And take a deep breath in slowly through your nose.
And then open the mouth,
Sigh it out,
Let it go.
Let's do that two more times,
Take a full deep breath in through the nose.
Open the mouth and let it go.
One more time,
Take your biggest deepest breath yet of the day.
And open the mouth let it go completely.
And then let your breath resume its natural rhythm and tempo.
As you begin to come into this present moment.
So allowing yourself to let go of the day you've had.
Allowing yourself to let go of the days yet to come.
Whatever they may look like.
And giving yourself the space,
Time and permission to be fully present.
Knowing that this is exactly where you ought to be.
And trusting in the knowledge that this is time well spent.
And take a moment to check in.
To notice how you feel.
Knowing it's okay if you feel apprehensive,
Uncertain,
Anxious,
Overwhelmed.
Knowing it's okay if you feel agitated,
Energized,
Joyful.
There's no right or wrong.
Simply an opportunity to connect with ourselves in this moment.
How do you feel?
And now observe the mind.
The busyness.
The content.
The quality of the thoughts.
And now take a moment to observe the physical body.
Scanning from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes.
Getting a sense of how you physically feel.
The aches,
The pains,
The tightness.
Where the body feels open,
Spacious,
Comfortable.
And then I invite you to welcome in a sense of ease and relaxation into the entire body.
To allow yourself the space and time to fully relax.
So begin by softening the furrow lines between the brows.
Let the eyes be like orbs floating in water.
Release the muscles around the eyes.
And let the sensations of the eyes softening spread into the jaw.
Letting the jaw hang heavy,
Loose and limp.
Relaxing the teeth,
The lips,
The tongue.
And this easy,
Relaxing feeling,
Let it spread down through the neck,
The throat,
Into the shoulders.
Dissolving any tension from the upper back,
The mid-back,
The low back.
Dissolving tension from the body like ice dissolves to water.
And water dissolves to air.
Relax the arms,
The wrists,
Palms,
Fingers and fingertips.
And feel and sense as this wave of relaxation flows down through the trunk of the body.
Releasing any gripping,
Any clenching in the stomach.
Let the belly be soft.
Releasing any tension in the hips and the thighs.
Softening the knees,
The shins,
The calves,
Ankles,
The feet and the toes.
Let the whole body relax.
Let the whole body relax.
And from this space,
Draw the awareness to the breath.
Without feeling like you need to force it or control it in any way.
Allow the breath to move through the body in and out.
Noticing the many sensations of each breath.
The cool air against the rims of the nostrils.
The warm air against the upper lip.
Sensing how the nostrils flare and contract.
Maybe even observing how the air flows through one nostril more than the other.
And as you follow this breath down the nasal passage and throat,
Feel into the 3D quality of the breath.
Sensing the breath in the back of the body.
Sensing the breath in the ribs and the side of the body.
Sensing the breath in the front of the body.
Maybe even feeling the breath all the way down at the base of the belly.
And as you follow this breath down the nasal passage and the side of the body,
Feel into the breath in the back of the body.
And from here I invite you to allow a soft smile to form across the face.
A soft smile to spread across the lips.
And with childlike curiosity,
Begin to explore the quality of the smile.
So no matter how forced or fake the smile may seem,
Just let the smile linger upon the lips.
Notice the muscles that are engaged to support the upturn of the mouth.
Maybe you feel the muscles slightly twitching or vibrating.
Notice the sensation of the smile in the cheeks.
Maybe how you feel the smile on one side more than the other.
Perhaps there's a sensation of the smile within the eyes.
And from here,
Again,
No matter how forced or unnatural it may feel,
I invite you to let that smile grow a little bit bigger.
And notice how more muscles around the jaw,
The lips,
The mouth are recruited to support the smile.
Notice how it changes the sensations in the cheeks.
Maybe in the eyes.
And again,
I invite you to let that smile spread bigger across the face.
Maybe the shape of the smile now changes,
Maybe the lips part,
Maybe the teeth part.
Maybe you can feel the cheeks against the eyes.
Maybe there's a light quality of the smile within the eyes.
You can feel the muscles around the eyes supporting that smile.
And every time we smile,
Whether it's face or face,
We can feel the smile.
Whether it's fake or natural,
It sends a message to the brain,
Letting the brain know that it's safe,
That it's okay to let go,
It's okay to relax.
The brain sends a message to the rest of the body to switch off the fight and flight response.
To instead activate the rest and digest.
And to begin the production of serotonin and happy hormones.
And this in turn boosts and increases,
Enhances our smile.
And it becomes a feedback loop,
Boosting one another along.
So keep that childlike awareness as you observe the effects of the smile within the body.
If you can,
I invite you to make that smile as big as you can.
Maybe you feel the tingling sensations or sense this energy circulating through the body.
Maybe you notice an effect in the breath,
The breath becoming smoother,
Calmer,
Steadier.
Maybe there's a sensation of the smile within the heart space.
Notice the effect of the smile within the mind.
Let go.
And see if you can sense the smile in the forehead the eyes,
The corners of the eyes uplifting into a smile sense the cheeks smiling,
The nose smiling feel a smile in the chin,
Across the collarbones feel a smile in the torso and the belly,
Across the hips allowing the feeling of that smile to spread through your body through the thighs,
The knees,
The shins,
The ankles,
The feet and toes and perhaps you may begin to find that the smile remains upon your face without much,
If any effort at all and maybe you can sense and observe the effect of the smile throughout the mind and the body,
Noticing how you feel now compared to how you felt at the very beginning of our practice and to close I'd like to share a poem smiling is infectious,
You catch it like the flu when someone smiled at me today I started smiling too I walked around the corner and someone saw me grin when he smiled I realised I had passed it on to him I thought about the smile and then realised its worth a single smile like mine could travel around the earth so if you feel a smile begin don't leave it undetected let's start an epidemic and get the world infected so I invite you to spend a few more moments observing the powerful effects of this smile so and then when you're ready beginning to deepen that breath letting each breath gently awaken the body expanding the awareness into the room around you,
Into your surroundings letting the senses reawaken feel the support of the ground,
The chair,
The sofa beneath you feel the temperature of the air upon your skin,
The clothes on your body and perhaps from here setting the intention to come back to this smile during moments of challenge and difficulty and using this smile the simple act of the little smile to entirely shift the way you feel so may the smile infuse all that you do affect all that you meet and when you're ready begin to wiggle your fingers and toes roll your head from side to side take a deep breath in open the mouth side out and when you're ready you can gently begin to blink open the eyes coming back to the day ahead thank you so much for joining me today wherever you may be I'm so grateful and if you have any questions please let me know I'll be here for a couple of minutes otherwise have a great day and I'll see you again next week thank you bye take care thank you bye thank you thank you amazing wow oh that's so nice yeah I'll send you that recording yeah Liz did say no worries thank you take care thanks bye
