Let us start with a few deep breaths.
Inhaling through the nose.
Gently exhaling through the mouth.
Settling into a natural rhythm allow yourself to pause at the end of each inhalation and then slowly exhale and again pause at the end of each exhalation before allowing your breath to naturally and spontaneously rise.
Taking a few moments in between the exhalation to the inhalation and at the top of the breath as well.
Becoming curious to the sensations of the breath.
Noticing the natural rhythm and flow that your body wants to take.
Now at the next breath draw the inhalation into your face.
Becoming present to your eyes,
The muscles of your cheeks,
Now the muscles of your lips.
Gently allow a smile to come to your face.
If this requires thinking of something that makes you smile or laugh go ahead and place that image into your mind.
Notice your lips as they curl upwards and notice how the smile impacts the areas of your cheek,
The space under your eyes,
The corners of your eyes,
The space between your eyes and your forehead.
Notice if you can balance keeping a smile with relaxing these areas of your face.
With each breath on the inhalation noticing the breath entering your nose,
Coming into the space of your face,
Relaxing the muscles of the eyes but allowing your mouth to gently remain in a smile.
Now draw the breath deeper into your chest becoming present to your heart space.
If it's simpler to feel the rise and fall of your chest by placing your hand on your heart go ahead and do so.
Now I invite you to keep the smile on your lips and draw that smile downward into your chest noticing if you feel any warmth from the areas of your eyes and your face where the smile began to that of your chest where you're inviting it to enter with each breath into this heart space becoming present to the rise and fall of the chest noticing any tension you may be holding from nighttime in your shoulders or if it is nighttime where you are noticing any tension from the day that you're holding in your neck and in your upper back gently breathing into these areas becoming present to what your body is asking for noticing if your mind goes into thoughts you can gently return to the sensations of the breath the sensations of your mouth as you smile noticing how a smile feels as energy what does it bring to your breath does it change the sensations of the breath or the rhythm of the breath does it make your breath feel cool or warm do you notice breathing into this smile in your face and your eyes or perhaps you notice it in your chest most strongly draw your awareness to the sensations of smiling however it presents for you and as you feel your mind wander into thoughts gently return to whatever these sensations are and use the smile as your anchor noticing with each breath if you can relax the muscles that are in your body while still maintaining a smile now let's draw the breath from the area of our face down to our chest and all the way down to our bellies to our abdomen feeling the rise and fall of our breath deep within us each breath relaxing the muscles along the inhalation down our throat into our chest and into our abdomen noticing any tension or any tightness that we hold and breathing into those areas feeling the warmth of the breath and if you were able to maintain the smile feeling the warmth of the smile recognizing that a deep breath is always present to us even when we enter our day if we return to our night wherever we are our breath is with us that we can feel this deep breath in the inhalation and the exhalation noticing the energy of the inhalation and the energy of the space before we exhale then again becoming present to the space after the exhalation before we resume the inhale noticing the cycle of the breath and the cycle of the pauses the space and within which we reside see if you can bring your smile and that lightness of the smile into the cycle of the breath now in our last minutes notice the smile again see how it makes you feel to place a smile on your lips see how it sets your intention for the day notice how you want to show up what is choosing to start your day by breathing and taking this time for yourself whatever the experience was for you the fact that you came to set this time you created a commitment notice how that commitment shows up in an intention that you can carry with you throughout your day perhaps it's to notice a smile maybe your intention is to come back to the breath to stay open and curious whatever your intention for your day let the breath breathe into that in this space and notice that we're in a community of practice we can draw from the energy of being in a community of practice together and so I invite you to carry this smile with you notice the lightness that it might bring offer some gratitude to yourself for taking the time for this practice when you hear the bell it will ring three times I invite you to stay seated for a moment before returning to your day
