Cultivate Lasting Happiness With Appreciative Joy Meditation

This meditation is inspired by the ancient practice of Muditā, or ‘appreciative joy,’ to help you sustain and deepen your sense of happiness. By focusing on positive experiences and repeating simple phrases, you train your mind to recognize and savor joy in everyday moments. Perfect for increasing gratitude, reducing stress, and creating a ripple effect of positivity in your life.

Stock Music provided by FBSantosoMusic, from Pond5.

Transcript

This is Benjamin and I'm going to guide you in a practice today inspired by the ancient Buddhist method called Mudita which roughly translates as appreciative joy.

One way we can understand this practice is it's simply showing up for happiness with our presence,

With a presence that's caring and ready and accepting.

As we train the mind to rejoice in happiness we get many benefits.

We might begin to feel more fulfilled by a sense of joy and we might notice happiness in our lives more easily.

Staying exactly where you are right now get into a comfortable position and just bring attention to your breath.

As you breathe in extend a simple appreciation for the life offered from each inhale and with each exhale let go of any tension you might feel in the mind or the body.

Breathing simply like this for a few rounds and just noticing how your energy begins to shift.

Inhale appreciation and exhale any tension.

And now from this space bring to mind a time in which you have recently experienced a sense of happiness.

It might be something small like seeing a friend,

Watching a sunset or just the joy of your head hitting the pillow at the end of a long day.

When you have found something allow yourself to feel a deep experience of contentment.

With the intention of cultivating gratitude offer yourself a few phrases of appreciative joy.

May my happiness continue.

May my happiness grow.

May I be present for the joy.

May I appreciate the joy in my life.

As you do this practice when the mind wanders just come back to those phrases as your anchor.

Noticing and appreciating the sensations of happiness,

Of gratitude,

Of joy and how they feel in your mind and body.

Remember you're training your body at some level to make space,

To make pathways for these feelings of happiness and joy to come more and more easily.

Again let's repeat the four phrases.

May my happiness continue.

May my happiness grow.

May I be present for the joy.

May I appreciate the joy in my life.

With this simple practice you can find and cultivate joy with even simple things that are already present in your everyday life.

By doing this you become more present,

More calm and your joy begins to spontaneously benefit not only yourself but other people and other situations in your life.

May you move forward through the rest of your day with a deep sense of joy.

Reviews

Thank you so much! This was wonderful! Just what I needed! I love your voice, it's so calming. Just as you said to think of something that brought me joy, my dog came and gave me a kiss! Perfect timing!