Having posted a basic outline of the inner smile meditation a couple of weeks ago (read it here), I thought I would just write down a few ways in which I have been using it recently, and finding it very successful:
1) Tired feet
After a long day riding home on the bus with standing room only I found that my feet were very painful. Closing my eyes, focusing on my inner smile and then directing the energy down into my feet substantially alleviated the pain and allowed me to move into a surprisingly deep and comfortable meditative state for the majority of the way home. Being able to meditate like this on busy days really makes a difference, as our time for formal sitting meditation is often reduced.
2) Smiling at irritation or impatience when waiting for internet pages that are taking a long time to download, or standing in ques.
3) Smiling in response to other peoples miserable faces. Passing people in the street and on the MRT, the majority seem to be fixed in a state of relative miserability/stress, or at least cold indifference. This can have a negative effect on our own mood, sometimes even though we may not be aware of it. So, observing my own tendency sometimes to be affected by the faces of others, I have found inwardly smiling to myself and staying with the image and energy of this smile rather than the images of someone elees miserable face has been really useful!
As with many of the other meditation techniques I discuss on the blog, it is really about how you learn to apply it practically and 'make it your own' that makes the difference in temrs of how successful it can be for you.
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