Joy
I know that I have it.
And I’m not a whimsical person. I’m not bubbly, and I never had a ‘cheerleader’ personality.
But I am an emotional being. Sensitive in that I feel quickly, yet it doesn’t overwhelm me.
I’m aware of my emotional empathy. When I used to teach meditation in a classroom setting and I’d have my eyes closed, guiding and holding space for my students… when a tear streamed down my face, I knew that someone in the back of the room was crying.
Similarly, I sensed pain in the world, before politics and social media got out of hand, when it was downright “boring,” and this used to make me question why anyone would want to live to be a hundred years old. I’ve had to learn to transmute this heaviness into something moveable, purposeful.
And of course, when my children are ever hurting, that is probably the biggest pain of all. They say that a parent can only be as happy as their least happy child. I get it. I would trade my happiness in for their pain any day of the week.
I love life, and my life feels complete. But because the world bleeds, it can feel strange to allow the Joy to exist in me. Yet, it does.
Because this is what the world needs. Because we can only give what we have. The world needs elevation, and we can only elevate if we ourselves are elevated. So this is what I cultivated.
People often ask,
the problems feel so big, what can I do that would make a difference?
This. Cultivate Joy. It’s the most healing and transformative thing you can do for yourself and the world around you. To live consciously, humbly, and joyously. And to serve others if and when you can. What this means is, put your oxygen mask on first.
What you pay attention to, and what you dwell on, spreads. Choose Joy. This is the leap we all must learn to make.
I’ll share with you two perspectives on this, from both the Ayurvedic point of view and Universal Law.
But first, what is joy?
It’s not the bubbles in your champagne glass.
Nor is it conditional.
Joy is like the sun that’s always, always there, even when the clouds come between it. You can experience Joy simultaneously with other emotions. Thus Joy doesn’t replace the feeling of other emotions, nor do the other emotions have to cancel out Joy. Joy sits along side them, quietly and compassionately, not giggling but trusting, lifting you up in the process.
Joy is trust in the other emotions to help you move through. With trust comes ease and gratitude, the energy of which reinvests in itself and amplifies Joy.
Joy is a foundational sense of security that we can all learn to tap into, that is unconditional, even when we are prisoners of war (think Nelson Mandela). Joy is synonymous with:
Peace
Connection
Gratitude
Trust
Wholeness
Security
Equanimity
Joy doesn’t come when you receive good news and then go away when you get bad news. It doesn’t go away when someone says something unkind to you, or when you lose all your material things. Nor does it make you oblivious to what’s “happening.” In fact it makes you more aware, helping the more difficult emotions to move through, guided by love not fear; by understanding, not vengeance. Joy is true power.
Quantum Leap is a sudden jump, or advancement from point A to point B. It defies our ideas on how time and space works. It always surprises us because it breaks the rules we’ve come to believe as unbreakable. For example: If you choose that route, based on math, you’ll never pay off your debt. Or: Based on these tests, you’re not going to get better, I’m sorry.
While quantum leaps defy man-made laws (and arguably science), they don’t defy Universal Law because the Universe doesn’t live by our rules.
We call them miracles.
And perhaps they are. Ask those with terminal illnesses whose doctors have given up on them who have spontaneously healed. The common thread with miracles is a change in the core belief system around what’s possible. And an ability to ignore what everyone says is real. This breakthrough that aligns with Universal Law comes with a deep sense of freedom that unshackles limitations, pulls us away from the desperate state of survival, and delivers Joy. These miracles work through a shift in core beliefs and their matching feelings, influencing energy (intelligence, agility, fluidity, ascendancy), which then shapes matter (which is heavy and slow in comparison, and a physical printout of energy created by past thoughts).
The “normal” route tries to influence matter to affect matter without understanding that our energy drives all of it.
The only way we can change our lives is to change our energy. - Dr. Joe Dispenza
Which is why saying I’ll be happy when things change is mythological.
Truth is, when I’m happy, things change.
Ayurvedic Perspective
Ayurveda says there are 3 things necessary for good health:
Bliss (Joy): I’ll touch on this in a bit.
Balanced Mind-Body constitution: a chicken-or-the-egg situation - balance lead to Joy, and Joy leads to balance
Discerning mind: leads to Joy and Balance. Also, Joy speeds up discernment.
Essentially, what this means is, start with any one of these 3. Plunge into them with embrace, they affect one another.
Ayurveda offers many guidelines to get you there, including what to eat based on your constitution and the seasons, when to sleep, and how to choose your activities. It looks to strengthen your digestion first because, according to Ayurveda, that’s where disease begins.
