THIS FIVE- TO TEN-MINUTE PRACTICE will immediately lift your spirits. With continued practice, it becomes deeper and more profound, a cherished habit of inner joy. As with the Six Healing Sounds, its power comes from a kinesthetic experience, not a cerebral one. When you’re first learning it, it’s best to follow the complete instructions below, which acknowledge the specific functions of each of the internal organs. After you’ve done this for about seven sessions, you can switch to the Brief Summary of the Inner Smile instructions near the end of the chapter, which concentrate on a grateful, smiling connection to each part, rather than on how they work.
Wait at least an hour after eating. Allow twenty to thirty minutes for the Inner Smile practice until you know it by heart. Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes; natural fabrics allow our chi to flow better. Choose a warm, quiet spot. Dim the lights and turn off the phone. Remove your glasses, jewelry, and watch, and loosen your belt. If you’re doing the Inner Smile by itself, it’s best to start with the quick standing warm-up described in chapter 10.
Choose a straight-backed chair and put a pillow on the seat for comfort. Sit on the edge of the seat, freeing up the genital area. Keep your legs comfortably apart and your feet solidly on the floor. Relax your shoulders, straighten your back, and bring your chin in slightly. Place your hands on your lap, right hand over left. Close your eyes and breathe naturally.
FIGURE 12: Inner Smile —The Front Line
1A. Be aware of your feet on the floor, your buttocks on the chair, and your hands in your lap. Relax your forehead. Now, recall an image that makes you smile inwardly and outwardly; it could be the face of someone you love, a joyous occasion, or a beautiful sight in nature. Really see that image in your mind’s eye and feel that smiling energy in your actual eyes.
1B. Mentally direct that smiling energy to flow to the point between your eyebrows, your third eye. Imagine the golden Cosmic Energy flowing into your third eye and joining your smile energy. Direct that combined smile—Cosmic Energy to flow down your nose, your cheeks, and into your mouth. Put your tongue up to the roof of your mouth and leave it there for the rest of the practice. (This connects the two major acupuncture meridians, or energy pathways.) Direct the energy to your jaw; smile into it and feel it release any tension that might be there.
1C. Direct the energy to your throat, to your thyroid and parathyroids. Smile to them and thank the thyroid for producing hormones to regulate your metabolism and the growth rate of your cells; thank the parathyroids for producing hormones to regulate the exchange of calcium between your blood and your bones.
2. Direct the smiling energy to your thymus gland. Thank it for furnishing hormones that stimulate production of white blood cells for defense against infection. (Chi kung believes we can reactivate the thymus, though Western medicine believes it atrophies after puberty.)
3. Bring the energy to your heart. Thank it for its constant and essential work in pumping blood at the right pressure to circulate it throughout your body, bringing nutrients, oxygen, antibodies, and hormones to the cells, and removing waste. It never takes a holiday! Thank it for housing Original Spirit, your direct link to Tao.
4. Smile to your lungs. Thank them for their marvelous work in supplying oxygen to all your cells and releasing carbon dioxide.
5. Smile to your liver, the largest organ. Thank it for its amazingly complex work in digestion — processing, storing, and releasing nutrients — and its work in detoxifying harmful substances.
6. Smile to your pancreas. Thank it for producing digestive enzymes, and insulin to regulate blood sugar level.
7. Smile to your spleen. Thank it for deleting worn-out red blood cells, creating white blood cells, and producing antibodies against certain diseases.
8. Smile into your adrenals, on top of the kidneys, and thank them for producing adrenaline for emergencies, as well as producing several other hormones.
9. Smile to your kidneys. Thank them for their excellent work in filtering your blood, excreting waste products, maintaining the water balance of your body, and for producing Essence.
10. Direct the smiling energy back down the kidneys, through the ureters, or tubes, to the bladder and urethra.
11. Thank your bladder for storing and releasing waste liquid (urine) through the urethra.
12. (A) WOMEN: Smile to the ovarian palace, located about three inches below the navel, midway between the ovaries, and an inch inside the body. Smile to your ovaries, uterus, and vagina. Thank your sexual organs for supplying you with hormones and vital sexual energy and for making you the gender you are.
