The Inner Smile

 In an interview with Terry Gross, singer Cynthia Erivo explained that when she sings one particularly challenging piece of music “I sing it with a bit of a smile. Because when you smile, everything else is relaxed.”

 In Qigong we call this the “inner smile”. It’s the gentle smile that naturally appears when you see or feel something that brings a sense of peaceful joy to your heart, like looking at a beautiful view, or smelling a fresh baked cookie. Of all the tools in our energy tool box, the inner smile might be the simplest and most powerful. When we smile, even in a subtle way, our body’s chemistry immediately begins to change. Stress dissipates and we melt out of fight/flight/freeze mode and into rest and digest. Along with taking deep, slow, unforced breaths, the inner smile helps us be much better prepared to face the challenges of life.