Welcome to your happiness meditation.
You can do this meditation in a comfortable meditative seat,
On a meditation cushion pillow.
You can do this meditation sitting in a chair,
Or you can do this meditation lying down.
Make sure that you feel comfortable and you can stay alert.
So settling in,
Feel the length in your spine if you're in that seated position.
Allow your eyes to soften gently closed and bring your mind onto the feeling of your breath.
Begin to breathe a little bit slower.
And as you inhale,
Let your abdomen expand,
Feel your rib cage open up.
And as you exhale,
Feel the rib cage deflate and feel your abdomen soften.
Inhaling into the abdomen,
Into the rib cage,
And exhaling,
Emptying the rib cage and then the abdomen.
Bring your mind to the very top of your head.
Travel your awareness down through your face.
Observe any points of tension in the face.
Sometimes when your awareness touches an area of tension,
It will naturally relax.
If this doesn't happen though,
Don't worry about it.
Continue to travel your awareness down into your throat,
Your neck,
Feel both of your arms from your shoulders all the way down to your fingers.
Observe any sensations through the neck and the arms and journey your awareness into your chest.
And on your next breath,
Feel the breath moving through the whole rib cage,
Inhaling and exhaling.
And journey your mind into your stomach region,
Your intestines,
Your internal organs.
The middle of your torso,
Observe any sensations in this region and bring your attention into your hips,
Your pelvis,
The organs of the pelvis.
Observe any sensations living in this area in the moment.
And then journey your mind down through your legs all the way to your feet.
Observe any sensations through the legs and into the feet.
And now let your mind swirl through your body and just observe where the areas in your body are that you feel the most sensation.
It might just be one area of the body or it could be multiple areas that have strong sensations in them right now.
And we have a tendency to judge what we feel or put a story on it.
The sensations you feel might have a story,
But if you can,
Go ahead and put that story to the side,
Put the judgment to the side and feel these strong areas of sensation objectively,
As if you were an artist.
What shape do these sensations have?
Is it a perfect shape or is it sort of an amoeba or a curvy,
Lumpy type of shape?
Is it a sharp shape?
Also notice points of intensity.
Where does the feeling that you feel in your body feel the most intense?
And then notice where that sensation starts to fade into the body.
Where does the sensation end?
This is your starting point in the practice,
What you feel in this moment without any influence of the journey meditation you're about to go on.
But let's begin this visualization of happiness.
Bring your mind to the space in between your eyebrows.
And you can even,
With your eyes closed,
Look gently up at the space between your eyebrows.
And if you look at the space in between your eyebrows and you feel a lot of tension in your eyes,
Go ahead and relax the eyes slightly so that it's more of a receptive gaze.
And you might be able to see little colors or shifting lights,
Or it just might look like a starless sky.
Connecting with the third eye point,
The bridge between your conscious and your unconscious mind.
Bring into your mind's eye the image of your own happiness.
Imagine yourself really,
Really happy.
And take a moment,
Visualize yourself smiling.
Maybe your arms are in the air,
You feel very joyful,
Like you just won something,
Something really good just happened to you.
You're in a beautiful place with people you love.
And take a moment to imagine yourself happy.
If any contrary thoughts come in,
Just observe that response to imagining your own happiness.
And as best as you can,
Redirect your mind towards the happiness.
You're invited to stay connected with your breath,
Breathing into the lower parts of your lungs,
Imagining your own joy,
Your own happiness.
Take another scan of your body.
You could start from the top of your head and work your way down like we did in the beginning of this practice.
Notice any changes in the sensation that you feel in the body.
Now that you've been imagining your own happiness,
You might be tempted to label these sensations positive or negative.
For example,
Sometimes we imagine our own happiness and it makes us actually feel kind of sad.
But try not to trouble yourself with the judgment aspect.
Simply observe any sensations in the body.
And if there's a label like positive or negative for the sensation you feel,
Just notice that label and then set it to the side.
What might the feeling be in your chest?
Without any label,
Without any judgment,
How big is it?
Maybe the feeling is in your gut.
Or if you're dealing with an injury,
You might be feeling that site of the injury or the healing area.
Where attention goes,
Energy flows.
Again,
Draw your mind up to the space in between your eyebrows.
And the second visualization is to imagine people you know experiencing happiness.
You can start with the people that are closest to you.
Imagine them in a joyful state.
Imagine these people you love experiencing bliss.
And if the mind wanders away from imagining the bliss and the joy of people you know,
Return your mind back to imagining their joy.
See their smiles.
What kind of movement do they have in their body as they experience joy?
And now after imagining the joy of people that you know and you love,
Again scan your body from the very top of your head,
Working your way down.
Do the sensations in your body feel the same after you were imagining your own happiness?
Or do the sensations feel different?
Embrace everything you feel.
Include everything.
The final visualization,
You can draw your attention up to your third eye.
And now imagine the happiness of someone who maybe you've had a conflict with.
Imagine the happiness of somebody who perhaps it's difficult to imagine their happiness.
Imagine the happiness of somebody that you don't really understand.
You might come up against a lot of mental resistance imagining this person's happiness.
But as best as you can,
Think of this person who maybe you have a difficult relationship with,
Conflict,
Misunderstanding,
And take a moment here to imagine their happiness.
Imagine their peace,
Their joy,
In a really pure sense.
Sometimes we might be tempted to imagine their happiness because of their evil actions,
But imagine them having a pure kind of happiness,
A really sweet kind of happiness because of something good and a goodness that's inside of them.
Take a moment to imagine this person's happiness.
And now bring your awareness back into your physical body,
Taking the scan from the top of your head all the way down to your toes.
And just notice how imagining this person who is a challenging relationship for you,
How imagining their happiness felt in your body.
Maybe some tension crept up into certain parts of your body.
Perhaps you felt a softening when you imagined their happiness.
Over these last minutes,
You've experienced how the quality of your thinking has an impact on the feeling of the physical body.
And in this exercise,
You've strengthened the connection between your mind and your body.
To seal in the practice,
Bring your hands to your heart center,
Palm against palm in the prayer mudra.
Perhaps your thumbs are touching your sternum,
Your breastbone,
And generate a feeling of gratitude inside of your heart.
Generate a feeling of love,
Of wellbeing.
And imagine this feeling of love,
This feeling of gratitude,
Not only permeating your body,
But vibrating out to your home,
Vibrating out to your community,
Vibrating out to your country,
All the people in your country.
A feeling of wellbeing,
Of gratitude,
Of love,
Vibrating out to all the people on your continent.
So many people,
It's unimaginable probably,
But love,
Your love is vibrating out to them.
And now expand that love to the whole planet.
Imagine the entire planet Earth is receiving the feeling of love,
The feeling of gratitude that's coming from the center of your heart.
Gently blink your eyes open,
Coming back into your space wherever you are,
Grounding into the moment.
And thank yourself for doing this work of generating joy,
Love,
Compassion,
Your own,
The people around you,
The difficult people,
And the rest of the planet.
Have a great day or evening.
