Day 17 - Feel Good Smile - UM 30-Day Challenge

This short meditation with lots of guidance is part of a 30-day Unified Mindfulness challenge I offered at CarMax, and am now happy to share it with the Insight Timer community. The 30 sessions are designed to be done in order, however, you can jump around if you wish, just keep in mind I may refer to a previous recording. There's a short introduction followed by a 5-minute practice.
In this session, you'll smile and then focus on the good feelings that creates in the body.

Transcript

Today,

We'll use the first S in our Reach for the Stars mnemonic for generating positive emotion.

Smile!

We'll work with smiling and seeing how that brings up good feelings.

Let's begin.

Take a moment to stretch up tall and let your shoulders drop.

Release any tension you can.

When you feel settled,

Bring a gentle smile to your face.

Notice if it brings up some emotional response.

Focus on that response.

Where do you feel it?

Around your mouth,

Your eyes,

Your heart?

Apply the lens of mindful awareness to investigate this with your full attention.

Anytime it fades,

Bring your smile back again.

You might experiment with a subtle,

Gentle smile or a big,

Wide smile and see what differences you can detect.

If your attention gets pulled away,

Just notice that and gently smile again and soak into the emotional sensations that brings up.

If you can keep the smile on your face,

You may find that the pleasant emotional sensations don't fade away,

But remain constant.

They may even grow.

Just keep your attention gently placed on them as long as they're present.

Get as deeply absorbed into them as possible.

If you notice other sensations,

Sounds,

Thoughts,

Just let them be in the background as you keep your attention on the positive feelings coming from your smile.

Notice if the feelings spread or expand.

Track them if they do.

Whatever feelings you notice,

It's just fine.

Just allow them to come up naturally in response to the smile.

No need to force anything.

That will end our five-minute session.

Thank you for your practice.

See if you can try this smiling practice at some point throughout your day,

Just for a moment or two,

And check out how that feels.