Smile to the Sky Pose

Building on last week's Mountain pose is a variation of Upward Salute/Urdhva Hastasana called Smile to the Sky.

I learnt this new variation during the summer when I attended a week-long course to become an accredited trainer with the Youth Kids Mindfulness organisation and I am looking forward to adding this to my classes when I return to teaching in local primary schools this week.

The Youth Mindfulness Kids Programme  introduces mindfulness in a way that that is engaging, relevant, and enjoyable, making use of music, games, activities, experiments, videos, songs and group discussion to teach practices such as mindfulness of breathing and the cultivation of kind awareness.

Smile to the Sky comes in lesson 10 but you

 don't have to wait.

Simply begin in Mountain Pose, take a big breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Allow your next in breath to initiate a slow, gentle sweep of the arms over the head and as you arrive, look up, smile to the sky and let your exhale gently return your arms to your sides.

Repeat as many times as you wish.

Simply smiling brings huge benefits to your body and mind.

Smiling and laughing releases neurotransmitters which makes you feel happy.

Smiling and laughing also reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone and increases energy levels.

Smiling is infectious.

Ask my daughter who took this photograph in the middle of Liverpool's Cavern Walks shopping centre and met with many amused responses!