Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Lee Holden's Inner Smile
To generate a warm, smiling, loving inner state and direct it via attention into the heart, organs, and whole body — shifting felt state toward joy, ease, and self-love.
Inner Smile in 6 lines: Sit upright, feet flat, hands on thighs. Breathe slow — in through the nose, out through the mouth. Make a soft Mona-Lisa smile, as if a golden sunset is basking on your face. Smile that warm light into your heart; let joy grow there for several breaths. Radiate it out — belly, legs, arms, neck, head — then beyond yourself to others. Carry the warmth into your day. ~7 minutes.
What it is
Lee Holden, an American Qi Gong teacher (PBS specials, Holden QiGong) who trained under and co-wrote books with the Taoist master Mantak Chia, teaches the Inner Smile: a seated meditation that combines attention and intention to cultivate joy and self-love, then directs that smiling feeling inward — first to the heart, then radiating through the organs and whole body.
Holden frames it simply: “smiling energy is energy that comes from within, that has a positive intent or blissful energy behind it.” It is the gentlest of his practices — no movement, just breath, a particular soft smile, and where you place your warm attention.
The Method
As Holden guides it in his Inner Smile / self-love sessions:
- Sit upright and grounded. Sit in a chair, feet flat on the ground, back upright but relaxed, hands resting gently on the thighs or knees. Eyes can softly close.
- Breathe slow and deep. Begin slow, deep breaths — inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth (he often opens with about a minute of just breathing to settle). Let each breath slow the system down.
- Make the Mona Lisa smile. This is the signature instruction. Not a posing-for-a-photo smile — “it’s more like the Mona Lisa: you smile kind of like you know a secret, as if you’re watching a sunset and letting that golden light bask onto your face.” A soft, inward, knowing half-smile. The eyes soften too.
- Imagine the sunset / golden light. Picture warm golden light, like a sunset, basking onto your face and beginning to soak inward. Feel the warmth.
- Smile to the heart first. Bring that smiling, golden, warm feeling to your heart center — “smile to your heart to activate joy and love.” Rest attention there for several breaths, feeling the sensation “growing and building” with each breath.
- Radiate the smile through the body. From the heart, let the smile/warm light expand outward through the body — Holden directs it through “your belly, legs, arms, neck, and head,” smiling to each part you want to acknowledge, imagining the inner smile radiating joy and vitality everywhere. (In the fuller Taoist version he inherited from Chia, the smile is sent specifically organ by organ — heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen — thanking each one.)
- Let it build, then expand beyond yourself. After a few minutes, you can expand the smile outward to encompass more than yourself — feeling it emanate love and joy to family, friends, and the world around you.
- Carry it out. Take the cultivated warmth and self-love “into the rest of your day.” (Sourcing note: the Mona-Lisa-smile instruction, the sunset/golden-light imagery, the heart-first then belly/legs/arms/neck/head sequence, and the slow nasal-in/mouth-out breathing are Holden’s documented guidance. The organ-by-organ version is the classic Chia Inner Smile that Holden teaches and co-authored. Faithful paraphrase; short quotes attributed.)
Source & Lineage
Lee Holden learned the Inner Smile inside the Taoist Healing Tao system of Mantak Chia — after college Holden was hired by Chia and co-wrote several of his books.
The Inner Smile is one of Chia’s foundational practices; Holden’s contribution is repackaging it for a mainstream Western audience (his “7 minutes” format, PBS pledge specials, and Holden QiGong courses). → originator file (if present); lineage.
The deeper roots are in Taoist internal alchemy and Chinese medicine’s organ–emotion correspondences. It connects to broader contemplative “loving-kindness” and self-compassion practice in convergent ways.
The Traditions' versions
Mantak Chia’s Inner Smile (Healing Tao) — the direct parent; smiling to each organ in sequence, thanking it.
- Metta / loving-kindness (Buddhism) — cultivating warmth toward self then radiating outward; same self-to-world arc.
- Self-compassion practice (Neff) — deliberately generating warm, kind self-regard; the secular cousin.
- Heart-centred / HeartMath-style practices — attention on the heart plus positive feeling.
- Coué’s “I’m getting better” warmth — gentler, suggestion-based, but shares the “don’t force, let it register” quality.
Common refinements
Grinning hard / forcing the smile. Defeats the point — it’s the soft, inward Mona Lisa, not a performed grin. If you can’t feel it, recall a moment you genuinely smiled.
- Staying in the head. The shift happens when you actually feel the warmth in the heart and body, not when you think about it. Let the smile drop down into the chest.
- Rushing the heart step. Holden lets the heart sensation “grow and build” over several breaths before radiating — don’t skip straight to the whole-body sweep.
- Skipping the breath set-up. The initial slow breathing primes receptivity; without it the smile lands on a busy mind.
- Treating it as a cure. It’s a state practice, not a treatment for disease or depression.