice and warm, We're going to take a gentle caring sweep with our palms. Over the body to start with. Some connection. And care. So my palms are nice and warm. I'm going to take my fingers and run them through my hair if you have hair, Over the scalp. So this is called 10 Dragons Run Through the Forest. We're stimulating all these acupoints. On the scalp and we're doing this lovingly. And then we're going to come down one side of the neck Gently stroking the side of the neck activating our parasympathetic nervous system. Stimulating that vagus nerve, So activating rest, Digest, Heal and grow mode. Down the front of the throat. And over to the other side. Gently and lovingly stroking the side of the neck. Then let's come to the arms. So one arm comes out. Stroke down the inside. Of the arm all the way to the palm and the fingertips. Turn that massaged arm over. And then massage and stroke. All the way up the back of the arm, Back of the elbow. Over the back of the shoulders, The top of the shoulders. And incorporate both. Hello arm and to the other side all the way down Thank you arms all the way down to the palm and back. Thank you arms for all that you do. Allowing me to hug and to hold. And then we come to the chest. Torso. We can circle around. The breast tissue, The chest tissue. Down the sides, Our lower back. Down over the buttocks Good morning torso, Good morning hip. Or good afternoon or good evening, Depending on when you're practicing today, All the way down the legs. Outside of the leg. All the way over the knees, I'm coming down to my toes sweeping over the toes and coming back up the inside. Of my legs all the way up. And then just a little gentle belly massage here. And then let's flick off any stagnant unwanted chi that we accumulated. And clap again. Rubbing our palms generating beautiful, Warm, Healing energy again. And this time we're bringing our middle fingers to rest between our eyebrows, Our mid eye center. This point is called yin tang. And our yin tang. Is our personal connection to the universe. Going to start. Our inner smile meditation here at our mid-eye center. So we're just massaging. Our yin tang point. You might like to close your eyes and connect to this energy gate, This chi gate. Keep your mind focused here on this point. Release the massage, Keep the fingers there, Inhale into your yin tang. Exhale, Expand. Your awareness. To your whole head. So inhale into the point. Exhale. This time as you inhale, Imagine the golden sun in front of you and you're going to inhale this warm golden light. In through your yin tang point. So this beautiful sun. Energy, This warm energy of the sun begins to shine through your yin-tang points. And as this happens, You might notice a smile. Coming to your face, So allow the corners of your mouth to rise. Allow this beautiful warm golden light to shine. Through your yin-tang, Through your mid-eye center. Each time you breathe out this smiling energy is filling your brain. This warm golden light from the sun and your smile is warming your skull, Your brain. Helping you to connect Take care. Offer compassion. To your brain, This warm golden light and smiling energy. One more breath here. Breathing out, Release your fingers, Gently expanding this golden smiling energy. Around your skull. Around your head a golden halo. And then begin to gently stroke again down the front of your throat. We're allowing this golden smiling energy to begin to flow down and come to rest at the heart. In the center of your chest. So center of the chest with your palms a little off to the left and begin to massage. So we're going up. And down. With circle. Massaging the heart. And the massage is helping us not only to connect to our heart but also help release any stagnation. You might like to take a certain breath pattern here where we breathe into the heart. Breathe out and press. So you're gently pressing the heart, Helping to release any stagnation, Giving it a squeeze, Breathing in, Release the pressure. Breathing out. Giving your heart a squeeze. One more like that. So breathing in. Palms float in front of the heart. Breathing out, Palms come to press on the heart. Holding your hands in stillness over the heart now, You might like to close down the eyes again. Again, Take your attention. Down to the heart. Hello heart. How are you today? Connecting to your heart with care, Curiosity and compassion. I love you heart. Thank you for all that you do. How are you today, Heart? And as you feel into your heart, Let this golden, Smiling energy begin to grow into red light. This is the healing light for the heart. So we're growing red, Warm red light, Visualizing our heart. Filling with warm red light. Growing the virtues of joy. Patience. Compassion. Feeling your heart, Visualizing your heart filled with this warm red light. And you might like to say out loud or silently in your mind. The affirmation for our heart. I am a good person and I deserve love. Filling your heart with this intention. Beautiful. Let's gently begin to move our hands down to our spleen now. So this is the lower side of our face. Left ribcage. We have our spleen organ. So our heart is the mother of our spleen. Begin to massage. Your spleen. You might like circular motions. Or with the spleen we can have quite a lot of stagnant energy so you might like to even get your fingertips and really dig in under your ribcage. Helping to release any stagnation around the spleen if that feels good. And again, We could take those intentional breaths where we breathe in, Release pressure, Breathe out, Give your spleen a squeeze. So squeezing your spleen, Breathing in, Release. Breathing out squeeze. And again. And one more little squeeze. Again you might like to close down the eyes. You might like to have your eyes closed for the entirety of this practice. Begin to connect. To your spleen. Hello Spleen. I love you. Thank you so much for all that you do. How are you today? Just allow. Time. Space for your spleen to respond. Begin to Again, Tune into your mid-eye centre, Drawing more warm golden light of the sun down. Adding some smiling energy. And allow both to flow down to your spleen, Filling your spleen with warm golden light. This warm golden light. Nourishes our spleen. And as you visualize filling your spleen with this warm golden light. The affirmation is. . . I trust life. Thank you, Spleen. From our spleen. We flow to the lungs. So the spleen is the mother of the lungs. Coming up. To the top of the chest here. Again, We can begin to massage. You might like to massage certain points. Maybe there's some points that would really like right in between the ribs, Particularly this area near the shoulders nest. We have our acupoint Lung 1 and Lung 2. So you can massage