"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
~ Vivian Greene
Many
years ago I heard Thich Nhat Hahn, a beloved Vietnamese mindfulness teacher, say
"we must develop our capacity to experience joy." Joy is one of the 4 divine
heart qualities that can be cultivated through mindfulness. (The others are
loving-kindness, compassion, and equanimity.) Mindfulness helps us awaken to all
experiences as they present themselves, whether pleasant or unpleasant.
Our auto-pilot mind is programmed to notice the unpleasant more than the
pleasant. Given this propensity, purposefully noticing joyful experiences can be
a balancing factor in life. Rick Hanson, a brain researcher, coaches people to
sink into pleasant experiences by coming into the moment, embracing the sensate
experience moment-by-moment and savoring the experience for a while (10 seconds
or more). Then imagine the pleasant feelings sinking into your bones or flowing
through you veins. He says this can help us to rewire the brain so we can
actually find more joy.
This is not about positive thinking, nor is it meant to have you overlook
difficult things in life but look more realistically at life. Life is a big soup
of pleasant and unpleasant.
I encourage you to experiment with this. May we open to our lives, the pleasant,
unpleasant and neutral, with a sense of kindness and compassion. I hope
our paths connect sometime soon.
Peace & joy,
Micki Fine, M.Ed., LPC.
For more information: www.livingmindfully.org
She has a new childrens' book out in October, May All People and Pigs Be Happy.