Permission For Joy

The past,

I would say,

I think this is week six of me formulating practices around the experience that we're all going through globally as a collective.

And most of it has been regarded around working with difficult emotions,

Stress,

Fear,

And just working with all of those things that came up,

Especially in the beginning of all of this.

And I thought since,

At least on the East Coast,

We'll be here at least for another four or three to four weeks,

I thought to switch things up and to offer a practice more centered around experiencing joy.

And this is not to say that there aren't some of us that are facing some real challenges right now.

And I'm not saying we're not going to push that completely away and saying that that doesn't exist,

But we're going to acknowledge that yes,

That does exist.

And maybe even if we can just find just 10 minutes,

Five minutes,

Two minutes to experience some joy,

Then it will be worth our time here together.

Because I think it's the duality of life.

And this goes back to some of the things that we talked about last week as far as yes,

You have death or yes,

You have people dying,

But you also have people being born.

So there's also these lot of beautiful things happening.

And there's so many amazing things also happening that are being grown out of this that are opportunities for us to find joy.

So there are people,

There are places where we can still find,

Find joy and also just acknowledging this is Earth Day coincidentally,

But the Earth is experiencing the most joy it's experienced for a long time,

Right?

It's not,

It's thriving right now with human life,

Not putting everything out into the universe.

So with that,

Give yourself space to just,

We're going to move through our practice slowly.

So we're going to kind of transition to joy because it's tough to just go from like,

I'm not feeling it to,

Oh,

I'm super,

Super happy.

So we're going to transition a little bit and see how we work with it.

So go ahead and when you're ready,

Allow yourself to start to settle into your space,

Allowing the eyes to begin to close down and moving the weight of your body down,

Allowing it to just fall and rest in the support of your chair,

The support of your cushion,

Your bed,

Your couch,

Wherever you find yourself this evening.

Feeling the legs get heavy,

Feeling the connection points of your feet and your sits bones.

Relaxing the shoulders.

Feeling yourself again,

Feel held,

Maybe even adding that element since this is Earth Day,

Adding that element of groundedness,

Feeling the earth beneath you.

Noticing connecting with the earth element of your body,

The density of your bones.

Maybe even imagining that not only you're connecting with the earth of your floor and your chair,

But feeling what is beneath your house and the foundation,

Noticing and seeing if you can allow that energy to go all the way down to where there eventually is some soil and some dirt.

How does that shift,

If at all?

Almost like we're planting ourselves in our practice.

It's a beautiful way to look at it,

In any practice of planting,

Setting,

Cultivating the soil for things to grow in our awareness,

For things to grow in our feelings and just our ability to approach our lives with more love and compassion and ease as we start to,

As we develop our practice.

And even though we're supporting down into the ground,

Still finding now that growing of your torso up.

Feeling our roots,

But also sending our body up towards the sky.

And starting to invite your breath in.

And just noticing the expansion with each inhale.

That little bit of an alertness and openness.

And with each exhale,

Further rooting down into the earth.

Continuing this breath and just noticing any places that are holding tight on your body.

And so offering some softness to the space between the eyebrows.

And just scanning down through your whole body,

Noticing any part that could use a little extra love or little extra care.

Bringing the awareness of your breath to this part,

Just feeling that your rhythm to kind of naturally releases the tension.

And keeping with the breath,

But starting to invite as we have done last week,

Inviting a sense of grounding in gratitude.

So just starting to feel maybe grateful just for the health and the well-being of being able to sit here and to feel a breath move down and through your lungs and out through your lungs.

Or maybe it's gratitude for the safety and the comfort of the home that you're in,

Feeling again the earth element and the way that it supports you physically,

But also your home obviously supports all of us emotionally.

It keeps us safe.

And so starting to ground into anything that kind of feels true for you to find some thanks for right now.

And then starting to shift our awareness away from our breath and we're going to focus it on a sound and one very specific sound.

It might be a little difficult depending on this time of day,

But I'd like you to see if you can hone your sound or hone your ears to listen for the sound of a bird.

So noticing if there's still any birds awake.

And even if you don't hear anything,

Even if you're at a part of your house where you can't hear outside,

Seeing what honing that focus kind of does for your awareness.

And just sensing and noticing that the birds are always singing these songs of joy and constantly happening around us.

Let's take a moment to just hear if any are still awake.

And then letting that go.

And together we're all going to take a full breath in.

And a full breath out.

So we're going to start to move into our experience of joy.

But first,

Again,

I want to be aware that some of us might have some challenges and difficulties that we may be going through right now.

And so we're going to use this image,

Like you know,

Just use an image of like a clean desk in front of you.

And what you're going to do is you're going to put papers on this desk.

And what the papers are going to represent is any difficulties,

Any challenges that you're working with right now.

Any anxieties or fears.

