Cultivating Mudita (Appreciative Joy)
This is a guided meditation that feels good and may help you to stop thinking so much about yourself. We all need time for self-care, but sometimes thinking about ourselves too much can lead to stress, anxiety, social comparison, or even envy. This practice is about appreciating the joy and happiness in others. It is based on the traditional practice of "mudita", which fosters our ability to wish for and appreciate the happiness and well-being of others. For many people, this practice feels great, but it can also help build feelings of connection and well-being in the community. It is a chance to rest, relax, and open your heart and mind to others while supporting yourself.
Transcript
Hi,
This is Claire E.
Parsons,
Lawyer,
Mindfulness and compassion teacher,
Blogger,
And author.
This is a guided meditation for cultivating sympathetic or appreciative joy for others.
The traditional term for this is called mudita,
And it is one of the four traditional heart practices that support well-being and ethical action.
It is an antidote to self-absorption,
Disconnection from others,
And jealousy.
And like loving kindness,
This practice can feel great to do,
So I hope that you enjoy it.
Let's first get started with the practice by getting settled and finding a nice,
Comfortable,
Safe position to practice in.
This can be seated or lying down.
You could even do this practice standing,
But we will be here for a few minutes.
Once you find your position and you're ready to practice,
Use your breath to begin to settle into your seat.
You can inhale in nice and deeply and slowly,
And then as you exhale,
Just allow your body to relax and settle into your seat or the lying position or the standing position that you selected for yourself.
Hi,
This is Claire E.
Parsons,
Lawyer,
Mindfulness and compassion teacher,
Blogger,
And author.
This is a guided meditation for cultivating sympathetic or appreciative joy for others.
The traditional term for this is called mudita,
And it is one of the four traditional heart practices that support well-being and ethical action.
It is an antidote to self-absorption,
Disconnection from others,
And jealousy.
Like loving kindness,
This practice can feel great to do,
So I hope you enjoy it.
To get started,
I invite you to find a safe,
Comfortable,
And stable position for meditation.
You can do this seated,
Lying down,
Or even standing,
But you want to select a posture that you can hold relatively comfortably for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Once you've found your position,
Take a moment to settle into your posture,
Both mentally and physically.
Begin to bring awareness to your experience by noticing the sounds in your environment that could be the sounds of my voice as you listen to this meditation.
You could also orient yourself to the sounds in your environment,
Such as cars going by outside of your window,
Or birds chirping,
Or maybe the sound of a television or other kind of device from a neighboring room.
Just notice what it feels like to sit here and listen,
And rest for a moment.
If you have any extra thoughts floating around in your mind,
Or any excess energy bouncing around in your body,
You can let it be there for a moment.
You don't have to fight it off or resist it.
You may find that practice will allow it to settle,
Or cause it to just go away on its own.
In case you need any additional support relaxing,
I'll encourage you to do a quick scan through your body,
And we're going to do this from the bottom up to allow you to bring your awareness more into your body and away from your head for just a moment.
So beginning with your toes,
Gently scan for the sensations that you feel in your body.
This might be your feet in your shoes,
Your feet resting on the floor.
Just begin to bring awareness to the feelings of your body.
And as you scan from your toes,
To your ankles,
To the other parts of your lower leg,
Up your legs,
Up your sit bones,
Up to your abdomen,
Back,
Shoulders,
Neck,
Head,
And face.
Just allow your body to relax.
Continue breathing gently and slowly,
But allow relaxation to wash over you from toe to head,
So you can sit here and rest for a moment.
Then I encourage you to bring to mind a place that makes you feel relaxed,
Happy,
Light,
And joyful.
And if you're like me and visualization is not your strong suit,
You can look for the sensation of safety and happiness and relaxation and lightness in your body.
Maybe you can bring a happy place to mind and just remember how that happy place makes you feel and connect with that sensation here.
As we go through this practice,
All forms of the heart practices involve a little bit of work and a little bit of challenge.
So if you need to come back to this happy,
Light,
Safe place as we practice,
You always have the option to do so.
Now that we've had an opportunity to relax and settle and connect with a felt sense of joy and happiness in our body,
I'll encourage you to bring a loved one to mind.
Now ideally this will be someone who is very easy for you to love,
Who brings joy and happiness to others.
It can be a human who is currently living or someone from your past.
It can also be a pet if you prefer.
And with this being in mind,
Who you love and who brings joy and happiness to others,
Wish them the phrases,
May you be happy,
May your happiness continue,
May you appreciate your joy,
I'm happy for you.
Now allow those phrases to simmer in your mind.
Notice what those phrases inspire in you,
Both in your mind and in your body.
And if it helps you to envision this person,
This loved one,
Happy and healthy,
That is a support to you in your practice.
