Last weekend I had the good fortune of having 16 members of A Mindful Life join me on retreat at the Dharmakaya Center for Wellbeing in upstate New York. Our theme for the weekend was Cultivating Joy. I started by saying that though there has been a great deal of dis-ease in this country and in the world over the past several years, we should not wait for an easier time to focus on joy. Cultivating joy right now can only help our situation. And so that is what we did over three days.
We dove into many aspects of joy -- what it feels like, what conditions it arises from, the difference between joy and happiness, the joy that comes from generosity, the joy of another's joy, the essential ingredients of presence and gratefulness in joy, the role of self-care in joy, finding joy in endings/closings and in our resilience. In this week's pause, I'll share one simple avenue to joy that we also worked with. Our smile.
We were born to smile. We have the innate ability to do it. How amazing is that! We were given this expression and just think how powerful one's smile is! Try it, picture someone you love smiling. Really see their face. Isn't it hard not to smile back! It is contagious. And now, sense how you feel when you are smiling. I feel warmth, relaxation, joy when I take in someone's genuine smile and smile back.
So, why don't we use this simple gift we were born with more often? We can smile at people we know and people we don't know. We can smile at ourselves when we look in the mirror. We can smile inside, just so slightly that only we may know we are smiling. You might have noticed that many statues of the Buddha have just a slight smile. That's all it takes to feel it inside. We can have a huge smile and show all our teeth if we choose! No matter how large or small, it is its own medicine.
On the retreat, I shared a meditation that organically came to me one day years ago and I am happy to share it with you, too. It is simple. Read the instructions and then get comfortable, set a timer for 5 minutes and give it a try.
- Start by sensing your breathing. Without changing it, just feel when you breathe in and when you breathe out and begin to follow along. You might simply say, "breathing in/breathing out."
- Call up people in your life. In any random order, picture someone in your life. Let them float up like a bubble, see their face, and wait until you can see them smile. Once you can visualize their smile, smile back and let them float away. Be patient if you can't see the smile right away.
- Let the next person float up to your consciousness and do the same. Don't rush. Don't start thinking about the person, just see their smile and smile back and move on.
- Do this with anyone who comes to mind.
- At the end notice how you feel.
Please write back and share your experience. We can do this anytime. When the world starts weighing on you, see people smiling in your mind and in your life. Smiling costs us nothing and may be the biggest gift we can give and receive. But we have to let ourselves receive it, so be sure to pause and let someone's smile in. The benefit is even greater that way.
Wishing everyone who is celebrating a Happy Passover and a Happy Easter and a Happy Spring Break!
🌷
Jean
