Hello,
My name is Bella,
And I welcome you to this 10-minute guided meditation for joy.
I urge you to find a comfortable seat,
Maybe cross-legged,
Or with your feet making contact with the floor beneath you.
Relax your arms down,
Perhaps placing your hands gently in your lap or settling them onto your knees.
Align your spine,
Sitting up nice and straight,
Rolling your shoulders up,
Back,
And down.
Begin to notice your breath in its natural state,
The way that it flows in and flows out.
Don't worry about having the breath feel or be a certain way.
Just come entirely as you are and allow the breath to flow as it does.
In this meditation,
We will be tapping into our childlike sense of wonder and joy.
What if we didn't wait for something joyous to happen in our day to experience joy,
But rather we spent a few minutes intentionally calling upon the joy that lives inside each and every one of us?
To begin this practice,
I invite you to call to mind a moment or a memory where you felt an abundance of joy,
Of wonder,
Of awe.
Maybe it's the synchronicity of birds dancing in the morning sky or watching children build castles out of sand on a beach.
Maybe it's that first warm hug after being reunited with somebody that you love so deeply.
And what if,
For a moment,
We imagined what it felt like to experience this joy for the very first time?
Whatever this moment may be for you,
No matter how big or how small,
Start to focus on the feeling in your body.
Does this feeling have a color or perhaps a texture?
Does it live in a certain area of your body?
Maybe you feel it in your heart space or somewhere deep in your belly.
Wherever it may be for you,
Locate that sweet center of joy and bring your attention there,
Reminding your body of what it felt like in that moment when you were experiencing true joy.
With your breath,
Take a nice,
Slow,
Deep inhale,
Breathing into that center,
Holding it at the top.
And on your exhale,
Focus on expanding that feeling of joy,
Of childlike wonder.
See if you can extend your exhale just a little bit longer than your inhale.
Begin moving through this breath,
Inhaling deeply into your joyous center and focusing your concentration on expanding the feeling with every single exhale.
Deep inhale,
Filling up the lungs,
Filling up the entire body,
Holding it once you reach that center of joy and exhale,
Expanding that feeling until you are enveloped with a sense of blissful joy and happiness surrounded by it in front of you,
Behind you,
Above you and below you.
Surrender to the feeling and simply be with it and become it.
We'll flow through a few cycles of this breath.
You are And perhaps without even noticing it,
You begin to feel a slight smile spreading over your lips.
A quote by Thich Nhat Hanh says that,
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile.
But sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
There is a well of joy that resides within each and every one of us,
Waiting to be called upon and deeply felt.
In closing out this practice,
Place your hands over your beautiful heart,
Surrendering to this expanded feeling of joy,
Of wonder,
Of awe,
Bringing it with you wherever today might take you.
Whenever you are ready,
You can slowly begin to open your eyes.
This practice will begin with a gentle pacific Battle.
You
