Welcome and namaste.
My name is Monica and I will be guiding you through this beautiful inner smile meditation.
The inner smile is a simple and effortless Taoist meditation on how to live with an open heart.
It takes us through baby steps and challenges to unconditionally accept every aspect of our body,
Mind and spirit.
It connects our biological self,
Our physiological self and our spiritual self in a practical way.
This inner smile exercise ingeniously captures the power hidden in our natural impulse to smile.
It's not about fixing or changing parts of ourselves,
But rather it invites us to creatively find the harmony hidden in everything.
So find a comfortable seat or perhaps lie down and let us begin.
Connecting with our breath as we draw in a huge inhale and a soft exhale.
Ultimately,
You can practice the inner smile anywhere,
Anytime,
In any position.
Close your eyes.
Become aware of the soles of your feet.
Feel their connection to the energy of the earth.
Become aware of yourself where you are in time and space,
Lying down or sitting.
Feel the temperature of the room.
Allow the jaw to relax.
And just breathe in and breathe out.
Now focus on your eyes.
Allow a smiling energy to dance into them.
And if you like,
Begin to raise the corners of your mouth ever so slightly.
Like someone knows a really cool secret but doesn't want to tell.
Allow the smiling energy to flow down from the eyes through your face,
Relaxing the cheeks and the nose,
Mouth and all the facial muscles.
Let the smiling energy flow down through your neck.
And you can roll your head slowly if that feels good,
From side to side.
Letting that smiling energy flow down into the thymus gland,
So that part behind the upper part of the sternum,
Just above the heart.
Imagine this glowing,
Vibrant energy permeating into your body.
Feel the space in your upper chest become warm.
And it begins to vibrate and expand like a flower and blossoming.
Take a deep breath in,
Just allow this energy to integrate further and deeper into yourself.
And if you've lost that,
Allow the corners of your mouth again to ever so slightly lift up.
Feel this warm smiling energy spread down from the thymus gland and deep into your heart.
Let it flow like a waterfall over into your heart.
And as you smile,
Generate the feeling of joy and happiness.
Help activate the heart energy.
And if you like,
You can place one hand over your heart and breathe into the space where you feel contact.
Spend as much time as you need here to feel the heart relax.
Any negative emotions associated with hastiness,
Arrogance,
Grief,
Cruelty,
All dissipates when you smile into the heart.
Creating space for love and joy.
When we smile into our heart,
Our heart smiles back at us.
Now let the joy and happiness generated in the heart flow down into the spleen,
The pancreas.
This is found within the left lower rib cage,
Extending from the solar plexus area,
Under the liver and directly below the left lung.
Now the spleen is connected to your lips.
So smile to your spleen and feel its shape under your left ribs.
Imagine the spleen filling up with bright yellow light.
And here we let worry dissipate as you smile into it and get in touch with the feeling of fairness,
With the feeling of everything's going to be okay.
Allow the bright yellow light to settle in a little bit longer as you smile to your spleen.
And take a deep breath in here.
As you exhale,
Let the smiling energy flow to your lungs.
And you can clear the lungs of energetic,
Emotional and physical pollution by smiling into them as you mentally increase the amount of energy or chi absorbed within each breath.
Feel the airflow from the tip of the nose down into the lungs.
You can clear the lungs of energetic,
Emotional and physical pollution by smiling into them.
And as you smile into your lungs,
We feel courage.
Thank your lungs for breathing and helping you sustain life.
And here we release sadness and depression as you smile into your lungs,
Creating space for courage to expand.
Let the smiling energy flow down to your kidneys.
These are in your back on either side of the spine,
Behind below your ribs.
Smile into your kidneys.
Feel them in your body and imagine filling it up with bright blue light.
Let fear melt away as you smile into them and replace with gentleness.
And breathe in.
A soft breath out.
Let the nervous organ in the body,
Situated just below the right lung,
Under the rib cage.
The liver controls energy of the eyes and it rules our inner vision.
Smile into the liver and feel the shape under your ribs and imagine filling it up with green light.
Let anger evaporate and replace it with kindness.
Now in your next deep inhale,
Draw all of this energy from your torso all the way up past your heart,
Your throat and back into your eyes.
And allow the smile to form once again on your face.
And the smiling energy permeates down into the body behind the eyes.
And feel every cell in your body smile with it.
Feel this subtle sense of just an underlining joy,
Peacefulness,
Feeling an equilibrium between you,
Your mind,
Your body,
And your spirit.
Continue to cultivate this energy as long as you feel called.
Feel free to revisit some of those other spots that may need a little bit longer of that inner smile healing.
Remain on this journey as long as you need.
And I will see you again soon.
Namaste.
