St. Paul Congregational UCC
  • Home
  • A Word with Pastor
  • Worship
  • Music
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Contact
  • LGBTQ+ Resources
  • Building Use Policy

A Word with Pastor

Smile Yoga

3/6/2024

 
Picture
On Sunday St. Paul’s church council met for the first time in 2024. As is customary at the first meeting of the year, I led our opening prayer/centering practice to begin our time together. On this day, I chose to ask our church leaders to engage in a brief session of smile yoga.

Smile yoga is something I learned about in a book I’m reading by Tarah Brach, Ph.D. titled “Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha.” In the book, the author introduces the concept–shared widely by Thích Nhất Hạnh–and speaks about its practice.

“Smile yoga” is what Thích Nhất Hạnh most often refers to as “yoga for your mouth.” The zen master shares that holding a smile, then releasing it, and then repeating the practice several times a day is one way we can open our hearts and improve the quality of our breathing. So often, the zen master teaches, we experience pain of any variety–through stress, grief, hopelessness, and trauma, to name a few–and our bodies begin to close off from the outside world. Our breathing becomes shallow and our heart becomes dammed off. Smiling changes those realities.

Thích Nhất Hạnh has been practicing smile yoga for much longer than I have, but I have noticed that the kind of smile I put into this practice matters. When I engage a smile that is more of a forced grin–the kind of smile that I use to respond to others to try to make it seem like everything’s just fine–the openness doesn’t seem to come–or at least not as fully. But when I close my eyes and smile the kind of smile that I share with someone I love, or the kind of smile that can’t help but erupt into laughter, I feel it in my whole body. 

The tension in my shoulders is released. My breathing moves from those shallow upper lobes of my lungs down into the depths, until it feels like I’m breathing from the center of my body. And my heart–my heart that is often so closed for fear of feeling the full sting of whatever pain that is present with me–begins to open–gently, slowly, chamber by chamber–like an iris blooming in the springtime. It all starts with a smile.

It sounds easy enough, I know, but truthfully, sometimes a smile simply doesn’t come. Or it does come, just not easily. If you live long enough, you’ll know these times occur far more frequently than we would like. Which is why I like that smile yoga is a practice. Something that can be done anywhere at almost anytime with anyone–during one’s commute (eyes open, of course), while lying in bed in the morning, in the shower, balancing the checkbook, while typing your 100th email of the day at work, alone or with a friend, with someone your own age or someone far younger or older than you are now. Smile yoga can be done to help us open our lungs for deeper breath, our bodies for deeper connection, and our hearts for hearing deeper truths. 

And yes, I know we aren’t Buddhists, however, as John Shelby Spong once wrote, “God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition, but I don't think my tradition defines God, I think it only points me to God.” If this spiritual practice helps point me or any one of us to God in deeper and fuller ways, certainly it is a practice worthy of our time and our attention, regardless of its origins. 

Because when it boils right down to it, life is full of pain in its many forms–the kind of pain that closes us, curls us in on ourselves, and separates us from anything other than that pain. And if there is anything that–in the presence of such pain–keeps us pliable, opens us outwardly, and draws us further from our isolation and into the mystery of God, then I don’t know about you but I’m leaning into it. I’m going to practice opening toward it. I’m going to smile. 

Smiling my way into openness with you,
Pr. Melissa 


Comments are closed.
    Picture of Pastor Melissa enjoying time on her hammock.
    Pastor Melissa enjoying time on her hammock.

    Rev. Melissa Sternhagen

    Rev. Melissa Sternhagen was called as the pastor of St. Paul Congregational UCC in June of 2020. Prior to her call to St. Paul, Pr. Melissa worked as a hospice chaplain in the Ames, IA area, following pastorates at rural churches in Central Iowa and Southern Illinois. Pr. Melissa is a second-career pastor with a background in agribusiness and production & supply operations. She received her M.Div. from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO, and holds a MA Ed. in Adult Education and Training, and a BA in Organizational Communications. 

    Pr. Melissa is a passionate advocate for social justice. She has marched and advocated for LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive justice, justice and equality for the communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. She has also spoken at rallies for DACA, to end police violence against Black people, to end violence against the Trans* community, and to end gun violence. 

    An Iowa native, Pr. Melissa enjoys being outside at all times of the year, gardening, tinkering in the garage, walking, hiking, kayaking, lying in her hammock, removing snow, repurposing old/found objects, and tackling projects she saw on YouTube that she was "sure" she could do. Pr. Melissa shares a home with her spouse, their two dogs, and SO MANY plants. 

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022

    Categories

    All
    Grief

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • A Word with Pastor
  • Worship
  • Music
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Contact
  • LGBTQ+ Resources
  • Building Use Policy