How To Find The Joy That's Missing In Your Life

11:44

How To Find The Joy That's Missing In Your Life

Rated

4.3

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

7

Deep down, we all long to feel loved and to know joy. Yet many of us spend years waiting for it, hoping it will arrive once life settles down. In this talk, I'll share what I've learned about bringing more joy into your life: Why – Why we long for love and joy, and what that longing tells us about who we are. Where – Where joy lives, and why it often feels hidden beneath old hurts. How – How joy gets blocked, and how understanding that begins to free it. Way – The way we create joy day to day, through our choices and how we treat ourselves and others. If joy has slipped away somewhere along the path, this talk will help you invite it back.

Thought Watching Inner Critic Reframing Practice Mindful Awareness Letting Go Practice Joy Love Spirituality Meditation Mindfulness Fear Thought Observation Joy Cultivation Transcendental Meditation Mind Training Fear Management Sensation Awareness Spiritual Practice

Meet your Teacher

Boulder, CO, USA

Meet your Teacher

Boulder, CO, USA

Transcript

Everyone desires joy and happiness. We share that. Many of us don't achieve it even though we want it so badly. Why is that? Is it possibly because joy needs to be created in our life? Find people and things that create. And bring us joy. Or is it possibly the fact that joy is also within us. I think it's a combination of both. But many of us who rely on joy coming from the outside. Are often disappointed because we're not in control of other people. Without any control of the environment, Of the government. Of the economic environment. So the point of this video. Is to show you how to get there. To a level of joy which you are in control of. And then how you might be more prepared. Invite joy into your life. From the outside. You know, Understanding this fact that joy is within us. Most of us who come to Insight Timer. For peace, Sleep, Meditation. Have an understanding that joy is reachable. Through all kinds of things, Meditation. Kirtan yoga dance, Singing. And when I say joy, I mean joy, Happiness. Connection. Unfamiliar with the facts. That's somewhere within us. Is a level of joy given to us by our Creator. In the Vedantic point of view, The joy is the beingness beneath our thoughts in action. The Atman as the Tantric people would say. Or the Buddhahood as the Buddhists would say. And that this nature is essentially joyous, This nature. Exhibits itself and expresses itself in our life. As joy, Even though it may be quantum or transcendental in many ways. So the combination of reaching this joy within and Finding what happens in our outward life that prevents us from experiencing joy is the sweet spot so to speak. And are living a joyful, More happy life. Well, The first thing we need to do is to be able to. Meditate, Have a practice where we go within. And experience that nature. Experience that nature through meditation. Whatever it may be. Your good nature. Be many, Many things. There is no lie. And that. Reaching this source of thought. Is going beyond our thinking. Because it is the nature that supports all thinking, That supports all action. So, To transcend, As my teacher would say, Thought. To the source of thought. Is to contact the Atman, The Buddha. The deep pure being, The quantum state. Of who we are. While we know that we can do this. Dewey And the reason why I bring this up is because most of us have been trained. In our upbringing. I had another teacher who called it domestication. You're born as a child. You're joyful. You're happy. And then soon you go to school. And you're told to sit, You can't move, You can't talk. You have to listen, You have to learn. And we get domesticated that we can't be in our natural state. We have to learn, We have to be aware. This is good. It trains us not to be in our joy. That natural joy that comes. Instead, What comes is the mind coming in to do something. We think to get good grades. We think to figure out things and get out of trouble. Or we figure out how to find something or get something, We use our mind. Everyone goes through this. No one can avoid it. But the problem is not that. That it happens because it's nature. It's human nature. The problem is that we learn as children. That's thinking. Is the boast. The easiest way or the only way to solve all of our problems. So we go about thinking in order to feel better. What can I do to feel better? What technique should I use? It is a better technique. The mind tries to think. And create. But the mind is filled with fear as well. Because when we grow up, We get traumatized. We're told no. We had things happen to us that are not pleasant. And we begin to fear. And the mind comes in with fearful thoughts. And it's these fearful thoughts that steal our joy. Not because they mean to. Because thinking is natural. But that we can have this essential nature experience. While we're having fearful thoughts. Or having troubling thoughts. That's why you can come out of a meditation. Being drenched, Swimming in the divine. And come out. And have a couple of things happen in your world and all of a sudden you're bummed out again. Why is this? What happened? Did the joy go away? The mind will tell you the joy went away. You lost the joy. Do you hear that? The mind tells you you lost the joy. But is that really true? The joy is there, Waiting to be found. When the mind calms down. And let's go. And experiences its essential nature. So the mind is sort of lying to us. Not because it's evil. But because it's afraid. So when we go within and contact our true nature, We're also experiencing the fear. When we find it. That the mind will have nothing to do. The mind needs to find something to be afraid of. In our journey within, We're also working with the mind, Training it to relax, To calm down. To accept. Training ourselves to feel through sensation. And when we can feel. . . Will we choose to stop thinking? Especially fearful, Worrisome thoughts. And feel what's going on inside us. We've now opened the radar. We've now opened the barriers. That we can feel the joy that's waiting within us. So what do we do? We cannot not stop being in life. While life is sometimes scary. These days it's been very scary, Kind of consistently. But the trick is meditating regularly. Finding our inner nature, Experiencing it, Vibrating it, Inviting it in, Marinating it into our consciousness. Than going out into the world. To win. Thought comes in that that's dangerous, That's going to do this to me. Question the thought. Is this really true? And you'll find that it's an old belief. Not necessarily a truth. Take a deep breath, Feel the body. Drop the worrisome thought. And then watch the joy come back into your awareness. And the joy will come back into your awareness. More quickly and easier the longer you practice your regular Meditation, Your regular spiritual practice. More you realize that when you're lost, And a fearful thought. You can wake yourself out of it. And say, Wait a minute, This isn't true, Is it? If a bear's running after you, Sure it's true. But if someone's look or comment or statement annoys you. It may not be true. It may not be about you. It may be about them. And what they're going through. All right. So keep your practice going. And move yourself. From thinking to feeling. Because when you're thinking, Especially negative thoughts or fearful thoughts, You cannot think and feel at the same time. Accept. If you're Thinking fearful thoughts. Then you'll feel fear. But if you want to feel your essential nature, Your unbounded self, Then you have to stop thinking. The fearful thoughts. And allow the sensations of joy. To come back. Into your consciousness. Practice that. And see how it goes. Take care, Have a great day.