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Cultivating and Experiencing Joy
Feeling joyful when you aren’t necessarily being joyful
Life has its ups and downs, and we tend to pay more attention to the downs than the ups. Through mindfulness meditation, we can explore how facial expressions of joy can actually cultivate thoughts and feelings of joy. We can bring joyful aspects of our lives to mind and notice the physical sensations that result.
I’m a licensed mental health counselor, and I know it can be challenging to think about joy and meditate on joy if we’re experiencing difficulty. But in this meditation, I give you several strategies for bringing joy to you and then noticing what happens when you are experiencing joy.
Below is a transcript of a meditation I led on this topic, and at the end of the article, you’ll find a link to the meditation video. Let’s get started.
Meditation Transcript
I’ll begin by inviting you to become present to the extent that you can. A lot of times when we sit down to meditate we are coming from activity and going back to activity and our brains like to keep us in those spots. But for now, let’s be together virtually.
If you are comfortable closing your eyes I’ll invite you to do that. Take some breaths.