And with that in mind,
We will attempt the phrases one more time.
And as we do,
I encourage you to bring awareness to your heart area as you send these phrases out to your loved one.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And next I encourage you to allow the loved one to move on from your mind and instead to bring a mentor to mind.
This is someone who shared their happiness with you or helped you find it in your own life.
And even though this person is someone who is powerful enough to have helped you,
They also are a human being who has struggles and worries and fears and wants to be happy.
So with this person in mind who helped or supported you,
Wish them the phrases,
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And with this mentor in mind and the attention in the area of your heart,
Let's try offering the phrases one more time.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And next we're going to move on to a neutral person.
This is someone who you don't have strong feelings for,
Either negative or positive.
This is someone who you may not know very much about.
It's a human or a person or a being who is in your acquaintance,
But you don't have a lot of strong opinions about them.
But this part of the practice is where I find a lot of the magic happens.
Because even if this person is not someone that you know well,
You probably have some confidence that this person wants to be happy,
Wants happiness in their life,
Wants to be around happy people.
So with this neutral person,
Perhaps a person you know their face but not their name,
Or you know their name but not their story,
Offer them the phrases.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
Now if this was a struggle at all,
You can try to envision or connect with a felt sense in your body of what it would be like for this neutral person to be happy,
To have continued happiness and joy.
And see if that supports you as you offer the phrases one more time and note the sensations in your heart as you do.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And next I will encourage you to allow the neutral person to go from your mind and instead bring to mind someone who is more difficult for you.
Now because this practice is one of cultivating kindness and well-being,
I encourage you not to bring your most difficult person to mind.
Don't bring the person to mind right now who has hurt you the most or has hurt you very recently.
Instead,
Bring to mind someone who challenges you with your patience or presents some kind of conflict or difficulty for you in interacting with them.
Maybe this is someone who confuses you or you disagree with,
But someone that you can still at least see the humanity of.
And with this person in mind,
I encourage you to see if you can,
For this practice,
Wish them the phrases.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
Now if doing this practice created any negative feelings or it created any difficulty in terms of you authentically connecting with the practice,
Let's remember that wishing happiness to others is not the same as condoning their conduct.
It is not the same as agreeing with them.
It is simply wishing happiness to others.
And wishing happiness to others is wishing happiness for the purpose that all people be happy,
That all people be well,
And that all people behave as well as they possibly can.
So with this understanding in mind,
I encourage you to bring the difficult person to mind and see if you can try offering the phrases one more time.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
Now if that was a challenge,
I encourage you to congratulate yourself for still attempting the practice.
But now we're going to return back to our family,
Friends,
And community,
And we'll expand the offering of happiness out further.
So I encourage you to bring your family,
Your friends,
Your community,
The people who live in the town,
In the state,
In the county where you live.
All of these people together.
Difficult,
Beloved,
Neutral,
All of them.
I encourage you to envision them in your mind as a circle or connect with a felt sense of what it's like to be in a community.
And send the phrases out to everyone together.
May we be happy.
May our happiness continue.
May we appreciate our joy.
I am happy for all of us.
Now again,
Understanding that a happy community is a well community and a community that supports its members,
Attempt the phrases one more time.
May we be happy.
May our happiness continue.
May we appreciate our joy.
I am happy for all of us.
And lastly,
We will then attempt to send this appreciative joy out to all beings across the world,
Plants,
Animals,
Humans,
All beings across the universe even.
Sending out this happiness to others,
To the entire world.
If you can envision this in your mind or feel this happiness perhaps flowing out of you,
Flowing from your heart.
May all beings be happy.
May the happiness of all beings continue.
May all beings appreciate their joy.
I celebrate the happiness of all beings.
We'll do that one more time.
May all beings be happy.
May the happiness of all beings continue.
May all beings appreciate their joy.
I celebrate the happiness of all beings.
And now I encourage you to return back to the joyful,
Happy,
Light,
Relaxed space that you created when we started.
You can envision that in your mind or notice how it feels in your body.
And I encourage you to linger in the sensations of well-being and happiness and sharing and joy that you created in this practice.
And I encourage you to investigate briefly here.
If you feel any more open,
Any more relaxed,
Any calmer,
Any lighter or more connected to other people.
And recall that you can always come back to this space and seek support or courage in yourself and your loved ones when you need it.
And regardless of how the practice went,
Congratulate yourself for making time to practice and support your own well-being.
Then I encourage you to bring awareness and scan back through the body from this time from the top of your head all the way down to your fingers and toes.
Take a deep breath in,
Filling lungs all the way to the top and then hold it for just a moment to feel a sense of renewed energy and freshness.
And then when you are ready,
You can let it go and open your eyes.
And I wish you a very happy and joyful day in the rest of your activities.
