Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'd like to talk

about staying open to joy.

And I'd like to share a quote

by Alan Cohen, where he says,

"Don't postpone joy until you

have learned all of your lessons.

Joy is your lesson."

So notice what it's like to

hear that, how that lands for

you at this point in your life.

With all pithy quotes, there's obviously

sometimes nuance that is lost and it's

true here as well, because the reality

is that sometimes with difficult

experiences that we're processing

and getting through, the feeling of

joy isn't necessarily the appropriate

response, nor should we expect it to.

Sometimes we need to feel.

Pain, fear, confusion, despair.

And that's part of the larger

process of being human.

The way I interpret this quote is

that we should be wary of getting

caught in the trap of thinking,

I need to figure all of this out,

learn these lessons, do all of this

healing before I can finally feel joy.

Or before I can appreciate

goodness in my life.

And instead, the invitation in here

is to recognize the small moments of

joy that are there along the way, but

also to stay open to the goodness of

your life that can come through moving

through the healing process, learning

these various lessons, the highs and lows

that are inevitably part of being human.

If we're postponing our joy and starting

our life until we figured everything

out and did all of our healing,

we'll never get to experience joy.

There's always something more.

And so maybe the most profound work

there is, is staying open to that

goodness, feeling it while it's there

and being able to see it sometimes when

we get really narrowly focused on what

isn't going well and what is wrong.

So my invitation to you today and for

the rest of the week is just to start to

notice more and more where you might be

getting caught in that trap of, I need

to figure this out, or I need to meditate

X amount of times before I'll finally be

able to experience relaxation and joy.

And instead, what might it be like

to just practice receiving it in this

moment and keep your awareness open

for those little moments where it's

there, but maybe aware glossing over it.

So I hope this helps and gives

you something to think about.

Thank you for your practice.

Let's settle in for our meditation.