Half-smiling is accepting and tolerating
with your body.
To do it, you relax your face, neck, and shoulder muscles, and then half-smile with your lips. Try to adopt a serene facial expression. Remember to relax the facial muscles. Emotions are partially controlled by facial expressions. By adopting a half-smile – a serene, accepting face - people can control their emotions somewhat. They can feel more accepting if their faces express acceptance.
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Half-Smiling Exercises: |
HALF SMILE
Accept reality with your body. Relax (by letting go or by just tensing and then letting go) your face, neck, and shoulder muscles and half smile with your lips. A tense smile is a grin (and might tell the brain you are hiding or masking). A half smile is slightly up-turned lips with a relaxed face. Try to adopt a serene facial expression. Remember, your body communicates to your mind.
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1. HALF-SMILE WHEN YOU FIRST AWAKE IN THE MORNING
Hang a branch, any other sign, or even the word “smile” on the ceiling or wall so that you see it right away when you open your eyes. This sign will serve as your reminder. Use the seconds before you get out of bed to take hold of your breath. Inhale and exhale three breaths gently while maintaining a half-smile. Follow your breaths.
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2. HALF-SMILE DURING YOUR FREE MOMENTS
Anywhere you find yourself sitting or standing, half-smile. Look at a child, a leaf, a painting on a wall, or anything that is relatively still, and smile. Inhale and exhale quietly three times.
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3. HALF-SMILE WHILE LISTENING TO MUSIC
Listen to a piece of music for 2 or 3 minutes. Pay attention to the words, music rhythm, the centimeters of the music you are listening to (not your daydreams of other times). Half-smile while watching your breathe, your inhalations and exhalations.
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4. HALF-SMILE WHEN IRRITATED
When you realize “I am irritated,” half-smile at once. Inhale and exhale quietly, maintaining a half-smile for three breaths.
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5. HALF-SMILE IN A LYING-DOWN POSITION
Lie on your back on a flat surface without the support of a mattress or pillow. Keep you two arms loosely by your sides and keep your two legs slightly apart, stretched out before you. Maintain a half-smile. Breath in and out gently, keeping your attention focused on your breath. Let go of every muscle in your body. Relax each muscle as though it were sinking down through the floor, or as though it were as soft and yielding as a piece of silk hanging in the breeze to dry. Let go entirely, keeping your attention only on your breath and your half-smile. Think of yourself as a cat, completely relaxed before a warm fire, whose muscles yield with out much resistance to anyone's touch. Continue for 15 breaths.
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6. HALF-SMILE IN A SITTING POSITION
Sit on the floor with your back straight, or on a chair with your two feet touching the floor., half-smile. Inhale and exhale while maintaining the half-smile. Let go.
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