Smile Meditation To Boost Happiness

Did you know that smiling can improve your mood, even when it's forced? A deliberate or forced smile, can trigger the same chemical reaction in the brain as happens when you smile with happiness or joy. Join Dali as he guides you through this gradually increasing Smile Meditation to help boost your mood, and potentially even reduce stress and anxiety.

Transcript

Welcome to this smile meditation.

Did you know that smiling can help reduce stress,

Anxiety and even physical pain?

And perhaps more surprising,

Did you know that deliberate or forced smiling can trigger the same chemical reactions in the brain that occur when we smile with happiness or joy?

We get stress relief from the body's natural mood lifter,

Serotonin,

Pain relief from the endorphins.

But as a 2003 study showed,

We can also put others at ease as seeing a smiling face activates the reward centre of the brain,

Making us appear more approachable,

Trustworthy,

Reliable and genuine.

So,

If you haven't guessed already,

We're going to be smiling a lot in this meditation.

It may feel a bit unnatural or uncomfortable at first,

But try and stick with it as best you can.

Strengthening the muscles in the face that are engaged when we smile is a great by-product of this exercise,

Which should make future grinning easier.

And it's a great tool to have in your back pocket as well,

When you might feel a little bit down and you want to give yourself a lift.

So,

If you haven't already got yourself comfortable,

Please do so now.

You can sit on a chair or a cushion or kneel on a cushion or sit on the floor,

Cross-legged,

However you want.

You can even lie down.

I would just say if you're going to lie down,

Only do so if you are confident you're not going to fall asleep.

We're going to start this meditation with a closed mouth,

If that's comfortable for you,

To just breathe through your nose.

And let your eyes gently close.

Now,

Just let your attention rest on the breath.

There's nothing to change,

Nothing to force.

Just watch what your breath is doing as you breathe in and out through your nostrils.

Just watching that natural rhythm of your breath.

Now,

Let your attention move up from your nose to your brow.

Let's check in with our brow and see if it feels soft.

See if you can relax it a little bit more.

We don't want any tension in the brow or around the eyes or the eyelids.

Check in with your cheeks.

Are they nice and soft?

And coming down to the jaw,

Making sure that even though your mouth is closed,

That your jaw is not tense.

It's nice and relaxed.

Nice and loose.

All the while just letting your breath be in its natural rhythm.

And we're going to continue that circular movement of attention.

So we've gone from the breathing through your nose up to your brow,

Down through the muscles of your face to your jaw.

And now we're going to go across to your mouth.

Just let the corners of your mouth turn up ever so slightly.

Just a little smile.

Barely even noticeable.

Just that little Mona Lisa smile.

And hold your attention there for the next minute or so.

And whilst you hold that little tiny smile,

Bring your attention back up to your breathing.

Back to the air coming in and out of your nostrils.

Feeling that natural rhythm of your breath.

With that gentle smile on your lips.

And we'll continue moving our attention in that circular motion as we leave the nose and come up to the brow again.

Ensuring that the brow is nice and soft.

Nice relaxed muscles.

Around the eyes.

Down through the cheeks.

Nice soft muscles.

Down to your jaw.

Making sure it's nice and relaxed.

And there's no tension.

Ensuring your breath is still.

Breathing its natural rhythm.

And we're moving around the circle again as we move the attention back to the mouth.

Back to the lips.

This time I want you to increase that smile by about 50%.

So your mouth is still closed.

But you can feel that smile about 50% bigger.

To the point that it's engaging the muscles in the eyes.

So you're smiling through your eyes as well as your mouth.

And your lips.

You might even feel it in your cheeks.

And hold your attention there on that smile.

For the next minute or so.

As you continue to hold that smile.

You may now be feeling it more in the muscles around your eyes.

In your cheeks and your jaw.

But keep holding that smile and move your attention back up to your breath.

In and out of your nose.

Your natural rhythm.

And holding the smile.

Leaving your breath where it is for now.

Leaving your breath where it is for now.

Move up to your brow.

And all we're going to do this time is make sure the brow is nice and relaxed.

Nice and soft.