Digestion includes our ability to digest, or process, life. How we process life affects our food digestion. How we digest food affects how we process life. More than anything you eat, pure Joy will boost your digestive strength.
You can’t digest the healthiest of foods if you eat while you’re multi-tasking in front of your computer, while you’re upset, while trying to digest what’s on the news, or negativity at the dinner table, or by using white-knuckled willpower because you’re trying to eat healthier but can’t stand what you’re eating.
Relax into Joy, and your digestion will process just about anything. Because you have now, literally, put yourself in parasympathetic, rest-and-digest mode. And, you have activated energy. Life force.
Joy is the key differentiator between a long and healthy life and a short or sick one.
We’ve all wondered about how a 40-something year old, health conscious person who runs 10 miles a day and eats heart-healthy can drop dead from a heart attack while another person, like the late actor George Burns, known for smoking cigars and drinking several martinis a day lived to be 100 while staying mentally sharp and active…
It’s Joy. A deep sense of connection.
Studies show a strong link between sense of connection and longevity (and quality of life). This is not to say that we should smoke and drink like George Burns. Nor is it to say that we shouldn’t choose a healthy lifestyle. In fact, it’s smart to make healthy choices as much as possible. But we ought to also ask ourselves:
What if we were to choose Joy?
What if we chose to amplify all that’s right instead of dwelling in what’s wrong? To live in love instead of fear? In understanding instead of judgment? In finding common ground instead of dividing?
In making the silver linings more real than the gray clouds?
Universal Law
Universal law isn’t man-made. They are principles that govern human experience across the board, regardless of who we are.
Gravity, for instance. If you step off a building, you will go down, not up. The ‘privileged’ don’t have an edge on this one. Cause-and-effect is a universal law. No man can change these rules based on economics or identity.
While creating and marketing an Earth-friendly wellness product back in my day (around 2007), I met a lot of passionate entrepreneurs that were either concerned about the Earth or wanting to offer healthier, non-toxic, and natural personal wellness solutions. These were the days of the Green Festivals and Wellness Symposiums.
Some creators were inspiring, wellness-focused, fun to be around, and super contagious in the best of ways.
Others instilled fear to try and make change. They made people feel like any other choice would doom our planet and our health for generations to come. The science they delivered with statistics were overwhelming, and people felt disempowered. Moreover, the products and solutions they offered felt like they would break the bank. The irony is, the inspiring creators charged more, and budget rarely became an obstacle for the inspired.
What we pay attention to grows. And if the attention isn’t on love, gratitude, and stewardship, then it’s on division, fear, and destruction. What we pay attention as a group grows exponentially.
It matters less how much we care. It matters more the feelings we spread.
We think focusing on our negative biases are more realistic. Sure, negativities exist. As information… so that we may rise above. This is intelligence in action.
But to spread fear is to shackle us there. We become closed and overprotective. We let the negativities become more real. We believe that our eyes are more open because of this. And we would be right: our eyes are in fact more open, to negativity. The more we fight against, the more that which we fight against grows. That’s the thing about focusing on what we don’t like: we feed it.
“I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.”
―Mother Teresa
Gratitude, as we know, is a big deal. We’ve, at the very least, heard about it as a recommended daily practice. People laud the value and power of it. Rightfully so, because it amplifies and attracts Joy, Trust, Ease, Relaxation, Good Health, Safety, and Beauty. It pierces through the veil of time and gets you to your desired experiences fast. In quantum speed.
Like a light switch, the half empty glass becomes a half full one. Suddenly, instead of feeling not enough, you feel more than enough. And because like attracts like, you attract more of it.
Myth: I’ll believe it when I see it.
Truth: I’ll see it when I believe it.
Question:
What would it feel like if you already had what you wanted in your life?
Teach yourself to feel it first. Not just in your head, but deep in your body. Align with it through and through, and practice being in that feeling until it becomes so familiar to you. This familiarity will create the “luck” you need to pull through instead of hold you back. This is the catalyst for your quantum leap.
I’m not telling you to ignore other emotions. We have them for a reason. They are meant to be felt, and then moved through, by way of the information they provide. Remember: they were never meant to be identified with. They were only ever meant to guide. Trust them.
Joy is your quantum leap. Let it guide you.
Love, Savitree
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Thank you for writing this. It’s so full of simple but profound thoughts and practices. Joy is our birthright we just need to claim it…daily.
You got me at “joy” 🎈