Able to smile 

Practicing ‘Meditation on breathing’ mysteriously brings out a smile on the faces of practitioners of all ages. During my seminars, I introduce the different modes of this technique. Then I ask them to close their eyes and practice the ‘Segment mode’ till they complete two pairs of hands, then open their eyes. When they open their eyes, I invariably see most of the faces smiling for no reason! 

People with a lot of accumulated stress or internal inhibitions take a long time to get a smile on their faces, as a variety of reports below show. 

Serious and grim face now smiling

A supervisor working in a store always had a serious and grim face, never smiling. After practicing this meditation for a few months, he was seen smiling frequently.

2000 (India)

Spontaneous smile

Two guest house servers in the company I worked in India always had a tense and serious face as though they were afraid of the senior managers and dignitaries they served every day. As an experiment, I introduced the ‘counting mode’ of meditation to them in under 5 minutes and asked them to practice at bedtime to fall asleep whenever they liked. After a couple of months of practicing the technique, their faces opened up and showed a spontaneous smile. They were no longer afraid of the dignitaries.

2000 (India)

Never smiling’ to ‘frequently smiling’

A young man 20, working in the Information systems department was always looking serious and gloomy. It looked as though he was having an inferiority complex. There was never a smile on his face. After he practiced the ‘counting mode’ of this meditation for a few months, his face changed remarkably. He was frequently smiling. He showed more confidence in talking to others.

2000 (India)

Greeting people happily

A woman in her fifties, working as a pathological lab technician, practiced the ‘Tip mode’ of this meditation around her lunch time every day. Before this practicing this meditation her face was looking very gloomy and never showed a smile. The expression on her face is now radically changed. Now she smiles happily and greets people.

Smiling through the tears

An operator in a paper mill, aged 45, had serious family problems. His wife had chronic mental illness and had outbursts of anger not controlled by treatment for a long time. His only son, aged 26, was mentally retarded and had speech problems. He used to walk with his body rigid, like a statue with a grim face, not looking at the people passing by – a personification of sorrow. After several rounds of my persuasion, he started practicing the ‘counting mode’ of meditation at bedtime. In about 3 months, his facial expression changed remarkably. 

One day, when I asked him about his problems while walking on the sidewalk, he started crying, tears flowing from his eyes. But to my pleasant surprise, he soon recovered and started smiling, though the tears were still on his face! I consider his transformation as the greatest achievement of this meditation. If a person in his family situation could smile by practicing this meditation, I think anyone can smile.

2000 (India)

Gradual change in the faces - Photos  

You can see the gradual change in the facial expressions of children who attended a series of meditation classes at the local Hindu Temple. 

Face 1  

Face 2

Face 3

2009 to 2013

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