Meditation of the Inner Smile

PART ONE

Cleanse & Purify the Internal Body with Taoist Meditation.

The inner smile is preparatory meditation that cleanses the organs and internal body. Using the human smile as a connection to inner healing for health, happiness and longevity. The smile is the gateway to relaxation. By focusing our smiling energy into the physical and emotional body we can learn how to enhance positive emotions, lessen excessive negative emotions and cleanse the organs to aid inner Qi flow. This practice prepares us for the microcosmic orbit meditation. It is advised to cleanse the body using the Inner Smile prior to the microcosmic orbit. Using the five element theory found in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Benefits of the Inner Smile Practice

• Dissolves blockages of Qi
• Transforms negative emotions into positive
• Learn to love and accept ourselves
• Learn to love and accept others
• Helps to reduce stress
• Kick-start the parasympathetic nervous system
• Enhances relaxation and mental calm
• Helps ease physical and mental tension
• Develops greater sensitivity to our bodies and heightened awareness
• Promotes self healing
• Helps melt negative thoughts and patterns rather than attacking and controlling them
• View this article on 'Why smile to the organs'

The Inner Smile Process - Part One

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1)      Preparation

• Wear clothes so that you don’t become cold and avoid sitting in a draught.  Complete the preparatory exercises to stimulate Qi flow.

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2)      Sitting Position

• Sit on edge of chair, feet flat, back straight, relaxed, hands together palms touching, right hand on top, left hand on bottom.

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3)      Awareness

• Close your eyes and mouth gently, breathe through the nose and place the tongue on the roof of the mouth as discussed at the beginning of this paper.
• Notice the connection between your feet and the ground, becoming aware of earth energy.
• Surround yourself with a coloured mist of warmth and love, taking your mind to your favourite place to create your own smiling energy.

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4)      Breathing

• Use abdominal breathing into the lower Dantian, the focus should not be on the breath, rather the process of the meditation.
• Breathing can be natural.

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5)      The Front Line (Organs and Glands)

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Mid Eyebrow

• Focus your mind on the location between your eyebrows, known as the third eye.  Relax your forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, mouth, jaw.  Smile into your third eye accumulating smiling energy to begin the meditation.

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The Heart

• Action: Smile down to your upper sternum.  Imagine this area filled with warmth and light and blossoming like a flower.
• The Heart (Opening the Heart Fire to burn out the negative and fuel positive vitality)
• Action: Smile down like water cascading to your heart. Imagine this area filling with feelings of love, like a fire burning in your heart.  Fill the heart with the colour red, breathing a red mist of love and light into the heart.  Imagine the heart strengthening and being nourished. As you breathe out imagine that your heart is burning out all the negative emotions, exhaling a red mist and getting rid of the negative emotions.  When you feel the heart has expanded with love and joy, it will blossom like a flower releasing a fragrance.  When you feel the heart blossom, open the fingers outward like a flower. When the heart is relaxed and warm continue on.
• Inner Smile Hand Position: Raise hands, palms together facing the heart, thumbs resting softly on the body by the heart.
• Positive characteristics: Love, joy, happiness
• Negative characteristics: Impatience, cruelty, arrogance, hate
• Taoist Associations: Fire element, colour red, number 9, south

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 The Lungs

• Action: Smile down to the lungs. Filling the lungs with the colour white, inhaling a white mist into the lungs as they expand with courage and bravery. As with the heart fill the lungs with love and thank them.
• Inner Smile Hand Position: Hold the palms over the rib cage on either side with the palms facing the body
• Positive characteristics: Courage, righteousness, bravery, strength
• Negative characteristics: Grief, sadness, depression, loneliness, sorrow
• Taoist Associations: Metal element, colour white, number 6 & 7, west and north west

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 The Pancreas, Spleen & Stomach

• Action: Smile down to the pancreas, spleen and stomach by the lower left of your ribcage, filling with love and the colour yellow.  Imagine the function of the pancreas, spleen and stomach working easily and thank them for their hard work in maintaining a healthy digestion.  Breathe in a golden yellow mist into these areas in your body and exhale
• Inner Smile Hand Position: Hover your hands palms facing the body on lower left of your ribcage
• Positive characteristics: Openness, justice, fairness, trust
• Negative characteristics:  Brooding, mistrust, worry, anxiety
• Taoist Associations: Earth element, colour yellow, number 2, 5 & 8, centre, north east, south west

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The Kidneys & Adrenals

• Action: Smile down to both kidneys and your adrenal glands just below your ribcage on the lower back.  Fill them with love and thank them for the work they do in your body.  Imagine a blue light filling your kidneys and exhale a blue mist to dispel negative emotions.
• Inner Smile Hand Position: With palms facing your body, cover your kidney area on each side with each hand
• Positive Characteristics: Gentleness, calmness, silence
• Negative Characteristics:  Fear, isolation, insecurity
• Taoist Associations: Water element, colour black and dark blue, number 1, north

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