Welcome to the guided meditation titled,
The Power of Your Smile to Reconnect with Your Strength.
Hope you are well and safe.
My name is Shamaila and I will be your meditation guide today.
The Sufi poet,
Shah Abdul Latif Pithai sings about the abundance that rainfall brings in the desert regions.
The coming of the rainfall is like the arrival of the beloved and it brings happiness.
He says,
Rain and love are one and the same.
Oh rain,
If you learn to shed tears like the eyes,
Your drops will not cease.
My eyes are overwhelmed as are those of my beloved.
Raise your eyes and smile,
My friend,
And all sorrows will vanish.
Often we get so trapped in the drama of life and sorrows,
Hardships and challenges that life brings,
That we lose touch with our inner strength.
Finding time to quiet your mind and connect with your breath is a powerful way to reconnect with our strength.
When we experience hardships,
Our inner resources get consumed and we begin identifying with our weaknesses.
But there is a way to break free from that.
By meditating on the power of our smile,
We will rediscover our strength and resiliency,
And envision a new positive future for ourselves and for the collective.
Let's begin today by finding a comfortable place to lay down or sit where you will not be disturbed by anyone or anything for the duration of this meditation.
If you have recently felt the urge to spend more time in the quiet,
Follow this feeling and find time to quiet your mind and connect with the source.
Your practice doesn't need to take hours and even two minutes a day can bring about desired results and give you space to communicate with your higher self.
Allow your mind to fully relax as you focus on your breath.
Breathe in deeply and as you exhale,
Release any tension you have in your mind,
Body or soul.
Carry on focusing on your breath and continue saying this to yourself.
I intend to relax and be accepting of life as it comes.
I intend to relax and be accepting of life as it comes.
Now I would like to invite you to begin by taking some moments to reflect on whatever you feel most grateful towards.
Reflect on what you love and as an experience comes to mind,
Take some moments to let the good feelings that come with that.
Feel the positive sensation in your body.
I would like to invite you to take a moment to reflect on whatever you feel most grateful towards.
Reflect on what you love and as an experience comes to mind,
Take some moments to let the good feelings that come with that.
Feel the positive sensation in your body.
Let yourself feel excited,
Happy,
Glad,
Hopeful and enthusiastic.
Really rest in that.
Soak it in and feel it fully.
Deeply sense what it's like to have the experience of appreciation really spread through the body,
Mind and being.
And you can deepen this as we practice together the image and the felt sense of a smile.
Now imagine the great open sky around us filled with the curve and sense of a smile,
A vast smile.
Sense that openness of space and a smile filling it and then letting that smile spread through the mind.
Letting the mind kind of emerge with that great sky so your mind is filled with the curve and the felt sense of a smile.
Let the smile spread through the eyes now.
Lift the outer corner slightly.
Sense a natural softening,
Awakening,
Letting the brow be smooth,
Letting the jaw be unhinged,
A slight smile at the mouth,
Filling the inside of the mouth smiling.
Notice the whole play of sensations to the area of the lips,
Tongue,
Gums,
Teeth.
You might visualize and sense a smile spreading through the throat area.
Just sense the space that's there at ease,
Receptive,
Aware of the sensations,
The aliveness,
The space in the throat.
Again,
Sense the eyes soft and smiling because we tend to recontract so quickly.
Now the mouth and the throat.
Sense a smile spreading through the chest area,
Smiling into the heart and letting a smile fill that whole region of the chest.
So that you can sense into the space that's there,
The aliveness that's there.
Let the sense of spaciousness spread out so that the shoulders are free to relax back down.
Back and down,
Falling away from the shoulders,
Hands resting easily.
You might soften the hands and feel the aliveness there.
Sense now an openness to the chest and then softening down,
Relaxing,
Loosening through the abdominal area.
And again,
You might let the visual image and the felt sense of a smile spread through the belly,
Gently receiving the breath deep in the torso.
Intimate attention to the sensations within the space inside the belly.
Scan down to the pelvic region.
Again,
With this image and a felt sense of a smile spreading through,
Filling the pelvic region.
Notice the capacity to really open yourself to sensation.
Sense the space and aliveness there,
Aware of the length and the volume of your legs.
Feel the awareness inside the feet,
The movement of sensation there.
And widen the lengths so that you can receive this whole body as a field of sensation.
Let everything happen.
Include an awareness of the play of sound.
Listen to and feel the whole moment.
Aware in the foreground of this changing play of sound,
Sensations and feelings.
Now so aware of the space that it's all happening inside.
That background of formless awake space.
Now take a step back and feel your upper back relaxing and melting into a wakeful openness that includes and perceives change arising and dissolving from life.
Discover how awareness perceives sensations that awake stillness that receives changing experience of tingling and vibrating movement of life.
Discover how this open awareness perceives sound.
There is a vast silence that's listening.
The silence that listens to the thoughts.
Notice how your mind has now contracted and you can feel every thought as a cloud within your mind.
Your mind is an open sky and your thoughts are circling this open sky.
When your thoughts are racing you are like an airplane that's moving through the clouds.
And now with the mindfulness practice do you notice your airplane merging from clouds and sensing clouds that are still there.
But now you are aware of the whole sky,
The whole reality of what's here in your awareness.
You can consciously reopen and reawaken the senses again.
Listen,
Perhaps relax through the body.
Let go in the shoulders a bit and soften the hands.
The awareness inside the chest and the belly.
Reestablish that embodied wakefulness.
And as you feel this body,
This breathing body and enter a state of renewed wakefulness.
You become aware of your own breathing presence that involves moment to moment awareness and a relaxed attentiveness.
Now take a deep breath and repeat these affirmations after me.
May I be well.
May I be safe and free from suffering.
May I be happy.
May I appreciate every moment of my life.
May I stay grateful.
May I stay calm and clear in every decision I take.
May I speak to myself and others with loving kindness.
May I show compassion to myself and others.
May I shine my light brightly and spread my light in the world.
May I find the love,
Support and companionship I desire.
May I give and receive love from my family.
May I find abundance and inner peace.
May I find strength to cope with my loss and grief.
May I find peace within myself and harmony with other people.
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I be free from suffering.
No matter what hardships you experience,
Keep in mind that your emotional well-being can affect your day to day work.
Staying focused in work and enjoying the work you do can lead you through tough times and help in overcoming any challenges or obstacles that you currently confront.
I hope that this meditation helped you to tap into the power of your smile and develop inner confidence that impacts your communication,
Action and your overall attitude.
Thank you again for joining me today.
Sending you love,
Light and peace.
Salaam.