(B) MEN: Smile to the sperm palace, about one and a half inches above the base of the penis and about one and a half inches inside the body. Smile to the prostate gland, testicles, and penis. Thank your sexual organs for supplying you with hormones and your vital sexual energy and for making you the gender you are.
FIGURE 13: Inner Smile — The Middle Line
1. Bring your attention back to your eyes and, once again, see your smiling image and feel its joyful energy. Direct the energy into your mouth. Make a good amount of saliva and swallow it down forcefully and quickly, making a gulping sound.
2. Bring your smiling energy down your esophagus to your stomach.
3. Thank your stomach for liquefying, churning, and partially digesting your food.
4. Direct the smiling energy to your small intestine, which is about twenty feet long in an average adult. Thank it for its incredible work in completing the digestion of your food, absorbing the nutrients into the bloodstream, and releasing the waste products into the large intestine.
5. Smile into your large intestine and thank it for its crucial work in eliminating waste.
6. Smile into your rectum and thank it for releasing waste.
FIGURE 14: Inner Smile — The Back Line: The Brain
1. Bring your attention back to your eyes; see and feel your joyous image. Smile behind your eyes to your pituitary gland. Thank it for producing growth hormone and hormones that stimulate other glands.
2. Above your pituitary, smile into your hypothalamus gland. Thank it for producing hormones to regulate your pituitary gland.
3. Smile behind the hypothalamus to the pineal gland. Thank it for regulating your daily wake/sleep cycle.
4. Smile into the left half of your cerebrum, and thank it for its logical work. Smile into the right half of your cerebrum, and thank it for its intuitive, creative work. Smile into both halves at once, and feel them working together harmoniously.
5. Smile into the cerebellum.
6. Smile into the brain stem.
(Turn the page to see the illustration of the spine.)
7. Smiling down the spine increases the flow of cerebral spinal fluid and calms the nervous system. Begin to smile down each of the vertebrae of the spine, including the spinal cord inside and the disc, or cushion, below each one. Appreciate the strength and protection of the spine and the nature of the crucial spinal cord. Smile down, counting out each one of the seven cervical, or neck, vertebrae (CI–C7).
8. Smile down each one of the twelve thoracic, or chest, vertebrae (TI–TI2).
9. Smile down each one of the five lumbar vertebrae (LI–L5) below the waist.
10. Smile into the sacrum.
11. Smile into the coccyx, or tailbone.
FIGURE 15: Inner Smile — The Back Line: The Spine
Return to your eyes and your image that makes you smile inwardly and outwardly. Then go on automatic and smile down all three lines at once; your body now knows how to do this. Then smile into your arms, legs, teeth, nails, skin all over, and hair all over. You are filled with smiling energy, and you know how wonderful you are!
1. At the end, you must collect and store the energy at the navel. Excess energy in the head or heart can cause severe problems. The navel area can safely handle and store the increased energy. Keep your eyes closed and your tongue up. Direct the smiling energy to your navel and about one inch inside the body. Place your hands over your navel. Spiral your hands around the navel, keeping the spirals below the diaphragm and above the pubic bone.
2A. WOMEN : Start spiraling outward from the navel in a counterclockwise direction thirty-six times; then switch directions and spiral inward, clockwise toward the navel, twenty-four times. Follow the photos for the female direction of the spirals. When you are able to strongly feel the smiling energy, you can spiral the energy mentally.
3. If you feel dizzy or spacey afterward, collect the energy some more by repeating the spiraling in the two directions. You should end up feeling calm, centered, and peaceful.
2B. MEN : Spiral this energy outward in a clockwise direction thirty-six times, and then switch directions and spiral inward, counterclockwise toward the navel, twenty-four times. Follow the photos for the male direction of the spirals. When you are able to strongly feel the smiling energy, you can spiral the energy mentally.
