Cultivating Inner Joy: Daily Practices for a Happier Life!

How to Cultivate Inner Joy: Daily Practices for a Happier Life

Cultivating joy within oneself involves a combination of mental, emotional, and physical practices. Cultivating inner joy is important for several reasons:

1. Emotional Well-being: Inner joy contributes to a stable and positive emotional state, helping individuals cope more effectively with stress, anxiety, and negative emotions.

2. Physical Health: Studies have shown that positive emotions can boost the immune system, lower blood pressure, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

3. Resilience: People who cultivate inner joy tend to be more resilient and able to bounce back from setbacks and challenges more easily.

4. Relationships: Inner joy can enhance interpersonal relationships. Happy and content people tend to be more empathetic, compassionate, and connected with others.

5. Productivity and Creativity: A joyful mindset can improve focus, creativity, and productivity, as it fosters a positive and open-minded approach to tasks and problem-solving.

6. Quality of Life: Inner joy enriches the overall quality of life, making everyday experiences more enjoyable and meaningful.

7. Self-Discovery and Growth: The process of cultivating inner joy often involves self-reflection and personal growth, leading to a deeper understanding of oneself and one's purpose in life.

8. Positivity and Influence: A joyful individual can positively influence their environment, spreading positivity and inspiring others to seek their own paths to happiness.

9. Mental Clarity: Joy can bring about a sense of mental clarity, reducing the clutter of negative thoughts and allowing for a more focused and peaceful mind.

10. Spiritual Growth: For many, cultivating inner joy is a part of spiritual practice, leading to a deeper connection with their beliefs and values.
    

Here are several strategies to help you develop and maintain a sense of joy:

1. Positive Thinking

• Affirmations: Use positive affirmations to reinforce a positive mindset.

• Set an intention each morning and observe your thoughts

Practice Gratitude

• Daily Gratitude Journal: Write down three things you are grateful for daily. This will shift your focus from what's lacking to what's abundant.

• Express Gratitude: Regularly tell people in your life what you appreciate about them.

Surround Yourself with Positivity

• Positive Environment: Create a space that makes you feel happy, with uplifting music, inspiring books, and meaningful decor.

Practice Forgiveness

• Let Go of Grudges: Holding onto anger or resentment can block joy. Practice forgiveness, even if it’s just for your peace of mind.

Laugh More

• Humor: Watch a funny movie, read a humorous book, or spend time with people who make you laugh.

2. Spiritual Practices

• Spirituality: Engage in spiritual practices that resonate with you, whether prayer, meditation, or reading spiritual texts.

• Nature: Spend time in nature, which can be incredibly rejuvenating and joy-inducing.

Mindfulness and Meditation

• Meditation: Spend a few minutes each day in meditation. Visit my website or email me to join our TCC practice every Tuesday and monthly meditation.

• Mindful Living: Be present in the moment, whether eating, walking, or working. This reduces stress and enhances joy.

3. Self-Care

• Rest: Ensure you get enough sleep and take time to relax.

• Healthy Eating: A balanced diet can improve mood and energy levels.

Physical Activity

• Exercise: Regular physical activity releases endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals.

• Yoga: Combines physical movement with mindfulness, promoting both physical and emotional well-being.

 Connect with Others

• Meaningful Relationships: Spend time with friends and family who uplift you.

• Acts of Kindness: Helping others can significantly boost your own happiness.

4. Pursue Your Passions

• Hobbies: Engage in activities that you love and that make you lose track of time.

• Learning: Continuously learn new skills or subjects that excite you.

Stay Curious and Open

• Exploration: Try new experiences and stay curious about life. This keeps life interesting and joyful.

Consistency is Key

By fostering inner joy, individuals can lead more balanced, fulfilling, and enriched lives, contributing positively to their well-being and those around them. These practices are most effective when they become part of one's daily routine. Consistently incorporating these habits into one's life can help one cultivate and sustain joy from within.

Thanks for watching and sharing!

Video Transcription:

Michelle, Hey, welcome to another episode of Unlocking Your Superpower. My name is Michelle Mehta, and I have with me Veronica Joseph, and we are so excited to talk to you guys about how to unlock your inner joy from within. We are talking about cultivating that inner joy really take. Talking about bringing that peace and that happiness from within. Because I don't know about you, but many of us are looking for that next thing, that new car, that new house, that new clothes and that new pair of shoes, versus just stopping and pausing.

So Veronica, what is the number one cause of death in the United States of America?

So according to the American Heart Association, it's heart disease.

So right, and 51% of Americans are not aware of that, and so I just took a class yesterday about cardiovascular diseases in Chinese medicine, and my picture said he had patients are healthy, that are exercising, eating healthy food, but guess what they have. They died of heart attack, and he found out that emotional stress are the trigger of heart attack, and this men or women are experiencing like a bad relationship, that are stressed out, and so that triggers them to have this heart problems.

Wow, emotional stress. It's not even mental or physical stress. It is an emotional stress. It's people not having the ability to navigate their emotions that they're having.

Well, a lot of them is they're not happy with their job, they're not happy with their life, they're not happy with their relationship, and that really impacts the organ, especially the heart.

Wow.

