Happiness through Kindness Meditation

"While Tan acknowledges that there are other routes to mastering meditation (including sheer discipline and will), his focus is on joy. The book—peppered with cartoons in every chapter—teaches practices and principles for cultivating mindfulness that emphasize gentleness and ease, and lead to
a life suffused with positive feelings" ~ Greater Good Magazine

Must we pretzel ourselves and meditate while sitting in trees? :)

Absolutely not! You can meditate in your pajamas if you want to, no deep thinking required.

This article (linked above) suggests that you can think happy thoughts or even chuckle a little as you meditate. It's a book review, in part, and the author, whose life purpose is now to pursue joy and spread it around, shares that his life has not always been happy.

In fact, he tells us that his childhood was miserable!

Mine was, too. And happiness has been a lifelong pursuit for me, so I love reading this story about someone else finding ways to experience happiness and writing a book so he can teach us to do the same.

One exercise he suggests is a mini-version of the metta, or lovingkindness meditation. He suggests that every hour, you choose two people and wish them happiness. You can even imagine that you are sending it to them with a magic wand or other magical tool.

Neat idea! Want to try it now? Use the 1 1/2-minute video below, and let it guide you through doing this quick exercise a few times.

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine