Joy is the matriarch of the family of emotions and she will not enter a house where her children are not welcome.
That's a quote from Joe Hudson and I think it perfectly sums up the emotional journey that we're all on.
We want to feel joy,
We want to feel lightness but so often we're denying ourselves the challenging emotions,
The uncomfortable emotions,
The emotions we might label as bad or negative and in doing so we are limiting our joy.
And so that's what we're going to explore in this session.
Find somewhere to either sit or lay comfortably and gently close your eyes once you've found that position.
Before we do anything else I want you to bring your awareness here into your heart space and without trying to change or control anything can you just notice here how that feels?
Is there armoring there?
Is there something blocking?
Is it open?
Is it relaxed?
What is the feeling and experience of that space within yourself?
Let's take a couple of breaths together breathing in through the nose and sighing out through the mouth.
Good.
Two more like that.
Deep breath in and sighing out.
One more deep breath in and releasing,
Letting it go.
Really nice.
Just start to slow your breath down here.
I want to invite you to breathe in through the nose and to blow the exhale softly,
Gently and slowly back out through the mouth.
Just taking a few rounds of that breath here to help calm and settle the nervous system and just to open us up a little.
With each exhale allow the body a moment to soften here into that space of calm and relaxation.
You're doing really well.
Just stay with that breath here.
Nothing else to do.
Nothing to force.
Good.
Just taking one more cycle of that breath here and we're now going to take ten bigger more active breaths.
We're going to be breathing in through the nose and blowing the exhale quite forcefully out through the mouth like this.
We're going to take ten breaths like that pretty quickly and I want you to see if you can connect to some sensations in the body.
Breathing with me.
Last three,
Two and one.
Exhale.
Take a deep breath in and hold your breath for a moment and relax out.
Soften the body.
Let it all melt a little bit more.
Notice the sensations you can feel.
Maybe even some emotions are present.
That's it and I want to ask you a question here and I want you to be really honest with yourself.
When was the last time you felt joy?
Bring that into your mind.
Notice how it feels in the body.
Maybe it's been a little while since you connected to joy.
Maybe there's even some grief attached to the version of you that felt more joy and you need to give yourself space to feel that too.
So allow whatever emotion is there for you to begin to move and breathe with it.
Slow your breath down in and out of the nose.
Know that you are okay.
You're doing great and as you stay with that emotion just allow your attention to rest in the body where you can feel it.
It might be in your heart space.
It might be somewhere else.
Just hold that awareness in that part of your body.
Stay with the emotion and allow it to move.
Allow it to dissipate as you give yourself space to feel it and if there's heaviness there.
As that emotion moves and shifts and as you allow it to be felt,
Maybe it can begin to shift into something lighter.
Can you now invite the joy in?
Let go of the fear.
There's nothing to be afraid of with joy.
Bring your awareness into your heart space.
Allow the heart to open.
As Leonard Cohen once wrote,
The cracks are where the light gets in.
So if there's a mixture of emotions,
Stuff that feels heavy and stuff that feels light,
That is what it is to be human.
Allow that joy to rise up.
Maybe there's even a smile on your face.
Maybe you can allow that love,
That joy,
That lightness to move through you with more ease.
Build this as your new reference point.
Trust that you are okay.
Give yourself permission to feel joy.
And I have one final question for you as you continue here,
Just to deepen your breath a little through the nose.
From here on out,
How can you orient your life towards more joy?
Finding the magic in the mundane.
Because it's there.
You've just got to shift that lens,
Shift that view,
And give yourself permission to feel all of it.
And in doing so,
Allow joy to come knocking.
