Happy is the real pretty. This is a little story that I like to call my original inspiration. So where did this crazy idea come from to start a face or size yoga for your face, transform vanity into self-love project? Well, it’s a long story, but I’m gonna make it really short.

When I was 20 years old, I was fortunate enough to accompany my martial arts instructor, who was a Chinese doctor, along with 45 other martial artists on a trip to China. We went to six different areas on multiple airplanes and we studied and practiced Kung Fu with monks in China. So it was a very rare, unique experience that really changed my life at a young age.

And one of the most interesting parts of the whole trip was training at the Shaolin Monastery. We were in horse stance, which is a really deep knee bend. Your legs are bent at 90 degrees like you were on a horse.

And at this point, I was strong enough to stay there, but certainly my thighs were on fire. And a monk who did not speak English started to walk towards me while I was standing in the horse stance. And I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t wanna disappoint him, so I stayed down in the horse stance.

And he came within a foot of my face. And I remember feeling like, whoa, what’s about to happen? And he took his two fingers and he, I was doing this, by the way. I was grimacing.

He put his fingers here and he pulled the crease out of my forehead very gently. And I remember feeling this relaxed sensation come over my face. And then he smiled and he went like this to his own jaw.

I was there, I looked up to these people, it was life-changing. And I felt for the rest of my trip, a heightened awareness of my own ability to choose to keep my face relaxed. And so from then on, when we were doing our push-ups and we were doing our planks and all sorts of other rigorous activities, I was purposely keeping a smooth forehead.

We were dining and meditating with the monks as well. And I was starting to look at their faces. Many of these monks were definitely in their 60s, 70s, maybe even over 80 years old.

And although their bodies had been through a lot, a long life and a hard life, they worked really hard at these monasteries, physical labor and rigorous training. All of them had these smooth, relaxed foreheads. And so when I left China, I was thinking about that continuously, choosing to keep this relaxed, choosing to have a mellow feeling, even though the rest of my body was working really hard.

I came back to Hilton Head where I live and I continued to teach Pilates and yoga, which is what I do for a living. And during one of my classes, a few weeks after coming back from China, I looked around and as the ladies were coming through the hard part of the exercise, they were cringing their foreheads and making all of these faces. And it dawned on me to do the best I could to reiterate the story of the monk and how he helped me pull the wrinkle out of my forehead.

So I said, visualize your face smooth and relaxed, like a monk. I don’t even know if they knew what I meant by that. But one lady jokingly blurted out in class, that is what Botox is for.

And at the time I had heard of Botox, but I was not exactly sure what it did. So after class, I asked some of the ladies, what is Botox anyway and what does it do? Well, after learning that it was an injectable toxin that paralyzes your muscles to prevent wrinkles, A, I was fascinated by the concept. And I announced in a joking way to the whole group, I’m finding the Botox within.

And then for many years, five or six years after that, I taught a class and at the very end for five minutes, we did something called finding the Botox within. I thought it was the cutest little thing and it felt so powerful coming out of my mouth that I decided I wanted to write a book called finding the Botox within. And it was going to be all about learning to love yourself and embrace yourself and relax and, you know, get to know the feeling of having a happy face.

Well, I started to do a lot of research and that’s where I discovered all these props. And most of them actually do come from China. So the Eastern realm and the Eastern world has been interested in this for a lot longer.

That’s when the project expanded and turned into what it is today. But the original story comes from my experience deep in the horse stance and the monk coming right up to me and teaching me how to find that peaceful, relaxed feeling. So good luck in your practice and your journey with this method.

And I promise you, if you give it a good solid try and don’t give up, you will feel and see a huge difference.