Just seeing them kind of as papers on this desk.

And what we're going to do is simply put these papers into a little file,

A little folder,

And we put it in a drawer on the side.

And close the drawer.

And we're not saying that they don't exist.

But it's kind of like,

Yes,

They're part of our lives,

But we'll get to them later.

Kind of like doing taxes.

Like we have to deal with these things.

We don't want to just pretend they're not there.

Because if we do that,

Then it's not the most healthy thing to do.

So just putting that to the side.

And then seeing again this clean,

Clear desk in front of you.

And just sitting with the clearness of it.

And it's like this little transition as we start to move into joy.

And where we clear some space.

So each second that you sit,

Each breath that you take,

And imagining that the energies in your body are just starting to get a little clearer,

A little brighter.

Alan Watts has a great quote,

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

So each breath is a clearing.

Maybe you can imagine that energy or that feeling of like mud just kind of melting and moving away.

And staying here,

But shifting your awareness of your breath.

So instead of imagining the breath just kind of coming in and out of your body,

I'd like you to imagine the breath moving in and out of your whole body.

So as if every pore of your body was breathing in and every pore of your body was breathing out.

Still continuing with that idea of clearing your whole body and your whole energy field with each breath.

And keeping your whole body breathing in,

But now shifting it to imagining that your whole body was breathing in a smile and your whole body was breathing out a smile.

Notice if you just naturally want to find a smile on your face as you do this.

What would that feel like your whole body smiling?

And so now we're going to keep this desk image going for just one last little moment.

And on this desk I'd like you to put a clear piece of paper.

And what this is going to be is your declaration of joy.

What you're going to do is you're going to give yourself the permission to feel or to find joy.

And you get to write whatever that is.

So an example,

I give myself permission to find or feel joy amidst global challenges.

Or I give myself permission to feel joy in my relationship.

Or maybe it's just for these next 10 minutes.

I could write this down on this piece of paper.

Maybe as you're doing it,

Maybe if you'd like an affirmation,

Just I allow myself to feel joy.

I will allow myself to feel joy.

And when you're writing this,

I'd like you to sign it.

And again,

As your permission slip to feel joy.

And just before you put it back in the drawer,

You're going to put a sticker on it.

Any sticker that comes to mind.

You can imagine it like you're in school and a teacher gave a fun sticker for a good grade.

Something like that.

Something that maybe makes you smile.

And then putting that back in the drawer,

Letting that go.

And together,

Let's take a full breath in and a full breath out.

So now I'd like you to bring to mind someone that you know who is experiencing joy.

So I'd like you to imagine an image or a memory.

Maybe you can think of like kids in the park.

Maybe it was an achievement of someone that you love.

Sometime when you were around someone else that was experiencing joy.

And I'd like you to go there in your mind's eye.

Go there with your senses.

And see that experience happening.

And allow yourself to take in that energy.

And almost like we're getting a secondhand joy.

Maybe you see like a little light that that person that you're watching or that scene that you're watching is radiating and imagining that that light is coming into you.

Sitting here for a moment noticing can you feel the joy of another?

And share that with them.

And then sharing with them,

Welcome to say this out loud or feeling like you're saying this to them in your image.

Your joy is so needed right now.

Thank you.

May your joy continue.

May it uplift others.

May it strengthen your spirit.

Sending them and feeling the joy that they're radiating.

And then letting that image go.

Now bringing to mind a moment in your past.

Where something awesome happened to you.

And we all have had at least a few moments where great things have happened.

Maybe it was when you met your life partner,

A lucky break you got,

An accomplishment.

Bring that into your awareness.

And really see if you can go there.

Hear what you heard.

See what you saw.

Who was around.

And most importantly really see if you can feel this.

What did you feel in this moment?

And as you feel this,

Find gratitude for it.

Gratitude for the good things that can and have and will happen in your life.

Maybe feeling your light now growing and moving outwards.

And imagining others who are around you now taking in your joy.

Sharing your light.

And now letting the image go but keeping that feeling.

Bringing that feeling into your experience right here and right now where you're sitting.

Knowing that although that happened,

You still have that capability to feel joy right here and now.

So sharing this with yourself.

I have everything I need in me to feel joy.

May this joy continue.

May it strengthen my spirit.

May it uplift others.

And maybe imagining a light starting to grow and send out from the center of your body out towards all the people who can use some joy right now.

And keeping this sending outwards and also bringing to mind right now if there's anything that you can think about that makes you laugh.

Maybe it's someone you know,

Something silly,

An inside joke,

A comedy special.

Maybe even can allow yourself to laugh if there's something really funny but you don't have to.

And also being kind to yourself if you're like,

Hey I'm not in a laughing mood right now.

It's totally acceptable as well.

Slowly starting to come back into your body and then whenever you feel ready,

You can open your eyes and start to come back into this evening.