It’s the start of Tai Chi class, and we are all standing quietly, ready to begin. The first instruction, before we do anything, before our inner attention goes toward feeling the energy of movement, before the arms lift and the hands begin the graceful movements of Tai Chi, is “Inner Smile.”
Directing feeling-attention inside, I feel a smile, imagine a smile, in the lower abdomen. I relax. I evoke a smiling feeling. Without effort, my mouth softly smiles, just a little, as the loving gentle energy of the idea of “inner smile” naturally rises through my body and relaxes me. Thoughts and feelings may have been something different a minute ago, but now everything relaxes as I imagine the inner smile. Tension subsides and releases as the feeling-attention sinks down into the dan tien or hara, the energy center in the lower abdomen. Breathing down, slowly, slowly, and none of the concerns of a moment ago matter so much.
Feeling the inner smile, that smile looks out through my eyes and enlivens my hands. It flows through the body like the rays of a gentle sun, into the arms and legs, into hands, into and through the palms and fingers.
That warm and kind inner smile is available any time—before you begin meditation, before you start your day, before you say hello to your neighbor. At any pause, at any time, inner smile is always available. And in that space everything gentles and softens, the world feels lighter, the air is clearer, the light is brighter. Our awareness expands without effort, and we are relaxed and at home
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Photo by Mike Mareen on Deposit Photos