in there, There might be some. Tend to point that needs some extra. Love, Compassion, Care, Curiosity. So connecting to your lungs. Beginning to become aware of your lungs, Feeling into your lungs. And the spirit of your lungs is your poor, Your poor spirit. And again we can take those particular breathing patterns where we breathe in, Gently release pressure around the lungs as you breathe out. Pressing down on the lungs, Helping to release any stagnation. Breathing in. Float the palms away. Breathing out, Pressing. One more. Breathing in, Floating your palms away. Breathing out, Pressing into the lungs. And then gently holding your palms. Over your lungs. Connecting to your lungs. Hello lungs, I love you. Thank you for all that you do. Begin again to draw in that line. Golden light from the sun. Through your yin tang point. Add a smile to your face. And let this beautiful nourishing energy flow down to your lungs and as it reaches your lungs the light turns into bright white light. Sunshine shining on two white quartz crystals. This bright white light nourishes. The lungs. Nourishes and grows the virtue of courage. And as you feel into your lungs, Connecting to your lungs with care. Curiosity and compassion. I like to say, Hello lungs. I love you. Thank you so much for all that you do. How are you today? Filling your lungs with this bright white light. And the affirmation here is. I have the courage to let go. From our lungs we flow to our kidneys. So coming to rest your palms. Just at the lower edge of your floating ribs at your spine here. Connecting to your kidneys. Begin to give your kidneys a little massage. Rubbing. Your lower back. Warming up your kidneys. Your kidneys has your gene. Your longevity. And the spirit of the kidneys is your ZHU. So we're connecting to our kidneys and our ZHU spirit. Our willpower, And. . . You might like to even use the back of your knuckles to really help release any tension around the lower back and the kidneys. And again, Then placing the palms Back over the kidneys, Let's take this. Intentional breaths. So we inhale, Float the hands away from the kidneys a little as you exhale. Press and squeeze over the kidneys, Releasing any stagnation. Breathing in, Breathing out press and squeeze. And one more, Breath in. To the kidneys, Breathing out. Let's connect to that golden light of the sun again, Drawing golden light. Allowing it to shine through our eyes. Add our smiling energy and let it flow all the way down, Down, Down to our kidneys. Hello kidneys! How are you today? Thank you so much for all that you do. I love you. Allow that warm golden light to begin to turn into blue light allow blue light to fill your kidneys like sun. Light shining on a deep ocean. Filling your kidneys with this blue light. Deep blue light of the ocean and smiling energy Allowing that smiling energy to Release endorphins, Feel good chemicals. Nourishing your body. And your kidneys with this smiling energy. How are you doing today kidneys? As we fill our kidneys with this blue light, Healing blue light, We are growing the virtue of tranquility. And our kidneys house our jing, Our longevity. Our life force energy. And the affirmation here is, I am grateful for my life force energy. Sending this affirmation to your kidneys. Beautiful. And let's flow from our kidneys to our liver. So. . . We've now come to this lower. Side of our right ribcage at the front. Most people have our liver lying on this side of the body. So begin to massage gently. Hello, Oliver! Give your liver a good massage. The spirit residing in the liver. Is our HUN. It's a green dragon. So we're. . . Massaging, Releasing any stagnation. Again, You could even use your fingertips and really under the ribcage giving your liver a deeper massage here if that feels okay. Maybe if digestion is particularly sensitive at the moment, You leave off the deeper massage. And we can come to our intentional breath again. So we breathe in, Float the hands away, Breathe out, Press and squeeze the liver, Releasing stagnation. Breathing in. Breathing out out through the mouth. Breathing in. And breathing out resting the palms here now. Drawing your attention back to your yin tang, Drawing more golden light. Allowing it to shine through your eyes. Smile on your face, Letting this healing energy flow down to your liver. As it reaches your liver, It begins to turn into healing green light. This nourishing, Healing green light for the liver. Hello liver. I love you. Thank you for all that you do. How are you today? Connecting to your liver. With curiosity. Care and compassion. Allowing this green light and this warmth of your palms. This. Connection and attention. To your liver. To nourish your liver and build the virtue of kindness. And as we feel into the liver and build the virtue of kindness, The affirmation here is, I grow at my own pace. Thank you, Liver. And so from here we can start to take Gentle. Compassionate. Caring. Circles. So we're coming up the right side, Across, Down the left. You might like to hover your palms or let your palms actually brush the surface of your skin. Whatever feels better. We're bringing our family of organs all together. In these beautiful massaging sweeps. Or hovering sweet. So we. Have our heart where we started, Housing our Shen spirit. Our shen is the mother of our he spirit of the spleen and we had our lungs with the paw spirit. The lungs and the kidneys. With the year. And back to the liver with the Huynh. All our spirits. Organ spirits are happy. Field. With their nourishing light. And we can bring our palms to come to our lower abdomen, Our lower dantian. And then gently begin to reverse. The circle so we're condensing all this beautiful energy that we've cultivated. We're condensing it down into a golden pearl. Under our CFG. Just below our navel. And let's take three delicious deep belly breaths here, Softening through your body, Lengthening your spine, Bring your tongue to rest on the roof of your mouth. Deep breath down into the belly. Helping to store all this. Beautiful nourishing chi in our lower dantian, Our center of vitality. One more delicious deep belly breath here. Gently bringing your palms to rest in front of your heart. Take a little bow of the head, Draw. The base of your palms up to your yin tang. We have a slight bow of the head. The palms resting here as a gesture of honour, Respect. Care, Compassion. Gratitude too. Be able to connect to ourselves. Our precious body. All its life-giving organs today. Thank you so much. I hope you've enjoyed this practice. If you found it beneficial, Please share with anyone else who you think may benefit, So we can all nourish ourselves, Connect to ourselves, Nourish ourselves with curiosity, Care and compassion.