This meditation brings about the sensation of a smile through the body.
It can be done seated or lying down.
So choose which one you would prefer,
Coming either to a comfortable seating position or lying down on your back.
Make sure that you're extremely comfortable,
So if you choose to lie on your back,
Maybe prop your knees with a bolster in your head with a pillow.
And if you choose to stay seated,
Maybe sit up on a meditation cushion or a block.
Close the eyes and just start by scanning your body.
Notice if there is any hidden tension that you can immediately identify.
Just by sending your own sweet attention to these places,
Maybe they just begin to let go on their own.
Allow the sides of your jaw to release,
The tongue to widen into the floor of the mouth behind your lower teeth.
Let the eyes grow quiet behind heavy lids.
Keep the muscles of your mouth and lips completely relaxed.
Just conjure up the feeling of a smile,
Without having to move the muscles at all.
You can think of someone you love or a time that you were incredibly happy.
Conjure the feeling of the smile.
Send that feeling of a smile down through the throat and into the stomach now.
Feel a sense of your stomach smiling.
Just the sensation of that smile in your stomach that feels so good and so easeful.
Feel the stomach smiling.
Move the sensation of the smile down into the intestines.
Caressing your navel,
Filling your abdomen with warmth,
Sliding up through the ascending colon,
Across the transverse and down the descending colon.
Feel the whole abdomen warm,
Smiling,
Completely at peace.
Feel a sense of the belly smiling.
Begin to notice that the smile,
The sensation is not limited or bound to your skin,
But it can radiate into a field around you.
The inside of a lightbulb can be quite small,
But its light can fill an entire room.
Let the sensation of the smile begin to radiate out from within you.
Fill the space around you as if you were held in a warm embrace.
Keep the breath relaxed and natural.
Just feel a sense of that light and that warmth,
That sensation of the smile radiating out into the world around you.
As you happen to exhale,
Feel a sense of the smile moving back through the permeable body,
Charging every cell and every space in between.
As you happen to inhale,
Feel this warm energy radiate out in all directions.
As you happen to exhale,
This smile charges every cell in your body.
Every cell begins to glisten,
Radiating a smile and this inner sense of ease and happiness.
In your own time,
Begin to wake the body.
Bring the smallest movements to your fingers and toes.
You can turn your head gently side to side.
Take a few deeper breaths and it might feel nice to stretch the arms overhead or make any movements that feel like they'll enliven your body.
There is no rush and once you're ready,
Bend your knees if you're lying down on your back and bring your knees into your chest for a moment and eventually roll to one side into a fetal position.
Take a few moments here.
As you press yourself up,
Take some time to honor your practice,
Your level and engagement in that practice and the experience that's born out of that engagement.
It's really the experience of the true you.
From my heart to yours,
Namaste.
