Hi %%FIRST_NAME%%,
Welcome to Week Eleven!
How did you get on with ‘coming back to your senses’ last week?
How about sharing how you got on – any questions, any insights – over at the forum?
Coming back to your senses
This week, we’re moving on to how smiling, mindfully, can shift your day.
It doesn’t matter if you fake it at first, it works!
Give Your Day An Instant Lift With A Mindful Smile
Sometimes it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we have nothing to smile about, but smiling can be transformational and it can be an amazing way to cut your stress levels and dump life’s drama. And smiling mindfully means you’ll benefit even more from it.
The sympathetic nervous system is our fight or flight response – the primal part of the brain (the hypothalamus) – which is responsible for short term survival-style decisions, which diverts fuel from non-essential bodily processes and organs, to help give you the energy to escape from imminent danger. It’s the bit we drag into action when we’re feeling stressed, which floods your system with stress hormones. The parasympathetic nervous system is all about relaxation and allowing your cells to carry on with their vital health-giving moment-to-moment tasks.
When you smile you trigger the endorphins that rebalance those two systems dramatically cutting the stress levels in your body.
Smiling, even if you’re not in the mood, triggers the release of the body’s happy chemicals, which cheer you up.
Your body doesn’t care whether it’s a real smile or a fake one. If we do it for 30-60 seconds, the hormones start flooding round the body and the happier feeling grows, so the smile soon becomes real!
So if you want an instant mood lift, get smiling.
Want to test it out?
Lift Your Day With Mindful Smiling
- Sit down for a moment and slouch.
Really get that slopping seating position where your head is verging on doing a nodding dog impression. Yes… that’s it.
Now frown. Look really grumpy. Notice how you’re feeling?
Ready for the contrast?
Sit up as straight as is comfortable for you, lift your chin slightly and scrunch up your eyes tightly for 3 seconds before opening them again – that releases the tension around our eyes, which we need to do before the next bit.
- Now: gently allow the corners of your mouth to turn upwards, ever-so-slightly, then a little bit more.
You are now smiling! Not a lame little smirk. We’re talking full-on smiles – teeth and all, if that’s your thing. Smile with your eyes, smile with your mouth. Smile with your heart. Think ‘smiley’ thoughts. Feel the lift as you do it for a full 60 seconds.
Now let it go and notice what you notice.
Chances are you’ll be feeling better. Your face should feel more relaxed, your mood should have lifted and you should be aware that you are generally feeling more positive.
How did that feel?
How about sharing how you got on – any questions, any insights – over at the forum?
Mindful Smiling
That’s all for now! I hope you have a great week. It would be lovely to hear how you’re getting on.
Namaste,
P.S. Any techy questions? Please email hello@clarejosa.com to get help from a member of my team. Thanks!
P.P.S. Missed a week? Want to revisit any of the techniques? You’ll find a list of all your current modules here: www.ClareJosa.com/members-only