Feel better with a Smile

मन्दस्मित प्रभापूरः

“Man without smiling face should not open a shop” –
Chinese Proverb.

The Radiance of Smile 

Smile is the most frequent and universal way of communication. As per a British study conducted in UK, researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of stimulations as that of 2 000chocolate bars and as stimulating as receiving up to 16,000 Pounds Sterling in cash.

An adult smiles and laughs for 5 to 20 times a day. But those with the greatest superpowers are actually children, who smile as many as 400 times per day! A good example of this is a children’s playground: You often see the kids running around, constantly laughing and smiling as they enjoy living in the moment, while the parents sit around the edge, full of the stresses that modern life can bring, with the occasional grin breaking their otherwise serious facial expressions.. Smiling and laughing can have a positive effect on your well-being, but as you make the transition from child to adult, you often tend to lose the habit of indulging in these behaviours. Because of improper lifestyles and imbalanced mental processes adults forgot to laugh and smile Adults can benefit from taking a lead from children and making more room in life for smiling and laughter.

Research has shown that there are a number of health benefits contributed to smiling and laughing. In addition to improved health, these simple facial expressions and common human behaviours can have a distinctive positive affect on other factors all areas of your life. When you smile and laugh, a number of physiological changes occur in your body, mostly without you being consciously aware of it happening.

Charles Darwin developed the Facial Feedback Response Theory, which suggests that the act of someone smiling at us actually makes us feel better (yes, of course, he smiles because he is feeling good).

Neurotransmitters called endorphins are released when you smile. These are triggered by the movements of the muscles in your face, which is interpreted by your brain, which in turn releases these chemicals. Endorphins are responsible for making us feel happy, and they also help lower stress levels. Faking a smile or laugh works as well as the real thing—the brain doesn’t differentiate between real or fake as it interprets the positioning of the facial muscles in the same way. This is known as the facial feedback hypothesis. The more we stimulate our brain to release this chemical the more often we feel happier and relaxed. This is the basis on which Dr.Madan Kataria developed the concept of Laughter Yoga.

Endorphins make us feel happier and less stressed, as it reduces the level of stress hormone cortisol. Laughing expands the lungs, stretches the muscles in the body and stimulates homeostasis. A good laugh can help you release emotions, especially those emotions that you might bottle up inside. Smiling is an attractive expression, which will draw people to you rather than push them away. As per ancient psychology you must smile internally as well, for achieving the wellness.

Inner Alchemy – Inner Smile practice

Smiling can melt energy patterns that we might feel, are stuck or frozen inside us. Based on Taoist Meditation practice, the inner smile meditation is a simple, effortless yet profound and subtle meditation technique to live with an open heart. It is centred on generating the benevolent qualities of a genuine smile that we usually offer to others.

The inner smile is an opportunity to offer a smile to one self. It acts from within to melt our stuck energy to become functional and free. . It can be done in a seated meditation session or in the midst of daily life. The inner smile can also be integrated into Yogasana practices. This should be practiced every day for 10 to 30 minutes.

To begin, choose a quiet spot. Find a comfortable posture for meditation (seated on a Yoga mat or in a chair). Place your hands on your knees in Jnana Mudra (index and thumb fingers touching), with palms facing up to open your awareness or palms facing down to calm the mind. Now close your eyes. Do a body scan and relax any tension you may be holding. Let your spine rise from the root of the pelvis. Draw your chin slightly down and lengthen the back of your neck. Become aware of the midpoint between your eyebrows through which you will draw this abundant smiling energy in front of and around you. Let your forehead relax, and allow the smiling energy accumulates at the mid-eyebrow [ bhru-madhya ]; it will eventually overflow into your body. Feel your abdomen rising and falling and the overflowing energy gradually accumulates into your navel, which is the energy centre. Let it flow in to your abdomen. Continue smiling into your navel. As you exhale, bring your attention into the bladder. Visualize the energy flowing there in bright orange colour. Let your awareness stay there for a couple of breaths.

Move on to the right side of the body, to the liver on the next exhale. Smile into your liver. Visualize energy in the form of a bright sunlight flowing in to the liver with the inhalation. Continue this for another three to four breaths. Now move to the heart on the next exhale. Visualize shining green colour to the energy that is flowing to your heart while you continue to breath and smile. Stay there for a couple of breaths as well.

Now let your awareness slowly glide down to your stomach, pancreas and spleen on the next exhalation. Breathe and smile into these organs. Visualize the energy there as bright yellow with the qualities of warm soft earth. Continue to smile. Bring your awareness into your lungs. Lungs denote the quality of the value, Peace. Inhale bright blue coloured energy into every cell as you smile into them. Feel your lungs expand and become cool and pure helping you to find your inner calm. Repeat this for a number of times of breaths.

On the next exhale, let your awareness go down to your kidneys. Visualise the energy in bright yellowish orange colour. Go through the cycle of organs as explained for a few number of times. When you finish, finally bring your awareness back to the navel where the energy is stored. As all the internal tensions are dissolved by this practice the whole body becomes calm and filled with peace. As you move the energy in the given order – the creation cycle – every cell is charged with energy. The surplus energy is automatically conducted into the brain and the nerve cells. This harmonizes the brain, balances both hemisphere and provides healing effects on the organs.

Dalai Lama gave a teaching recently. The final question asked of him was, “What can we give to you?” His face radiated with happiness. "That is easy," he said. "Just give me your smiles. It makes me feel good when I see people smile at me. And if you smile at each other that would also be very good. So please give me your smiles.”

When you smile, it is like the Sun coming out from behind dark clouds, and lighting up your earth. So SMILE...! Both inside and outside!

Thank you.