Nine Simple Practices to Embrace Joy

From Pieces to Peace in Nine Simple Practices

Life presents many challenges. Sometimes the shattering and loss of our comfortable, familiar world leads to unexpected opportunities that can open the door to a more vibrant life. But it may not feel like it at the time. Though change is natural, when we lose a house, a mate, a parent or a pet it sometimes seems hard to carry on. It's important to honor what’s lost and acknowledge the deeper feelings. Some simple practices drawn from wisdom tractions around the world can help through these periods and bring us to once again embrace joy.

Debra Moffitt (www.debramoffitt.com) is the author of Awake in the World: 108 Ways to Live a Divinely Inspired Life (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2011) (www.awakeintheworld.com). World traveler and longtime student of the world’s oldest spiritual traditions, her writings on spiritual practices appear in publications worldwide.

Awake in the World: 108 Ways to Live a Divinely Inspired Life offers 108 quick and simple exercises inspired by wisdom traditions around the globe. Compatible with any belief system, these practical techniques can be performed any time you need them. Learn to sharpen your awareness, stay calm in a crisis, focus on what is truly important, and recognize the divine all around you.

Find Your Secret Garden

In the Middle Ages, secret gardens in Europe became refuges from the chaos, wars and disease. These secret gardens were places for healing and spiritual communion where fragile flowers, medicinal herbs and trees grew. They symbolize the sacred, protected garden of paradise within us. Rediscover and explore your secret garden. Find a corner where you can retreat into yourself for a few minutes. Imagine walking in your inner secret garden and find the serenity and peace that are your true nature. Note how this place feels and what you find there. Manifest this in some way in your life. Plant a flower in your garden. Get some herbs for the kitchen or draw or collage an image from your secret garden to remind you of this serene place during the day.

Grieve Losses

In our fast-paced world when we experience loss we want to quickly brush over it and move on. When a loved one, a job, a house or a relationship is lost, let yourself grieve it. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross studied the stages of dying in terminally ill patients. They experienced a process of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and arrived at acceptance. These steps also apply to how we cope with the loss of jobs, homes and most anything of emotional value. By being conscious of it, it’s easier to understand our feelings and accept. Don’t bury the hurt and pretend it’s not there. Don’t wallow in it either. Face the feelings. Honor the person, situation or thing that is gone. Acknowledge where you are at in the process of grief. Allow the feelings to surface and then let go.

Practice Silence

Take five minutes, an hour, half a day or a week and keep silent. Don’t speak. Listen to the deep quiet of your heart. This silence is always there beneath the agitated ocean of the mind. Eliminating talking will bring you more in touch with it. If you choose to have a silent period you may need to prepare a badge or a note or explain to family and friends in advance. Shut off your cell phone. Turn off the music and TV and unplug the Internet. Use the quiet time to observe yourself, your mind, and others. With practice you will come to look forward to these periods of silence as a retreat. Appreciate the calm interior and the joy of turning inward towards your divine spirit. You may notice that you have more energy after a day without speaking.

Laugh

Laugh today. Despite the loss, find something to laugh about. Look yourself in the mirror and make faces. Wear a clown’s nose. Put a flower behind your ear. Keeping a sense of humor may lengthen your life span, reduce pain and stress, make your life happier and draw you closer to the divine. Keeping a sense of humor about yourself and your weaknesses is a way to stay healthy and sane even in the most trying moments. It’s hard to stay sad for long or feel bitter when good-natured laughter erupts in a room. You might also check out laughter yoga as a practice that promotes laughing combined with breathing for physiological, psychological and spiritual benefits.

Excerpted from Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life © 2011 by Debra Moffitt. Used by permission from Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. www.llewellyn.com.