Sunday Reset: Your Joy is My Joy
Your Joy is My Joy
On Thursdays CMP brings a weekly mindfulness meditation program to a group of people reentering society after incarceration, and in yesterday's session we shared Empathetic Joy as the main meditation.
When practicing empathetic joy, we hold in our awareness the good fortune or good news another person is experiencing, and relish in the joy with them. Their joy becomes our joy. Through this practice our happiness expands! We don't need to rely soley on our own experiences to feel joy, rather we can feel joy with others. In addition to expanding the amount of joy available to us, empathetic joy helps us feel more connected to others, so we feel less alone.
Here are a few highlights from yesterday's program - where empathetic joy showed up naturally before we even shared the meditation:
My colleague casually set her phone on the table which was displaying an image from her wedding. A particpant noticed and celebrated the beautiful picture and joy of her wedding.
In our sharing circle one man expressed his gratitude for his freedom - no longer living in a 6' x' 8' grey prison cell, he can see the sky and breathe the fresh air. We joyfully smiled with him.
One woman shared that her son's father is responding well to chemotherapy and we all sighed with a sense of relief and together felt the hope that she was carrying. We weren't just happy for her, we were happy with her.
Another man said that he was using a public rest room recently and found $87 - we all cheered and celebrated his good fortune!
During an empathetic joy meditation, we bring people to mind, hold their good fortune (their “win”) in our awareness, then with kind curiosity, open up to feeling joy, happiness, peacefulness, and goodness with them. Their joy becomes our joy. We then share heartfelt phrases in acknowledgment of this happiness. These phrases might sound like:
I'm so happy for your.
May your happiness continue.
May your reasons for joy grow.
May you never be separated from true joy.
I'm happy that you're happy.
and you likely have many phrases of your own…
This week, I invite you to try an empathetic joy mediation and let me know what you think. Notice when and where your joy is expanding in celebration of others' happiness. Lastly, notice if this practice is hard, because it can be. If it feels hard or if you're feeling envy instead of joy in the presence of another's good fortune, offer yourself some self-compassion. We are all humans with a multitude of emotions, just doing our best. Perhaps empathetic joy takes some tenderness, patience, and time. You got this!
What's on your mind? Send me an email.
Warmly,
Julia
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