We don’t have to go anywhere special to experience calm and joy — even in the midst of the uncertainty and concern many of us are feeling right now.
It is a matter of approach and practice.
First, the approach. If we are feeling stressed and are impatient with our ability to just “calm down”, that in itself, is aggressive and not helpful. Instead, can we consider a more compassionate approach to our troubles?
Try this. Take your left hand and make a tight fist. Hold it. Now, take your right hand and try to pry the fingers of your left fist apart. It doesn’t work does it? In fact, you probably feel the tightness and strain of the action. This is how taking a critical and aggressive approach to our own change can feel.
Now…. make a fist with your left hand once again and this time take your right hand, palm open. Allow the right hand to be a balm, a gentle, soothing hand. And place it gently around your left fist. Can you feel the loosening? Can you feel how this more compassionate approach to the left hand, gives you more freedom? Soothes?
You can use this physical exercise to remind you of the way that a compassionate and caring approach can bring you more calm and joy. And that compassion can then extend to all those around you.
Next, the practice. There are many practices to allow us to experience more calm and joy in the midst of our day, this is just one.
I call it the “my happy place” meditation.
Read through the following and then try it on your own.
Settling yourself in a comfortable seated or lying down position, close your eyes. And just breathe naturally for a few cycles. Maybe deepen the out breath to bring a sense of calm and stillness. Now…. imagine a place (it can be real or imaginary) that brings you a true sense of happiness. Can you see the light? What is the scenery like? Are there others with you or are you alone? Whatever the place is for you, fill it with enough detail to give you a sense of connection to the place.
And now allow the joy that this place brings you to suffuse through your body. Where do you feel opening? Perhaps you feel your heart blooming, your throat opening, your shoulders dropping. Whatever this feeling of happiness is for you in your body, take note.
You can, through practice, learn how to reenter this “map of joy” in your body at any time.