INNER SMILE WITH SELF MASSAGE

Summer is the season of expansion and joy. During summer the heart energy is dominant and the fire element peaks. This makes it the optimal time to express joy and cultivate self love. The essential Qigong practice to do this is the Inner Smile!

The Inner Smile is the active ingredient in a Qigong practice. What is unique about the Inner Smile is that you not only smile with your mouth, but you will also smile with your organs!

Why the organs? Your vital organs are the foundation of your life and vitality. In school you are taught that the organs carry out specific functions and you can’t live without them. But what you are not taught is that there is a profound connection between your organs and emotions, your consciousness and your spirit. The organs not only serve the body's vital functions; they are reservoirs of intelligence and life force energy. In Chinese each organ is the residence of a spirit, that is an aspect of your consciousness. The master spirit is the heart, called Shen. The heart is emperor that guides all the spirits. Learning how to regulate your organs and communicate with them is a skill that will enhance your Qigong practice and transform your health.

INNER SMILE POWER

Smiling is very powerful. The physical act of smiling sends a message to the brain to release feel-good chemicals called endorphins into the blood stream. When these chemicals are released, the nervous system calms down and stimulates the relaxation response in the body. In the relaxed state, the organs function at their optimal state, the heartbeat begins to slow down, blood pressure decreases, the mind becomes calm, and we feel safe. On the emotional level the inner smile activates uncondi­tional love in our heart. Through love you open the door to communicate with your organs and find out what is there.

The first time I tried to smile at my liver, it was numb. There was nothing there. This was curious. I had no problem connecting to my other organs, but the liver was almost invisible. With a lot of patience and some waves of frustration and anger, eventually I felt something stir. When my liver finally smiled back at me, I cried. It was like meeting a precious part of myself that I had neglected and abused my whole life. All I could do was ask my liver for forgiveness. "I am so sorry for not appreciating you and taking care of you.” When my liver spirit responded, a feeling of deep relaxation and ease pervaded my body. I had transformed years of anger into kindness. The virtue of forgiveness and kindness later blossomed in many of my spiritual practices, revealing past lives and visions that created dramatic shifts in my life story.

Once you meet your organs, they are your friends for life and have many messages to share with you. The secret is that this process of transformation is not achieved through force. The beauty of the Inner Smile Meditation is that it uses the attitude of non-resistance to create change. It's about becoming aware of what is there, accepting what is there, and then expanding the space to open beyond it.

The Inner Smile practice follows the Generative Cycle of the Five Elements from the heart to the spleen, to the lungs and the kidneys, and finishes with the liver. In this way we are moving energy through the natural cycle of creation which is very tonifying for the body.

Each organ resonates with a specific emotional vibration, virtue and elemental phase of energy. Because emotions are frequencies, when we change the frequency in the organ we can change the charge of the emotion. We can transform negative emotions and cultivate virtues. Virtues are more than just positive emotions. Virtues are refined vibrations that nourish and feed the organs. In a Qigong practice, cultivating virtuous energy improves the quality of our Qi. So during this practice I will guide you to connect to your organs, identify the emotional frequency stored in the organ and then transform it with the smiling energy and light.

For example, the virtue of the spleen spirit is trust. By cultivating trust in oneself and in life, worry is transformed, and the spleen spirit, the Yi, is relaxed and nourished. When our organ spirits are happy, Qi flows smoothly, the aura is magnetic, we are protected, and we perceive life's challenges with wisdom. But if we neglect to cultivate our virtues, then over time the spirits of the organs can "flee” or wander around attaching to external desires and we lose touch with our True Nature. So many people these days have lost touch with their spirits. Learning how to communicate with your vital organs is a wonderful way to bring the spirit of life back to the world.

I encourage you to make this practice part of your life. It is a preventative practice as well as a spiritual practice. By preventive practice I mean that we do not wait until disease arises to begin healing. We can connect to our organs and know if something is out of balance or blocked and if we can’t make the transformation on our own we can seek help before its too late. I know so many people that have gotten cancer and it was too late. By spiritual practice I mean that our organs are resovoirs of Qi and blood and have a spiritual connection to the universe. So as you progress in this practice, a whole new level of energetic understanding will open to you.

 I learned the Inner Smile from Grandmaster Mantak Chia of the Universal Healing Tao School. But in this version of the Inner Smile, I am going to share with you the way I do it, which adds self-massage. I found that combining the smiling energy with loving touch and energy circulation is a powerful way to clear stagnation makes it much easier to open a deep connection with your organs. The key to this practice is that you really connect your mind awareness with the organs. the more you do it, the stronger the connection becomes.

The meditation can be done seated in a chair, sitting on the floor or laying down if you are not feeling well. The beauty of this practice is that anyone can do it- any age, or health condition. If you are healthy is can prevent illness. If you are sick, it will support healing. 

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