God Is In Your Smile
“Find where your smile originates and you will find your Source.” Holy Spirit beamed this thought into my open mind and 
instantly I became aware that a smile is not your lips, your tongue, your mouth, your teeth, your jaw. A smile starts deeper than that and spreads beyond the face entirely.
In fact, during my advertising career years, when I was lucky enough to work with voiceover artists and celebrities in recording studios, I learned that you can hear a smile. If the person reading the script is faking their smile, a smile is not communicated!
To digress a moment, Wesley Snipes once read some copy of mine before he was famous. And it was an honor to write for Ossie Davis, whose voice raised thrills as he warmed up by practicing some of my lines aloud. Both of them had beautiful smiles, by the way. 
As I was saying, a smile spreads beyond your face because a smile is actually your Inner Light. Your smile is one of those obvious, but often overlooked, clues that God is in you since your smile isn’t mechanical, therefore it must be inspired! I remember telling my psychotherapist at a very low point in my life when I felt that I couldn’t overcome the anxiety and depression that was paralyzing me at that time, “The worst part is that deep inside I know I’m naturally cheerful — it’s in my smile!
Early in the Course, Jesus says something very interesting, “You do not know your joy because you do not know your own Self-fullness. … The full appreciation of the mind’s Self-fullness makes selfishness impossible and extension inevitable.” (T-7.IX.4:2 & 6) Smiling is a direct route to knowing your Self-fullness and feeling the full appreciation of your True Nature which arises instantly when you do so.
Have you ever noticed that smiles are contagious? When someone smiles at you, or you at someone, usually both end up smiling. This is because, “The power of one mind can shine into another, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark. It is everywhere and it is eternal. In many only the spark remains, for the Great Rays are obscured. Yet God has kept the spark alive so that the Rays can never be completely forgotten. If you but see the little spark you will learn of the greater light, for the Rays are there unseen.” (T-10.IV.7:5-6; 8:1-3) Your smile can help you learn of the greater light if you follow it to the Light from which it originates.
I once knew someone who had Bell’s Palsy* which is a condition that affects the nerves in the face. He was self-conscious 
that his smile became crooked and spent the rest of his life trying not to smile. How sadly backwards. It took an effort to stop smiling — and if, instead, he had smiled, he may very well have healed and reactivated the nerves and muscles of his face. But even if he didn’t, his smile would have communicated Love which overrides any deformity.
Your smile is not your lips, your tongue, your mouth, your teeth, your jaw!
Your smile is an ordinary miracle, capable of reminding you every day that God is within you and without you. Your smile is the Light within you. When you smile, you radiate well-being and joy. In other words, you are a conduit for healing miracles. And when you become conscious that you have volunteered your body to fulfill the Holy Spirit’s loving purpose, your smile is reflected back to you a thousand times more than you smiled it!
A Course in Miracles defines a miracle as being spontaneous, natural, involuntary and it collapses time. It defines a holy instant as a miniature of Heave
n — providing us with an experience of Timelessness. String together enough miracles and holy instants and — poof! — you discover your Inner Light. Why wait?
Let’s find where your smile originates right now and you will encounter your Self. Take a moment and follow the trail of your smile. Does it actually start in your mouth? Is it in your heart? Your eyes? Is it moving through you and emanating from you? Right about now you could feel a shift in perception and realize that your smile is not only within you, but you are within God’s Smile! The real you is a Smile without a face.
“Father, Your Son is holy. I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness so dear and deep and still the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your Holiness. How pure, how safe, how holy, then, are we, abiding in Your Smile, with all Your Love bestowed upon us, living one with You, in brotherhood and Fatherhood complete; in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as His Son, a universe of Thought completing Him.” (W-341)
Abiding in your own smile naturally leads to the discovery that you truly abide within Your Father’s Smile. How many times does Jesus tell us in the Course that you are not the body, you are free, for you are still as God created you? Well, it’s true!
While you identify as human, place yourself in the Holy Spirit’s Hands for guidance. You will find yourself smiling more and more! As you smile, you will realize that you are not human — you are Being. And Being is Unaffected by what is not real.
As the Introduction to ACIM states: Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.
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You may also enjoy watching Service with a Smile! and reading Remember to Laugh, Happiness Is Your True Nature and This Is the Best Moment of Your Life.
* Click here to read about John Sudworth’s attitude towards Bell’s Palsy.
God Is In Your Smile was originally published April 26, 2015 and this is the newly revised and updated version.
To hear Amy speak about A Course in Miracles, watch her YouTube videos. If you’d like to ask Amy a question for her popular Ask Amy column in Miracles magazine, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com … To receive blessings from Amy, read Sweet Dreams of Awakening. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
Let’s look at several instances of “seems” from the Course:
“Undoing” means uprooting the ego thought system. This naturally leads to seeing through ego illusions to the Truth. The ego thought system thrives on holding grievances. We do not have to try not to hold grievances. We simply need to become aware that we have chosen a “grievance” state of mind. Once we realize that we are the dreamer of the ego dream of separation, and that grievances, guilt, fear, and punishment perpetuate the dream, then we can choose another teacher, the Holy Spirit, to undo our attachment to grievances.
