Hello dear ones,
Ah, joy!
This spontaneous, natural emotion can easily be forgotten—especially past childhood, and in difficult times. If we’ve forgotten how to play and dance and sing and laugh, then we are missing out on our rightful inheritance of joy.
As the 3rd of the 4 Immeasurables, or Brahma Viharas, joy’s opposite is jealousy or envy. It’s pretty obvious when envy or jealously are present. The light of our awareness reveals the icky feeling of these emotions.
When we choose to stop suffering, we change the channel and incline the mind toward the wholesome flipside of jealousy & envy: sympathetic joy. It’s like a freebie—we get to feel joy over someone else’s good fortune!
In our competitive society, which can be focused on money and possessions, it can be easy to get caught. We can end up wanting to be like someone else or have things others have.
The beauty of sympathetic joy is that we get to feel joy in response to another person’s true happiness or success. We can remember that it is not “their” joy, but the joy.
From something as simple as an infectious belly laugh overheard in a restaurant, to a joy as profound as the safe, sacred arrival of new life, we can choose to connect to joy when others experience it.
And nature! Oh, nature.
Don’t forget this goldmine for sympathetic joy.
From scenes of perfect natural beauty, to playful pebbles and tropical shells rolling over toes at the ocean’s edge, to the hug of the sun’s warmth.
Nature has joy to offer in spades. We can choose to connect with it. We can delight in its delight.
Love,
Kate
xoxo