Access more joy

Notice for some, joy may seem out of reach or not experienced regularly in daily life. What is your experience of happiness for no reason, that which is embodied, open, energetic, alive? Does anything arise? Were these passing states? Is it just a state you imagine when you feel stressed and seek to get somewhere else? What is required to tap into it as an enduring part of our Being? How often do we celebrate simply Being right where we are, come what may? How often do we sense beauty and tenderness? Aliveness and openness grow more accessible as we open and value the whole of existence. Its like shifting awareness from viewing life as a problem to solve, into seeing life a mystery to experience. Do we feel obligated to feel joy or is it spontaneous? In the same way, to commit to realize full potential, empathize with the suffering to around us makes us feel more connected to our world. It is also part of our commitment to being whole to feel open to loving the world as it is. As we cultivate presence, this natural capacity within each of us, we actually cultivate paths for joy. Being open to light-heartedness happens as we pay attention and cherish all of existence. The quality of life is experienced in proportion to allowing our capacity for delight to guide us. This is a gift we give ourselves as we pay attention. Joy happens. It arises from the simple experiences; jumping into piles of leaves, tuning into the scent of a flower, the wind blowing on our face, a snowflake landing on the tongue, the taste of a strawberry. The experience of joy is so-life giving that it feels natural to find joy in everything from sunrise to sunset and all that unfolds in between.

Tune into True Nature

Notice tuning into the pulse of the ocean allows us to listen differently, grow aware and recall our True Nature. It dawns that playing in the Sun, feeling sand ooze between the toes, listening to wave sounds, creating sand balls, stumbling upon crabs and jellyfish, collecting sea shells, is all part of getting back in touch with simplicity, with what really matters and is ever-present. Everything is a cosmic mirror inviting us to love ourselves more.

Stop and smell the flowers

Notice what revs you up and gets you excited. You may be someone who is conditioned to do, do, do and go, go, go.  You may pride yourself on your planning and strategies to make yourself feel you live life to the fullest.  As fun as it is to experience different places and activities, what if you could be happy and find something worthwhile smelling the flowers right where you are?

Listen to words you use in conversation. It is easy to allow yourself to focus on what you are doing later today, tomorrow or on the horizon, or what you have already done.  In doing so, notice the unseen and unmentioned is here and now. If you feel anything other than appreciation about where you are and all that is unfolding in life, then get ready for another way of seeing.   You can do something, everything or nothing and it all smells of the same love in the heart. 

Allow simplicity to speak

The essence of being is unlimited energy. The human is the part of being conditioned to focus on limitations and seek that which cannot be found.  That which is aware through the human part is always here, yet the human mind has you believing what you want most is outside of you.  Notice what happens as you consciously love and appreciate yourself in thought, feeling, all expression.  You feel more alive.  You accept all perceptions and recognize each one invites you to embrace simplicity.  Allow the truth to reveal itself.  Everything you do and do not points toward that which you are.  Notice what is irrelevant falls away as you shift attention away.  Nothing remains.

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." -Mark Twain

Feel simplicity

You feel simplicity through what it is not. There is no pride, no character, no ideas that obscure the view. Simplicity is reflected not in absence, but in presence and complete acceptance. It is a knowing all is perfect and improvement is unnecessary. It is content to live moment-to- moment, to allow spontanaeity to be its guide. Simplicity is a not imposed, but allowed or resisted with the flow. It is discerned as division between conscious and unconscious dissolves. Simplicity denies nothing and speaks in stillness.