Benefits of cultivating joy

Did you know that joy is a heart centred emotion?

Whenever we lean into our hearts and begin feeling loving emotions we drastically change the way we experience life. Joy is an incredibly uplifting emotion which can be channeled in our life in order to increase our energy and vitality. In this post, I'll be sharing how we can begin to increase more joy in our life & why it's so important.

Why do the work?

One of the most visceral lessons I experienced in a 10-day meditation retreat was the observation of how certain emotions and thoughts naturally rise and fall within our consciousness. Wether we are still enough to feel these visceral effects is another question. In meditation, we learn to quiet the mind and still the body long enough to actually notice such changes in the body. Emotions are quite impactful to the body and mind. Most of the time, we experience a physical response to the external world first. These are called triggers. Now, triggers are tricky because they happen fast. In my experience, the trigger arises, then the instinctual emotional response, and then the thought arise about how we deal with whatever trigger arose. Most of the time, we move through life too quickly to notice these subtle changes and respond through our most repeated patterns. Depending on your own personal programmed responses you will respond with an emotional response (because we are emotional beings). This is not entirely wrong but, if we are to live more in alignment with our higher self & in our hearts, we must learn not to react to our programmed responses and feelings but rather observe and decided how we want to feel about x, y, z.

This is where practicing feeling certain loving emotions comes into play. The more we train our body, mind, thoughts and nervous system to feel certain feelings, such as joy, the more likely we are to lean into joy whenever we are faced with adversity. At the least, mindfulness and practicing joy, give you the option to choose to feel this way more often then if you didn't have such mindfulness practices. This is a kind of self mastery taught by spiritual teachers and energy healers. Now let's get into the benefits of feeling joy.

Benefits of feeling joy:

1. Your brain will thank you. Practicing joy allows for a natural secretion of dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine allows us to feel pleasure, satisfaction and motivation whereas serotonin allows us to feel focused, emotionally stable, happy and calm. These are uplifting hormones which help us to feel happy, safe and relaxed. Whenever you're looking for an energy boost, practicing a joy meditation can help to uplift your mood in a better way then alternatives such as comfort foods, Netflix, instagram or other addictive substances.

2. More creativity. Our ability to express joy is directly tied to our inner child. When we have a good relationship with our inner child we gain more creativity, self assurance and confidence to explore the world around us and express ourselves. Creativity is a direct expression of the self. Creating joy in the body can help to stimulate such creative impulses in our lives and directly help us to engage with our inner child.

3. Balanced nervous system. Joy can also help the bodies nervous system remain balanced. When we are stressed for prolonged periods of time, our nervous system becomes over worked. Stress is an opposite emotion of joy which is why joy is a direct counterbalance to stress. When we practice joy, we can learn to counteract the effects of stress and soften the nervous system.

4. Increases joy & promotes a healthier lifestyle. This ones a little obvious but when we practice joy, we train ourselves to express joy in our life more easily. When we are joyful, we feel more motivated and excited to go out an experience life! As a result, we gain vital life force energy and more healthier decisions in our life.

5. Increased radiance. Ever noticed why happy people look prettier? Radiance is built from within the heart and shines outwards. This is not a superficial beauty but rather an internal beauty which radiates outwards. When we practice joy, we begin to radiate from within and become expressions of radiance in the world. This increases your attractiveness on all levels.

If you'd like practice feeling more Joy in your life then join me on the mat as we practice weekly meditations like this Joy Meditation.