Imagine you are climbing a ladder to Heaven, rung by rung. Each rung gleams more resplendently as you draw nearer and nearer to Heavenly Light. You are open to receiving recommendations straight from the Holy Spirit.
This is why the Holy Spirit offers some very clear recommendations so you can stay on-track. As you stick with Spirit, you develop more focus, faith and trust in your own experience which then strengthens your connection to the Truth which is already in your mind. Here are six basic recommendations from the Holy Spirit as given by Jesus in ACIM:
Q: I don’t know if my heart is being touched by God or if I am going nuts. I cry all through the day. There is no sadness, just a deep compassion and love present. This has been going on for a while now. I read A Course in Miracles and I cry. I hear beautiful words in my head that do not seem to be my own and I cry. I feel drawn to sit out in nature and see beauty all around me and I cry. What is going on with me?
A: The ego loves to say, “I don’t know” and “what if I am going nuts” to keep you endlessly distracted from, as you so nicely put it, your heart being touched by God. In ACIM, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms, “The ego is insane.” (W-pII.12.2:1) and assures us, “The Holy Spirit will restore your sanity because insanity is not the will of God.” (T-13.XI.7:4)
Have you ever been talking to someone who is looking around the room while you speak? Or who interrupts you to say something on a completely different subject? Maybe you were confiding in a friend who seemed distracted and when you accused her of not listening, she said indignantly, “I was listening!” To prove it she parroted back the last phrase you had spoken.
1. Be interested. Many people think listening means keeping quiet until it is their turn to talk. But true listening is a selfless act. Listening means giving your thoughtful attention to another person. This attention is non-judgmental, open-minded, respectful and curious.
4. Attuning and matching. A good listener usually makes eye contact, but might also sit companionably side by side and gaze straight ahead, allowing the talker privacy and intimacy at the same time. Attune yourself to the person talking to you by noticing the degree of eye contact they are making with you and match them. For instance, if the person seems self-conscious and looks down or away a lot, drop your gaze as well from time to time. This way she will feel accepted rather than scrutinized. If she is animated and leaning towards you, lean towards her. Pick up on her rhythm, her body language. Psychological research has found that people feel understood when we use the same gestures they use. This helps them to feel safe and relaxed.
What’s in it for you? Great listeners are receivers — they receive trust, they are in an honored position in that way. They help people sort out their thoughts and feelings. Listeners offer solace and consolation. They celebrate and appreciate good news or achievements. And in the process, listeners receive the gratification of being there for someone else. Listeners have cultivated patience to wait until another person has talked themselves out — and have discovered that people often find their own answers to their struggles.
disabilities. This deserves more attention and clarification than we had time for over the weekend. It is also relevant to many, many people. So let’s look more closely at how the ego consumes us with fear about pain and physical disabilities, and how to douse the flames of this ego fire.
I am not minimizing your physical experience; I am empowering you by inviting you to turn your attention away from righteous immersion in the pain and back to your Source. Again, you may protest that you want to turn your attention away but you cannot. This is why I use the word “righteous.” Righteousness may be disguised as helplessness or self-pity, but it is really a way of maintaining ego identity.
Jesus tells us in Chapter 9, “An individual may ask for physical healing because he is fearful of bodily harm. At the same time, if he were healed physically, the threat to his thought system might be considerably more fearful to him than its physical expression. In this case he is not really asking for release from fear, but for removal of the symptom that he himself selected. This request is, therefore, not for healing at all.” It may be hard to swallow that you selected your symptoms, but Jesus means this in the general sense that we all chose to believe we are separate from God.
Few do it, but it is possible to say “thank you” to pain and physical disabilities. This “thank you” is a grateful surrender to not knowing anything; in the big picture this pain may be seen very differently than you do now. Perhaps it is the motivator that forces you to your knees and helps you complete your awakening. Perhaps it breaks through complacency and personal identity. If good health had motivated you, you wouldn’t be intimidated physical health issues now. Therefore, now is a perfect time to open your mind to hearing the answers to your prayers which are waiting for you to receive them! Let me know how it goes (email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot com)
You are Life. You are Love. You are Innocence. You are Infinite. You are Timeless. In this recognition, all worldly problems recede and are resolved in the brief interval you remain in the body to Shine on your brothers and accept the reflection beamed back to you. This is your function as the light of the world. (W-61, W-62, W-65 and countless more references throughout the Course.)
you can learn from mine, and be reawakened by them.” This is bad news for the ego, which does crucify you every single day that you allow it — the crucifixion looks different in the 21st century, but all torment boils down to psychological torment.
If you would like to explore an ego-free life more deeply