The Tao of Natural Breathing_ For Health, Well-Being, and Inner Growth - Dennis Lewis [45]
2 Let the sensation of relaxation turn into a smile
Figure 31
Once you feel that your eyes are relaxed, let the sensation of this relaxation spread through your whole face, even into your tongue and into the bones of your skull and jaw. Now visualize someone you care about smiling at you. Let their smile enter you, and smile back at them (Figure 31). Sense how your eyes and face relax even more. If you are unable to conjure up an image that makes you smile, then simply smile intentionally. Just turn up the corners of your mouth, raise your cheeks, and do the best you can. If you can maintain this effort for several minutes, you will soon find yourself smiling quite naturally.
3 Sense your face breathing through your smile
Now include your spacious breath in your awareness. Each time you inhale, sense the air entering not only through your nose, but also through your face and eyes. Sense your breath being touched by the smile on your face. Watch how the smile transforms your breathing. It’s as though the smile makes your breath even more vibrant and expansive. As you continue to breathe in this way you may notice an increase in your saliva. This is a good sign. Don’t swallow yet. Just keep breathing, collecting more and more saliva. Science has shown that saliva contains a wide variety of proteins, including hormones and other substances, that have digestive, antibacterial, mineral-building, and other health functions. The Taoists believe that in addition to these functions, the saliva—which they sometimes refer to as “the golden elixir”—can also readily absorb chi from our breath and help deliver this energy into the organism.52 From the Taoist perspective, the increased production of saliva can, if utilized properly, be a great aid to our overall health.
4 Smile into your organs
Now you’re going to guide your smiling breath into all your organs (Figure 32). Let your smile flow downward, like water, through your jaw and neck and into your thymus gland behind the upper half of your sternum. Sense the thymus gland opening and closing with each inhalation and exhalation. Then let the smiling breath go down into your heart. See if you can sense your heart relaxing as you smile and breathe into it. Then let the smiling breath expand into your lungs on each side of your heart. Can you sense your lungs expanding and contracting inside your chest? From your lungs, direct the smiling breath to your liver on the right side of your rib cage. Smile and breathe into this area. Sense the area around the liver expanding and contracting gently, and releasing any unnecessary tension. Now let the smiling breath include your pancreas and spleen on the left side of your rib cage, working in the same way that you did with the liver. Then include your kidneys, in the lower and middle back area. See if you can feel your back and kidneys expanding and contracting with each breath. Now let your smiling breath reach your bladder and sexual organs. As you breathe into this area, you may sense your whole lower abdomen opening and filling with energy.
Figure 32
5 Swallow the saliva and follow your energy downward
After completing this process, you will probably find your mouth secreting more saliva than usual. Let the saliva collect in your mouth. After collecting a sufficient amount, swish it around in your mouth several times and then swallow it at the very same moment that you straighten your neck slightly by tucking in your chin. As you swallow the saliva, you will sense a kind of warmth, a feeling of energy, leading your smiling breath downward into your body. Sense this sensation flowing slowly downward through your neck into your esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, and rectum—right down to your anus. Sense your smiling breath going through your entire digestive tract.
6 Bring the smiling breath into your brain and spine
Return to spacious breathing