Introduction

Mantak Chia was the first Qi Gong master to write and teach in our country. He taught The Inner Smile as the most powerful self-healing tool.

Getting the Most Out of The Inner Smile

• Smiling is a way of sending loving energy to someone, even oneself! Loving energy carries healing energy with it.
• Visualizing, imagining or pretending, is infinitely creative.
• Any loving expression visualized at the site of pain or discomfort sends a direct healing message at the cellular level.
• When we send a smile inward, directing it within the silent beauty of our inner being, we send healing energy where it is needed.
• Some people have a difficult time with the idea of smiling into themselves. Just imagine the face someone or something that makes you smile in each area, as you turn your attention inward.
• Also, please relax about the references to specific organs. If you wish, you can buy and color The Anatomy Coloring Book before you do The Inner Smile, but that is really not necessary. Having a general sense of where you are smiling in the body is all that is necessary.
• You may have a sense of stuck energy as you explore the inner realms. When you sense a block of any kind, just notice it and smile into it. You may even notice the smile goes in easier in some places than others.
• Use your imagination when you smile into painful places. Sometimes I pretend to write the word "smile" on a hurting place, and then smiling there is often easier the next time I do it.
• Pushing or getting upset defeats the purpose of this work, so simply notice what happens as you move through the exercise. Let any thoughts of right or wrong just pass through the mind, as clouds pass through the clear blue sky.

Stay focused on the smile, and let one appear on your face as you do the exercise!

The Inner Smile

1. Eyes…Start with the eyes. To practice with the inner smile begin by closing your eyes and smiling sincerely into them. Relax and feel a deep smile shining through your eyes. By relaxing your eyes you can calm your entire nervous system.

2.Jaws…Smile down your face into your jaws. Your jaws are a major storehouse of tension. When you allow the energy created by that “inner smile” to go into your jaws, you may feel your body letting go and tension releasing. This may be accompanied by tingling sensations and noises or not.

3.Tongue to Palate…The tongue is the bridge connecting the back (yang) and front (yin) channels. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth, but it is easiest to leave it in front in the beginning. When chi flows into the tongue it may produce
different sensations…perhaps a warm tingle.

4. Neck and Throat… the neck region is another reservoir of tension. Contained in this area are many important nerves and blood vessels vitally important to your well being. The neck is the bridge between your brain and your body. If you are in a traffic jam, knotted with tension and anxiety, the messages between your brain and organs will be confused and tense. Tighten your neck muscles, then slowly allow them to relax. Tuck in your chin, and let your head sink into your chest. Relax the neck muscles by creating the illusion that they are no longer necessary to hold up your head. Smile into your neck and throat and feel the tension melt.

5. The Loving Heart…The heart pumps blood and chi energy through your veins and arteries. In Taoist yoga, the heart, along with the kidneys, is the main transformer of chi energy. This means that the heart is capable of both increasing your available chi and raising the quality of its energy to a more refined level.

The arteries are said to belong to yang energy and the veins to yin energy. The arteries, therefore, have a positive charge and the veins a negative one. When you smile and fill your heart with love, you increase the rate of blood circulation and with it the exchange of yin and yang energy chi in the bloodstream. So smile into your heart, and feel the loving energy of the smile spread throughout your circulatory system.

Feel the stream of relaxation flow down and spread from your face and neck into your heart. You may sense the heart to be cool and calm, and at the same time feel its physical substance. Extending the smile relieves stored tension and enables a new kind of functioning to take place. Fill your heart with love. Let your heart be your “sweetheart”.

6. Lungs…Radiate the love in your heart to your lungs. Feel the lungs soften, and breathe with new ease. Feel the air inside lighten up as it enters and leaves your lungs. Feel their moist, spongy quality as you relax and fill your with energy.

7. Abdomen…Now smile into your liver on the right side, just below the rib cage. If your liver is hard, if it is difficult to feel, soften it with your smile. Smile it back to life, rejuvenate it with your love.

Direct the smile into your kidneys, in your lower back just below the rib cage on either side of the spine. The adrenal glands sit on top of them. Smile at your adrenals, and you may sense a burst of adrenalin. Smile to the kidneys and fill them with love. Like the heart, this will increase the flow of chi circulating through your system.

Allow the smile to flow throughout your central abdomen, through the pancreas and the spleen. Then gently rest the smile in your navel. All of your organs can be “smiled to”. The process of smiling into the organs lightens their work load, and enables them to function more efficiently. They have a hard job pumping and purifying hundreds of gallons of blood each day, breaking down raw food into digestible energy, cleansing toxic substances and storing our emotional tensions. By smiling into your organs you’ve made their day a cheerful one.

8.Middle line... Swallow saliva into lower abdomen…Smile again in your eyes. Smile down into your mouth and swish your tongue around to collect saliva. When your mouth is filled with saliva, put the tip of your tongue to your palate, tighten your neck muscles, and swallow hard and quickly, making a gulping sound as you do. With your inner smile, follow the saliva down your esophagus, through your internal track and to your navel. Your saliva is a lubricating nectar which is dispersed throughout the body from the navel center. Smile away the nervous energy in your stomach, and you will eat better food and find it easier to digest. Relax the smiling energy into your small intestine, large intestine, and rectum.

9.Back line: Spine…Now bring your focus back to your eyes. Smile into your eyes, your tongue, then begin to smile down the inside of your spinal column. Make sure your posture is straight . Descend one vertbra at a time, smiling into each until you have reached the coccyx. The spinal column protects your central nervous system and is crucial in increasing your chi circulation.

You may experience a feeling of great ease, warmth, and comfort in each vertebra. When the lumbar, coccyxal, and pubic areas are relaxed, energy is released, and flows more easily up the back.

10. End by collecting the energy at the navel…With practice, the entire smiling meditation can be done in just minutes, although at first it may take you longer to really feel the smile.
To collect the energy, simply concentrate your mind on your navel, and imagine your energy spinning like a slow top inside, spiraling outward movement, inside your navel about 1 ½ inch deep, and 24 times back in to the navel. Men spiral clockwise; women spiral counter clockwise. Then reverse and circulate the energy in the opposite direction.

11. Practice the inner smile in your daily life. If you remember to practice your inner smile during your daily life, it can bring tremendous results and can transform your life.

Selections from “The Secret Of The Inner Smile”, from Awaken Healing Energy Through the Tao, by Mantak Chia.