Ask the joy to grow as you feel it

Do you feel confined somewhere? In your body? At your job? Your life?

Maybe that’s because we tend to concentrate on the negative things all the time. Our house is too small, our boss is too demanding, our eyelashes are too short, and our thighs are too thick.

Where will we be in six months if this is all we think about? It’s likely that you’ve noticed that you have the same thoughts repeatedly and without meaning to. The reason for this is that every time we think them, we actually hardwire our brains to do so again, and eventually the cycle becomes endless.

We generate our thoughts as a result of that loop. Whether you believe you can or cannot, you are correct, as Henry Ford once said. The good news is that we have the ability to alter the engraving pattern that is currently there.

How?

New pattern should be started, followed by practice. Anne Cushman, writing in The Yoga Journal, says she focuses on the good things every day, first thing. “This brief [morning] ritual sets the tone for an asana practice in which I’m tuned in to countless blessings that I might otherwise have missed: the intricate, effortless coordination of muscles in the simplest forward bend; the serenity that comes in the pause following a full exhalation; the release of the knot in my spine just behind my heart as I twist. Instead of focusing on what feels incorrect about a posture, I try to find what feels right and encourage that action to grow.”

It’s simple, and we can do it. Seek out what’s good, and ask it to expand.

For instance, I’m going to assume that since you’re reading this, your home won’t be bombed tonight. Water that is clean and HOT can be dispensed by turning a handle. You’ll unquestionably eat dinner today. Next morning, breakfast. You sleep in a bed.

How many of the billions of hardworking people living on the planet today cannot take any of that for granted?

Would you like to increase your good? Cultivate your innate quality of mudita, or “joy”-a boundless capacity to savor life’s blessings, regardless of whether they’re showered on you or on others. The Dalai Lama, someone who radiates joy despite the horrors he has lived through, explains the benefits of cultivating mudita: “It’s only logical,” he said. “There are many fewer opportunities for happiness if I am only happy for myself. There are countless more opportunities to be happy if I am happy for others!”

Would you like to increase your likelihood of bringing joy into your own life and into the lives of others? Join our group KICK START to discover how to gratefully feed your body with the food you are given. Come to our next KICK START HERE. Ask about our KICKSTART Early Bird! If we give thanks, we can accomplish this.

Feel the joy.

Ask it to expand.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat!