Happiness Is a State of Body, Not Of Mind: Experience It Now

By seeking happiness through the mind, our experience is often curiously flat or fluctuating at best. By going through the body, and learning a simple pathway to ease into an experience of joy and happiness, our mind realizes what was always available to us. Practice and turn it into a habit so that it becomes a way of being.

Transcript

Happiness is a state of body, Not a state of mind, And that's why happiness eludes you, Because you're literally looking in the wrong place, And I'ma prove it to you. Be as skeptical as you want, But just be open to the experiment. Just notice your next breath, And notice how you can track it as it goes in your nostrils, And you can track it with your attention as it goes out, And that's how you normally breathe. Just breathing, Barely noticing it, But see if you can enjoy your next breath, Like you're sipping a cool drink on a hot summer day. Really let yourself breathe in, And just enjoy sighing it out. That's not bad, But see if you can really let yourself enjoy this one, Like you know when you step out on a crisp morning, And you just do that full body inhale. Just let yourself savor it as it goes in, And let yourself relax and collapse any tension as you breathe out, And notice how in your body there's sensations that are flowing now, And you can feel that aliveness vibrating, And notice where those sensations are the strongest in this moment, And take a breath into that place, And let yourself disperse those sensations through the rest of your body on the exhale, So that you can start to feel your whole body and the vibrating aliveness. And if there's any tension, Any blockages, See if you can feel those as pure sensation, And welcome them. Start to enjoy them, Even though they might not be sensations that you normally think to enjoy. See if you can just feel them as pure sensation, And welcome and enjoy them as an experiment, And notice how they begin to transform as you do that, As you don't reject them, But instead feel them, Love them, Enjoy them. You can start to ease deeper into your body, And feel the sensations even more fully, And notice how they get stronger the longer you feel them, And pay attention to them, Not thinking, Just feeling. And see if you can start to really give yourself permission to enjoy the feeling in your body of just being alive, Not for any reason, Just breathing and flowing and feeling. Anything that comes up, You can keep embracing it, Keep enjoying it, Keep going deeper, And see if you can really not hold back any of that enjoyment now, Really allow yourself to feel the pure pleasure and joy of being alive, For no reason in your body, Just sensing that flow of energy, Getting stronger, Amplifying, Glowing, And circulating with the breath. And notice how that breath and that flow of energy interacts to create a symphony of joy and happiness, If you don't think about it, If you just feel it and embrace whatever you notice on a physical and sensory level, Moment to moment. And notice how your thoughts instantly become more open, More joyful, You didn't have to change your mind, You just changed your body, Because happiness is not a state of mind, That's just a reflection of the state of body. So practice this in everything you do, Maybe as a priority for the next week you might choose to allow yourself to feel that happiness in your body, That aliveness with your breath, While you're washing the dishes, While you're sitting there doing nothing, While you're waiting for someone, While you're having a conversation, Places that you might not normally feel that full flow of joy, See if you can prioritize it as an experiment, As pure enjoyment, And let your happiness be a state of body. Let me know if you have any questions.