Working together, these heavy hitters maintain a joyful life.

Joy and manifesting joyfully have finally taken their rightful place in the culture. Joy is used by nearly everyone, nearly everywhere as a change agent. It seems like we’re tapping into something we’ve craved for a long time. I remember joining a meditation group where one of the most respected members would openly mock joyful people, calling them airy-fairy, and in those days, I was bubbling over with perkiness and happiness. Well, those days are over. I have found through my own exploration that joy is real, and joy works. I came to the group looking for like-minded people. While didn’t find that, I learned some lessons about cultivating joy daily.

Mindfulness and attention We may think that mindfulness is the practice of paying attention. To some degree that is true. When you really practice mindfulness, you’ll see that the scope of your attention increases. Not only do you make better decisions, get to work on time, and have clarity with others, you’ll soon discover a kind of synchronicity in your life, where seemingly unrelated events work together to bring the best possible outcome. Being aware and focused throughout the day is a kind of magic in its own. By being focused on positivity, and gratitude you create small but powerful moments that generate joy and gratitude. Continuing the cycle where you’ll find it easier to “choose joy” or “choose gratitude.”

Come to Your Senses One mindful practice, being in your senses, is an easy thing you can do when you find yourself overthinking or getting into a funk. Put attention on your senses, taste, smell, feel, hear, and look.

• As you go through your day take time to tune into your senses
  • Taste the tastes of your lunch, your coffee, the cake.
  • Breathe deeply and smell the smells around you. Don’t judge them as good or bad smells, recognize them and move on.
  • Feel the sensations on your skin and in your body. Do you feel, cold, warm, itchy? Don’t label the feeling as good or bad, simply identify the sensation. Perhaps that tingling sensation in your tummy is trying to tell you something besides you’re hungry.
  • Listen to the sounds around you. OK, the siren is hard to miss but challenge yourself. Can you hear the coworker walking behind your desk? The bird singing outside your window? How about that dog barking all the way at the end of the block? What have you learned to tune out? What sounds have you been missing?
  • Look, take the time to notice the details. It might be surprising how much we just gloss over details in our lives, assuming we know what we are seeing. Look at everything as if you are looking at it for the first time. You just might be.

Once you’ve dropped the habitual mind and come to your senses you’re focused on the real. That which is right in front of you. You are tuning into the world around you for what it is, not what you’ve habitually thought it was. That simple action in itself creates a connection between your creative self and your physical being. It allows you to consciously, even unconsciously, tap into the creative unconscious part of your being, sometimes building bridges for synchronistic events to occur.

Meditation You can supercharge your connection to the creative unconscious by practicing meditation, there are tons of health benefits to meditation, and there are tons of mental benefits to meditation too. But the most important reason to meditate, in my opinion, is the connection you make to the creative unconscious. Meditation opens you to your true self. Sure, when you sit down to meditate, close your eyes look into the darkness there’s no one there. In meditation you find that your true self, is peace, is joy. By tapping into that regularly with consciousness you are opening doorways for it in your day-to-day life.

Manifesting Eventually, you’ll have experiences or think thoughts that came from a more meditative place. That is where your mindfulness practice comes in. Using the mindful practice of being in your senses, you’ll learn to recognize when the true Self is trying to interject itSelf. When it is whispering in your ear, trying to help you make the choice. It can be as simple as turning right, and the problem goes left. You might find the lost puppy that becomes a life-long companion. You could be better positioned to recognize that toxic relationship and discover how to leave it behind.

Namaste

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