2010 smile meditation
An extraordinary 2010 smile meditation from one of my favorite spiritual guidance teachers Tara Branch.
As someone who can get caught up in a whirlwind of worries and stress, I’ve found that a smile meditation is essential. With this simple practice, I can remember how powerful it is to stop and focus on the beauty of life. It’s incredible what transforming your frown into a genuine smile can do for your energy.
As I take the time to intentionally relax my facial muscles and shift my thoughts towards something positive, I begin to feel lighter and more connected to the joys of the present moment.
Additionally, I always feel connected to a special kind of inner peace afterward, never regretting for a second that I spent time giving attention to my mental health by doing some smile meditation.
Smile Meditation Video For 2010
Full Smile Meditation Text
So please close your eyes if you’d like, let your attention go inward and sense that you can make yourself at home right in this moment.
Just relax with your experience and notice what’s happening you might find that it helps to collect your attention if you take a few very conscious long deep breaths so together let’s inhale deeply and exhale slowly again inhale deeply to fill the lungs and a gentle exhale slowly releasing the breath and again inhale deeply filling the lungs hold for a moment and exhale letting the breath out releasing relaxing so as the breath continues in its natural cycles sense the possibility of relaxing even more relaxing
As the breath comes in is like a balloon filling with air just relaxing open and with the out-breath, letting go lettinggo[Music]let your senses be awake so that you’re aware of the sounds around you very receptive listening to the sounds of the room and listening to the sounds and sensations and feelings inside you listening to your heart just be aware of the state of your heart right now open or closed speedy anxious easy peaceful numb vulnerable without any judgment
Just notice how itis right now as you listen to even more closely listen for what your sincerity of intention is right now, what you wish for tonight what matters to you let it be a mental whisper, a prayer-sensing your immediate intention and our shared intention for waking up for having this awakening of heart and mind ripple out and be of benefit to all beings everywhere that’s with that sincerity we chant together if you’d like to bring the palms letting them touch very lightly at the heart area in front of you in prayer pose just staying connected with your heart
With your intention will, chant the mantra ohm sound current of the connectedness of the longing of oneness will chant it three times please inhale deeply
lowering your hands and sensing yoursitting posture from the inside out so that if it makes sense to very subtly and gently and gradually adjust so you’re sitting in a way that is tall allows you to have a quality of alertness supports alertness sitting in a way that’s balanced so you might even lean a little forward a little backward a little to one side and then the other and then find that centered balanced posture letting everything relax around the tallness of the spine
Put the shoulders relaxed back and down, arms the hands soft, softening the belly you can feel the breath being received deep in the torso image that supports a kind of inner receptivity and openness is that of a smile you might imagine a great blue sky filled with the curve of a smile shining open uplifted smile that settles down into your mind so that your mind like the sky is open and filled with that sense of lightness receptivity filled with that curve of a smile the smile spread through the eyes the corners of the eyes
Feel them up a little, the flesh around the eyes softa slight but real smile at the mouth this smile actually sends a message to the nervous system that counters the conditioning of fight/flight that allowsyou to rest in ease, trust a sense of belonging, feel the inside of the mouth smiling so the mind is filled with a smile the eyes mouth in the sense that the smile could settle through the chest and heart area spreading itself
So that you can feel not that you’re covering over anything but that there’s now space to feel what’s there kind space, a gentle space sensing that smile can allow you to like concentric circles in all directions feel a spreading of relaxation so it envelops the shoulders the inside of the shoulders can soften a dissolving they’re letting relaxing down through the arms hands resting in a straightforward effortless way
The smile on the openness and the chest can ripple downward, relaxing the torso and the belly even more again, feeling the breathing received deep in the torso, letting the awareness wake up through the hips the buttocks, genitals down through the legs being aware from the inside out of your thighs hamstrings calves shins feeling the feet from the inside out then in a comprehensive way allow yourself to experience this whole field of bodily sensations the vibrating and the tingling the heat or coolness
Where it might be tightly closed, open loose, feeling the energy body, the subtle aliveness that pervades every cell relaxing with the experience receiving not only the aliveness but also the particular vibration of sound you might listen to the close in sounds right here in the room, including thecoming and going of these words like a symphony just appearing disappearing always changing including the more distant sounds nothing to do just receiving this life experience in awareness listening to and feeling the entire moment sensing the edgeless space of presence that sounds and sensations are happening in or experienced you might find it helpful to have a home base
Keeping in the foreground a gentle attention on the inflow and outflow of the breath or perhaps the particular experience of sounds noticing all the other experiences appearances that are occurring in awareness also as we continue in silence let your intention be to notice when the mind gets lost in the clouds of thought and gently reawaken when you notice opening back into this presence opening back into this relaxed listening attention
Coming home again and again into nowness, you notice the mine been wandering regard that with acceptance and patience, just pause since what’s been happening thinking planning, remembering and since the wisdom within you, the love presence choosing to come back just gently arriving again right here since the hereness the sounds play of sensations the mood in your heart something feels difficult since the possibility of offering what’s here real kindness perhaps the mental whisper yes yes or it’s okay but just lets the life be as it is respectful with compassion
Hi guys,
Im Sarah, I absolutely love writing about comfort and relaxation. I am a qualified interior designer and an expert in the field of furniture. It's one of my absolute favorite topics to explore. I'm constantly looking for new ways to meditate so I can learn more about myself.