Day 21 - Pleasant 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 focus on the pleasant physical sensations of smiling, which can bring deep focus.

Transcript

Today,

We'll focus on smiling again.

This time,

We won't worry about whether we're bringing up positive emotions or not.

We'll just smile and focus on whatever feels pleasant about that.

The intention is to get as deeply concentrated on the pleasant feeling from smiling as we can.

Let's get started.

Stretch up your spine,

Relax your jaw,

Relax your shoulders.

Let go of any tension you can.

If you're in a chair,

Place your feet flat on the floor and rest your hands in your lap or by your side.

Bring a gentle,

Easy smile to your face.

As you do,

Notice if there's anything about this that feels pleasant.

Focus your attention on the pleasantness of that sensation.

Anytime you get distracted,

Just smile again and bring your attention back to the pleasant feelings around your mouth and face.

Enjoy the pleasantness.

You may have some thoughts.

That's okay.

It's no business of yours at the moment.

Just let them go.

No need to push them away.

They'll go away on their own if you just let them be in the background.

Focus on the pleasant feeling of smiling.

If other pleasant sensations start to develop in your body,

Good.

Allow them.

Explore them as well.

Pay particular attention to whatever it is that makes them pleasant.

We're focusing specifically on anything that feels pleasant.

Anything unpleasant can just be left in the background.

If you lose contact with pleasantness,

Smile again and see if you can find any pleasant sensations there.

Get absorbed into these pleasant sensations.

See if you can gently allow the pleasantness to grow.

Maybe you can expand it across your face,

Down your torso,

Maybe even throughout your body.

Track it,

Stay with it,

And observe it as it flows.

Good work today.

Take your time ending the practice and carry forward any momentum you've generated.