Smiling from the inside out

What are the benefits of a meditation practice?

This is actually a big question because the benefits are unique to your current state of mind. Are there practical benefits that arise from a consistent meditation practice? Certainly and the research is out there for all too consume via our good old friend Google but I want to share my own experience, data that has been birthed from years of practice.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share how its evolved and impacted my day to day over the last 17 years. I’ll breakdown how its helped me to become more self aware which has led to deeper awareness of others and the environment in which I play. How self awareness led to self compassion and self compassion led to self confidence, a self confidence constructed from the inside out. 

But for now, I would like to begin with this photo, this smile. For most of my life I learned to smile on the outside only to be struggling, filled with tears and pain on the inside, tears of guilt, tears of shame, tears of unworthiness and tears of not feeling fucking good enough. Perhaps I am one of few or one of many who spent their lives smiling on the outside with unattended wounds on the inside. Time will tell.

This photo however, this smile and the smiles you will experience when we cross paths, it’s a smile that has its roots deep within my being, the smile is the surface, but the foundation, the roots of this smile are now filled with joy, with love, with gratitude and pure awe of this opportunity to live a human existence in this body I’ve been gifted.  

This is a smile that represents hope for me, hope for you and hope for the collective state of mind.

It took me a long to time to prioritize this deeper need within myself, the desire to turn up the volume of the voice within that had been muzzled for so long by the projection of others shame and guilt. 

We explore and yearn for nature without but in the process we have forgotten about the nature within. It is a dance, a two way street, a dance between the internal and the external.  

To meditate is to begin listening, to deeply listen to the conversation within. To listen to self is to love. To increase the capacity to love your self is to increase your love for another and the environment in which we all play. 

If you are yearning, if you are ready to begin exploring deeper within, to experience what it feels like to smile from the inside out, you can find me and others who are happy to hold the flashlight as you begin to carve out this path of yours. 

This a love note from my insides calling out to your insides. 

With love, gratitude and joy.

P.S. If you are ready to play, check out the classes section to see where I’m hanging.