The muscles around the eyes should hopefully still be engaged in that smile.

So we don't want to relax those.

We want to keep those smiling alongside the mouth and the lips.

The cheeks.

No need to relax anything there.

You can come down to your jaw.

Make sure your jaw is relaxed.

But we're just looking at the brow and the jaw.

The muscles around the eyes should remain engaged in the smile.

And we continue that circular movement of attention.

As we come back to the mouth.

Back to the lips.

And this time I want a full open mouth.

Big smile.

Big grin.

As big and as wide as you can.

You may find it comfortable to start breathing through your mouth now as well.

But I want you to hold that smile.

The biggest smile you can do.

I want you to be beaming.

Be radiant.

Really feel the energy.

Really feel it in those muscles around the face,

Around the eyes.

And hold that smile.

Hold your attention on that smile for the next minute or so.

And as you continue to hold the smile.

Bring your attention up to your breath.

One more time.

Breathing through your mouth or nose,

Whichever is the most comfortable.

At this stage with so much effort being put in to this big smile.

You may feel like you want to take some deep breaths.

Slow deep relaxing breaths.

Almost like it's a relief to be smiling like this.

You may even feel some water around your eyes.

That's absolutely fine.

Let it all go.

And continue smiling.

You may even be feeling a slight burn in the muscles around your face and around your eyes.

You've been holding a smile for a while now.

We're nearly there.

Continue to focus on the breath.

While you smile as wide as you can.

And you can open your eyes now as we come to the end of the practice.

Look around you while you smile.

Feel the effect that smile is having on you.

And enjoy it.

You can do this whenever you want,

Wherever you want.

Just remember you have the power to lift your mood.

To trigger those chemical reactions just through a smile.

Thank you for smiling with me today.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Please check out my other meditations on the app.

And I hope to see you soon.

Thank you.

Reviews

It's such a great meditation to shift my attention to positive thoughts. Like all of Dali's meditations, this one has the perfect speed and intonation. Thank you Dali ❣️

Continuous Yawning releases and tears! Thank you 🥰

Hus

Thank you Dali 😊 I’m smiling at the fact that I’m smiling with you at 5:45 an yes I’m smiling my way towards a beautiful new dawn here in London and that makes me feel very happy 😊 another lovely practice to return to at any time I’m someone who loves to smile ! And laugh and giggle !

Beautiful. Thank you for smiling with us. What a lovely and perfect way to start a beautiful day! May we all smile and have a peaceful day. Namaste 🙏🏽

Love this! I have a saying which I use with the children I work - ‘Smile, and if you see someone without a smile, pass it on to them…

Thank you for this meditation !🙏❤️
I enjoyed smiling with you !😊🤗❤️

What a great way to start the day! This smiling practice really did lift my mood. Thank you for your guidance!

This was a lovely smiling practice. I appreciated the pauses in between, so I could tune into my inner energy and feel its response to the intention with a grin. 🙏😁

I really enjoyed this meditation, and I will be using this evening at a Recovery Dharma meeting that I host. Your voice is very calming. Thank you for creating this unique meditation. 😊

UPDATE: Your meditation was so well received! We usually do meditations like equanimity or Meta and bringing this meditation to the meeting, I knew it was something a lot different than what we usually do. I was kind of nervous about how it would have be received. I was very happy because the overall consensus was the members of my Sanga thoroughly enjoyed the meditation and found it beneficial in lifting their mood. There were about forty of us that did it all together!

This meditation was perfect for me as I have been working recently to learn ways to lift my mood. Thank you for this!

The magic of smile practice is intstantly beautiful 🙏🏻 Outstanding pray so need!

Most unusual but interesting and engaging meditation!

Ok… you have me smiling! Great meditation!!! Thank you, Dali! 😃

Very calm and clear, mindful smiling session. I surprised myself when later in the day I spontaneously became aware of my facial muscles......."what's that sensation?....oh yes I'm smiling!!"

Thank you! You discussed this in class so I had to checking out! Very nice Dali. Thank you once again !
Much love
Lavender
You are so welcome. I love your lives and look forward to the next one.
Peace and blessings