3. If you feel dizzy or spacey afterward, collect the energy some more by repeating the spiraling in the two directions. You should end up feeling calm, centered, and peaceful.
If you practice the Inner Smile early in the morning, it will improve your whole day. You can also practice it at other times, especially when you feel stress. It takes only five to ten minutes once you know it. If you have muscular pain, smile into the painful area for a few minutes, several times a day. Do the same with any weak areas of your body.
Either immediately or after doing the Inner Smile for a while, your organs will respond noticeably to your appreciation. They may feel warmer or cooler, tingly, and larger. They may even speak to you. “Well, it’s about time you thanked me! All these years, you took me for granted!” Being appreciated, they will function even better for you.
Do the quick standing warm-up in chapter 10. Then sit on the edge of a straight-backed chair with knees and legs comfortably apart and feet on the floor, back straight, chin in slightly. In your lap, place your right hand over the left. Close your eyes, and breathe naturally.
Front Line: The Major Organs
1A. Recall a joyful image and smile inwardly and outwardly.
1B. Direct smiling energy to third eye. Imagine golden Cosmic Energy flowing into third eye and joining smile energy. Smile down into nose, cheeks, and mouth. Put tongue up to roof of mouth and leave there for the entire practice. Smile into jaw and relax it.
1C. Direct smiling energy to throat, into thyroid and parathyroids. Thank them for their excellent work.
2. Smile into thymus gland and thank it.
3. Smile into heart and thank it.
4. Smile into lungs and thank them.
5. Smile into liver and thank it.
6. Smile into pancreas and thank it.
7. Smile into spleen and thank it.
8. Smile into adrenals and thank them.
9. Smile into kidneys and thank them.
10. Smile back down the kidneys and into the ureters and thank them.
11. Smile into the bladder and urethra; thank these organs.
12A. WOMEN: Smile into the ovarian palace, about three inches below navel, one inch inside body, and into ovaries, uterus, and vagina. Thank these for sexual energy and gender.
I2B. MEN: Smile into the sperm palace, about one and a half inches above base of penis, about one and a half inches inside body, and into prostate, testicles, and penis. Thank these for sexual energy and gender.
Middle Line: The Digestive Tract
1. Back to eyes: see joyful image again. Smile into mouth and make saliva. Swallow it down forcefully with a gulp.
2. Smile down esophagus and thank it.
3. Smile down esophagus to stomach and thank it.
4. Smile down into small intestine and thank it.
5. Smile into large intestine and thank it.
6. Smile into rectum and thank it.
Back Line: Brain and Spine
1. Back to eyes and joyful image. Smile behind eyes to pituitary gland and thank it.
2. Smile into hypothalamus gland and thank it.
3. Smile into pineal gland and thank it.
4. Smile into left half of cerebrum and thank it. Smile into right half of cerebrum and thank it. Smile into both halves together.
5. Smile into cerebellum and thank it.
6. Smile into brain stem and thank it.
7. Smile to spine: to each vertebra, its disc, and the spinal cord inside. Smile down and thank seven cervical vertebrae.
8. Smile down and thank twelve thoracic vertebrae.
9. Smile down and thank five lumbar vertebrae, below waist.
10. Smile into the sacrum and thank it.
11. Smile into the tailbone, or coccyx, and thank it.
Smile Down All Three Lines at Once
Return to eyes and joyful image. Go on automatic and smile down all three lines at once. Then smile into arms, legs, teeth, nails, skin all over, and hair all over. Filled with smiling energy, know how wonderful you are.
Collect the Energy at the Navel
1. Eyes closed. Hands at navel. Spiral the energy in the area between diaphragm and top of pubic bone.
2A. Women spiral outward from the navel, counterclockwise, thirty-six times. Then spiral inward, clockwise toward the navel, twenty-four times.
2B. Men spiral outward from the navel, clockwise, thirty-six times. Then spiral inward, counterclockwise toward the navel, twenty-four times.
3. Repeat spiraling in both directions if you feel ungrounded or have too much energy in head. You should feel calm and peaceful.
