Have you ever notice that little kids, especially under the age of two, have expressions on their whole face—and their whole body is their face! They’re like walking faces:  “Hi, I have a whole body face.”

It’s really different for most grown ups.  Most grown ups have withdrawn all their energy into their face, so they’re just this head with a body attached, with all the expression on the face instead of having a full body face. And then they wonder why kids are so freaked out when they’re looming over them like a giant sunflower head saying “HELLO, how are you?”  as this big face comes down at them shining like a headlight. We often do that to each other—try that—“HELLO, how are you?” Shining face, all the expression is in my face….

To shift this, try doing what I call the Qi Smear. You start by putting your hands on your face, and you’re going to use your hands to smear the expression-qi all the way down the front of your body.  It’s like spreading the peanut butter evenly over the whole piece of bread. Spread the qi evenly down your whole body, all the way down to your feet.  “Hello, I have a full body face.”

From your full body face, check that you have knees, for instance. People forget that they have expression in their knees.  If your knees are locked, you’re conveying something very different than if your knees are loose and easy.

As an act of generosity to the folks in your village, go ahead and have a full body face, as a permission for the other people in this group to have a full body face.  Acknowledge even their knees as being part of their face.  It’s a new standard of politeness: we don’t have to ignore everything except the head shot.  We all can have a full body face.

Thea Elijah, Whole Heart Connection

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Photo credit: Satya