Discovering Your Innate Joy

How much pleasure are you willing to feel in any given moment? How much of the innate joy of simply being alive are you willing to allow yourself? Oftentimes, unconsciously you’re withholding this pleasure from yourself because of some deep-set belief it’s somehow wrong to enjoy being alive too much, as if there’s an obligation to suffer to some degree, because others are suffering.

However those that are suffering benefit more by having an example of joyfulness to aspire to, so you benefit them more by allowing yourself the joy that is your birthright. Then there’s the mistaken belief that it’s somehow unsafe or unwise to let yourself feel the pleasure of existence coursing through your channels and veins until you’ve got everything in your life sorted, which is patently absurd, because never was there a person born who had everything in their lives sorted. Life consists of myriad moving parts – with everything in motion, nothing can remain fixed, so even when things are momentarily in order, they will inevitably pass into disorder just as quickly as they came into order in the first place.

Basing your joy on everything being in order then, is like chasing your tail.

The Taoist idea is that to base your joy on your life being in order is silly for this reason. So they recommend basing it on realigning your inner state optimally so your body is relaxed, your skeletal structure supporting it, is as expanded as can be (by lengthening the spine and broadening across the shoulder and pelvic girdles), your breath is flowing freely, your heart is open and your mind is pulled back into the midbrain region – then training yourself to maintain that from moment to moment – and then training yourself, because it does need training, to take pleasure in every breath you breathe.

It’s all about shifting your focus from the external realm to the internal realm.

And once you do, a marvellous thing occurs: the external realm begins mysteriously to match the inner state by shifting all its parts into a more harmonious configuration to justify your inner joy.

I wish you unparalleled levels of inner joy and exquisite degrees of innate pleasure, growing exponentially from moment to moment, regardless of circumstances, so that you feel as if you’re floating on air.

BD