3 Steps To Cultivate Joy Within

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Joy is a fundamental quality within ourselves that all of us experience when we are children. But as we grow older, joy stops being our constant companion and becomes a fleeting experience that comes about once in a while. Let’s take a look at what we can do to make joy a more constant presence in our lives.

#1 Meditation

One of the best ways to cultivate joy in our lives is to bring in a meditative practice. Yoga and meditation, which originate in India, have been crafted into a path to what is known as mukti or nirvana. This translates to enlightenment in English, or the liberation from all limitations and bondage. While that may take a bit of work, even bringing a few minutes of meditation into your life can make a great difference in our lives by cultivating a sense of the spiritual within us. What spirituality is, is essentially a means to align our body, mind and spirit so that they work in tandem to create a sense of joy and pleasantness within us.

Meditation also has many immediate physical and psychological benefits. Studies have shown that meditation can reduce stress and help us tackle stressful episodes better. In fact, yoga and meditation have been prescribed for patients recovering from chemotherapy, to help them cope better with depression and anxiety.

#2 Take Things Into Your Hands

Peace of mind isn’t an impossible thing if we remember that it is ultimately our mind and our body. Instead becoming a slave to the mind, if we determine to become the master of the mind, the mind becomes a great tool.

In the Hindu and Buddhist ways of life, the concept of karma denotes something similar. Karma is frequently misunderstood as good and bad actions. So, what is karma actually? Karma is the possibility that we can determine the course of our life. If we do not take charge, then life follows its own coure. But karma also gives us the possibility that we can create our destiny by our actions in the present.

#3 Creating the Right Conditions

Ultimately, joy and peace can find root within us only if we create the right conditions within. If we constantly cultivate negativity within, we will experience life in a negative manner. For example, our ego often gets bruised when someone says something uncomplimentary about us, and this leads to unpleasant feelings. But what is ego after all? It is just a certain identity or conditioning of the mind that we take on, for a social purpose. If we make our ego fluid, if we consciously make our identity malleable so that we can create the kind of identity necessary in a given situation, then constant pleasantness can become a possibility in our lives.

Ananya Mathur