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January/February 2012 Spirituality
A Healing Inner Smile

by Keelin Anderson

In order to have a quiet and clear mind, and love flowing freely through the heart, we must live fully in our bodies.

Any part of the body uninhabited or cut off from the whole creates a “hole” in the self that may manifest as an unconscious need. Some people fill that emptiness with money, food, adrenaline, emotional drama, family co-dependency or drugs. Unfortunately, these substitute fillings often cause chronic pain and disease, self-destructive behavior and short-lived feelings of satisfaction.

Permanent and lasting fulfillment and whole-being health comes from moving into these neglected body zones, cleaning house of what is held there and no longer needed, and reassuring and quieting the fears of an area that has been cut off from nurturing unity with the rest of the body.

Using a simple inner smile exercise, you can begin to practice moving into and awakening isolated body areas. You also may consider seeking the support of a therapist or bodyworker, as often these body zones hold our deepest fears and shame, and require a safe place and a witness for the process of release and integration with the whole being.

Such self-healing work requires nonjudgmental listening and presence. The goal is to receive intuitive information from the body about what it needs to heal and grow. Unfortunately, we have little training in being nonjudgmental and are often our own worst critic, especially toward our bodies. Our inner voice can be negative and dismissive without our realizing it. 

We are habituated to making the body do what we want, regardless of what it needs, and we tend to shut down the conversation before things even get started. As you practice compassionate listening to the self, it helps to let go of the following common pitfalls.

Doubting what you find. To receive intuitive information from your body, you have to choose not to doubt what you find. You take the first thing that comes to you and you accept it as the answer. You take the actual experience you have during the exercise as your answer. This is about learning to validate your own internal experience, an ongoing practice that strengthens your relationship with your true, core self.

Preconceived ideas of how intuitive information will appear. When asking for information from a body area, the answer may be the experience of looking and being present with the area in question. The presence in itself is transformative. An answer may appear in words, images, sounds, movement, feelings, cravings or inclinations, or it may not appear in a form you recognize in the moment. Listening to the area is the point. This attention will move the problem forward to a resolution or insight on some level.

Needing to understand the meaning of the information right away. Often integration and release occurs without conscious recognition or understanding in the moment. What you see, hear, feel or know when being present and listening to the body may make sense to you in the moment, it may tell you its meaning right away, or it may make sense later on, down the road after a few of life's twists and turns. The trick is to accept what you find as a gift to yourself, without judgment or the need to analyze and understand. Each moment of time spent in presence with yourself brings you closer to knowing your true self, to living a life that emanates from a deep, personal well of power.

Inner Smile Exercise

Prepare a place where you can sit or lie down without being disturbed for as long as you need. Turn off the phone. Make sure others in your environment know you are taking some time for yourself. Light a candle, bring a cup of tea or cocoa, take a bath first — anything that helps you relax and feel comfortable.

1. Lie down comfortably and close your eyes. Take five to 10 natural breaths, using each out-breath to melt into the floor with your whole body. 

2. Imagine someone who you love smiling at you. This could be a parent, a child, a friend or lover, your pet, a spirit guide or angel — whomever you feel love from in your life. See this being’s face, eyes and smile. If you lose the image, just gently go back to it. Experience what the person’s loving smile feels like. 

3. Now smile back at this person. Feel what smiling at this being is like. Take your time. 

4. Now imagine the person who loves you smiling at your heart. Let that feeling build for a moment. If you lose the image, just gently go back to it. 

5. Finally, find a part of your body that is giving you trouble or feels like it needs some love. Imagine the person smiling there, radiating an unconditional loving attention on the area. 

When you are ready, gently come back and open your eyes. In your daily life, whenever you notice you are being self-critical, especially to a body part that is in pain or not doing what you want it to do, try smiling at it instead. You might just change the world.

Keelin Anderson, LMT, is a Portland-based biodynamic craniosacral therapist and spiritual mentor, and the author of Crowheart. For more healing exercises, visit www.keelinandersonlmt.com.