Appreciative Joy Practice For Growth And Transformation
This meditation practice is about cultivating appreciative joy through mindfulness and concentration. It involves focusing on your breathing and counting to 8 with each exhale, then bringing to mind a happy memory and reciting phrases of appreciation for yourself and others. This is followed by bringing people in your life to mind and offering them phrases of appreciative joy. The practice ends with returning to the breath and congratulating yourself for practicing appreciative joy.
Transcript
So today's practice is about appreciative joy.
And it is a practice of mindfulness meditation where we cultivate joyful appreciation within us through repetition and affirmations.
And this has a profound impact in the way we start to perceive the world.
So this short and profound meditation can help you change the way you speak to yourself and start to cultivate beliefs and maintain your mental well-being.
So I invite you to start by finding a comfortable position in which you can be still for a period of time.
As you allow your eyes to gently close,
If that is comfortable for you,
Tune into the body and make any minor adjustments.
Tune into the sensations,
Tune into the vibrations,
Tune into the warmth,
The coolness,
The temperature,
The pressure.
And it can be really helpful at this time to remember your intentions and to instill in you an idea of bringing ease and awareness to the practice and be in a way that feels comfortable but alert so you are relaxing yet becoming aware.
So you are switched on yet.
Calm and at ease.
So let us start with concentration as the core of this practice just to help our minds settle and arrive in our present time experience.
As you allow the body to resume natural breathing,
So let the breath be as natural as possible.
See where in the body you can feel the breath.
Maybe in the stomach or abdomen,
Just noticing the sensations wherever it is really clear for you.
There is this natural rising and falling or expanding and contracting or moving left and right.
And you may be noticing the expansion in the chest,
Maybe noticing the nostrils where you feel air come in with a slight tickle and a subtle warmth.
And you can just pick one place where you would like to experience your breathing.
And as you feel the body breathing,
Try to stay with the breath all the way through.
We'll use a counting exercise to help in this process.
We'll use a counting exercise to help in this process.
So you can breathe in with awareness and as you exhale,
You can count one in your head.
And with the next exhale,
You count two and you can count to eight.
And then simply start back at one.
So let us try this.
So with each exhale,
You are counting up to eight.
One,
Two,
Three,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
One and we count back up.
So with each exhale,
You are counting up to eight.
And if you find that your mind has wandered during this practice,
That is completely okay and normal.
That's what minds do.
But our practice here is to simply come back to one and start again.
With each exhale,
You are counting up to eight.
And each time you count,
You are building concentration.
Remember that the counting is a tool to help build this concentration.
And it's not a measurement of how good a meditator you are.
When the mind wanders,
Just come back to one.
For each exhale,
You count up to eight.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
And I invite you to practice this for as long as you want.
This helps build concentration and it helps us to become more still.
You may have noticed that mind has been wandering.
When the mind wanders,
It really offers us an opportunity to cultivate and ingrain the practice of mindfulness and concentration.
And each time we notice this wandering of the mind,
We are strengthening our ability to recognize our experience.
Each time we bring the mind back to the breath,
We are strengthening our ability to focus on an object.
Treat this as an opportunity rather than problem to fix.
And just return to one every time you have noticed your mind wandering.
So again,
With each exhale,
You are counting up to eight.
So let us do this one more time.
You can do it by yourself.
I will just remain silent,
Just prompting and giving you guidance.
So noticing your mind,
Keep counting each exhale to eight.
So noticing your mind,
Keep counting each exhale to eight.
Now you can begin the appreciative joy practice by bringing to mind time in which you experienced some joy.
It may have been something relatively small,
A simple moment of happiness as something comes to mind.
Just pay attention to how it feels to rest in this memory.
You can cultivate this intention to rejoice in your own happiness by offering yourself a few phrases of appreciation.
Let us begin.
And you can feel free to adapt these phrases however you choose.
May I be happy.
May my happiness continue.
May I be present for my joy.
May I appreciate the joy of my life.
And I repeat,
May I be happy.
May my happiness continue.
May I be present for my joy.
May I appreciate the joy in my life.
And once again,
May I be happy.
May my happiness continue.
May I be present for my joy.
For my joy.
May I appreciate the joy in my life.
Now you can offer these phrases silently,
Connecting with your intention.
And appreciate the joy of your experience.
May I be happy.
May my happiness continue.
May I be present for my joy.
May I appreciate the joy in my life.
As you deepen your practice,
You can now bring to mind a good friend.
This may be a loved one,
A friend,
A family member,
A loved one,
Friend,
Or teacher,
Or mentor,
Or maybe pet.
You can connect with your natural desire to see this person's experience joy.
We don't need to focus on what brings them joy.
We can connect with the reality that this person,
Just like us,
Wants to be happy.
Wants to be at ease.
Wants to be in peace.
And in an effort to cultivate this intention,
You can offer this person a few phrases of appreciative joy.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I am happy for you.
And again,
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I am happy for you.
And just bring in this mind wherever you notice your awareness should be.
So in this practice,
You are bringing your awareness to the friend.
So again,
Bringing your mind to the friend and reciting these phrases.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I am happy for you.
I am happy for you.
You can now just let this person go from your mind and bring to mind someone neutral,
Someone who you don't have a strong relationship with.
This is someone you may see regularly and feel you don't know very well.
Maybe somebody who works with you.
Maybe someone nearby.
Although you don't know this person well,
You can recognize that this person wants to be happy,
Wants to live with ease and wants to be at peace.
So you don't need to know what their happiness looks like.
Again,
Offer this person these phrases of appreciative joy,
Connecting with the intention to care about and rejoice in their happiness.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I am happy for you.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I am happy for you.
And as you let this sink in,
As you connect with this person,
And as you let this sink in,
As you cultivate this appreciative joy for yourself and others,
Just notice where your mind is and simply bring it back to this practice lovingly and kindly.
In repeating the phrases,
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And as you let this neutral person go,
You can bring to mind even someone who you may find it difficult.
You may not want to pick this as the most difficult person in your life,
Instead choosing someone you may have a minor difficulty with.
Maybe it's someone you find yourself getting frustrated with.
And it's okay.
You don't have to agree with what makes them happy or wish for them the experience of joy at the expense of others.
Instead,
Just connect with this deeper intention of the heart to be present for this person's happiness.
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And again,
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And lastly,
May you be happy.
May your happiness continue.
May you appreciate your joy.
I'm happy for you.
And let all these people move into the background of your awareness and simply come back to the breath.
Noticing each breath and with each exhale,
You are counting up to eight.
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight And just let your natural breathing resume.
Letting go of any letting go of any ideas of concentration.
Just bringing a general sense of awareness to everything you are doing right now and simply being present for what it is you are here for.
Checking in with your intention from the start and congratulating yourself for taking the time out and practicing appreciative joy for yourself today with me.
Thank you.
You can now open your eyes and simply re-engage with the rest of your day.
I'm wishing you well.
