I’m doing a smiling Buddha kriya* with Y is for Yogini (a super fun yoga blog you should check out) for the next 40 days. I figured I needed some structure to my daily meditation to get me off my butt, and after reading the long list of benefits of doing this particular kriya (joy, bliss, happiness, balance, positive mind, confidence to overcome challenges, energy to inspire, intuition, expanded consciousness), I had all the motivation I needed to get started.

The lesson that I’ve learned so far is that when you smile while meditating, it makes everything better! I found it so much easier to clear my mind, focus on the chant, and receive the benefits of the kriya when a big grin was on my face.

Same goes for yoga. Next time you’re in a difficult pose, just start smiling and see what happens. I guarantee those negative thoughts about boat pose will vanish as soon as you curl up those lips into a smile.

So, my old advertising blood came pumping back to life as I started to imagine this award-winning advertising jingle: “Yoga Goes Better with a Smile.”

The thirty-second commercial would feature a montage of high-production-value video footage of yoga students on the beach, in a field with the sun setting, in a big-city yoga studio, all practicing various asanas, with huge, honking smiles on their faces and a catchy jingle. The voiceover would say:

Yoga is much more fun when you’re smiling

Inversions go better

Heart openers go better

Backbends go better

Savasana goes better

Even meditation is refreshing with a big, fat, happy smile on your face

So have a yoga and a smile today!

Okay, so this is a rip from the classic Coke commercial “Things go better with Coke,” but don’t you agree this would make a fabulous ad campaign for yoga?

Next time you’re in yoga class or meditating on the mat, remember that other old Coke jingle, “Have a Coke and a Smile,” and have a little yoga and a smile of your own. It’s refreshing!

*Kriya—Exercises and breathing techniques intended to purify and cleanse the body’s energy channels. In Sanskrit kriya means action, deed, or effort and includes personal work and spiritual efforts.

Photo: Tony Williams