Yeah, that is so interesting, because part of the train that I've been in, it's about talking about emotion. Just the word emotion, and emotion is energy in motion. It's e motion. And so our bodies, from head to toe, from left arm to the right arm is all about bringing that energy through to and from our body, inner and out, like you know, and having that ability to having trapped emotions. Right? You follow somehow, like aches and pain, and you ask yourself, well, you didn't hurt yourself. How do I have this ache and pain? Maybe you have a trapped emotion side of your body that hasn't been addressed yet.

Actually, I just had a patient this week. She is complaining about a lower back pain and spasm, right? And so we went in to find out through muscle testing what's happening, what's causing the spasm and the muscle pain. And we zoom into that part, that lumbar vertebrae, the muscle, and the nerves. And she was holding that particular vial, which is like

a substance so energetically programmed by a computer. And so I muscle test her, and I ask, okay, what's causing the problem? And it ended up like it's not the food that she was eating. It's an emotion.

Wow, so the emotion was actually stored in the lower back, on both hips and both knees, and the emotion that came up was fear of being alone, the spasm and the ache and the pain in the lower back, if you think about that like, how many fears are we holding on to? Right, right, how many fears does a human go through in their lifetime? Right? We have the fear of success, the fear of failure, fear of snakes and spiders and you know, but there's also the fear of just being alone, or fear of dying, or the fear of public speaking. I mean, we as a society have trained our mind, body and soul to be afraid.

So that is a very interesting and she was surprised, because it was a subconscious she was not even aware of it, right? And a lot of this is unconscious, right? 97% of our behavior is unconscious, right? 97% of our behavior is unconscious. Only that two to 3% is our conscious behavior. And so it is so important to understand who is in control. Is your unconscious mind or your conscious mind? If you don't know the difference, have you ever seen a tight an iceberg, right? Right? An iceberg in the water? Right? What we see above the water is our conscious mind. What we see beneath the water is our unconscious mind and Titanic the ship was told never to be is never going to sink, right? And that is the thing that sunk because it hit the iceberg and nobody knew how big it was going to be. So there's a lot of issues, like sadness, like what people do is they don't know. They're not aware of their own feelings, right? So they try to make them happy by going outside, like what you said, buying things, you know, to make them happy, going shopping to make them happy. But you know, once they have all of those. I mean, they go for another it's like an endless thing. So how can we make it sustainable? So instead of looking outside, why can't we look within and see what's within us? What can we do that make it simple, affordable and easy to maintain and sustain.

So what do you think, Michelle, in your life, what are the things that you do to cultivate that inner joy within I love that question as you know, as you're asking me this question and thinking about I was like, you know, I used to always be surrounded by people as an extrovert. I was like, you know, for me to find joy and to be with joy, I would have to be around other people, not realizing that since 2020, in the pandemic and the lockdown, that my inner joy lies within me, being okay with sitting with myself being okay sitting in a moment of silence. And so I've never done this before, but just this past Wednesday,

I got up in the morning and I had this idea, I have a beautiful backyard. I'm blessed to have a beautiful backyard, and it's right now spring, so the flowers are in full bloom, I decided to have a meditative picnic. I took a bed sheet, put it all on the grass, took my prayer beads, and I sat underneath the sun, and I meditated for an hour. It is so unlike me to do this. It is very difficult to stay with me by myself for five minutes, and I sat there without my phone for an hour, and I felt so rejuvenated, because as an earth sign, as a Capricorn, I needed to be with Earth. And I realized the more my feet needed to touch the ground, I needed to feel that cold grass beneath my toes, and it made me get so more so much more clear in my life purpose.

And I realized, like we take the sunlight for granted. I take my backyard, the lawn in my backyard, for granted, right? Instead, I don't need to drive out 50 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles to go and enjoy nature. It is right here at my disposal, so why not have that life of a picnic? And it made me realize like I don't give myself enough credit. I don't give myself enough credit for staying in that pause, slowing down, right, and not chasing that next thing. And yeah, am I 100% in every area of my life? No, however, it gave me the momentum that I needed to be one step closer to that 100% in my life, right? And sometimes just being grounded, right? We've heard the word grounded when we're kids, right, as in, you're getting in trouble as an adult. Being grounded means getting connected to Mother Nature, because Mother Nature isn't within us, right? 90% of our body is water, and Mother Nature provides that. That water, water comes from the rivers and the, you know, large bodies of, you know, water, obviously, right? So it's within us, and just being connected, being able to tap into that.

And right now, I don't know if you know this Veronica, but there's a new movie coming out. It's called Inside Out two. Inside Out is a Pixar movie, and it's about emotions, and there's a character named Joy, and she's the main character of that movie, and inside out one was about emotion, and inside out two is also about emotions in our mind, and it is a animated movie animation, however, it is puts the things that we've been talking about on our previous episodes to get into perspective.

Because emotions are things that are not addressed. We have major emotions like anger and fear and frustration and guilt and shame and hurt, and all of this ties into really paying attention what's actually happening within us. And a lot of people, they shut down, and they go into depression because they don't know how to deal with it, or they go into the worry of not having something. And they create anxiety in their body. They create anxiety in their mind. So when you say, stop it, and you stop, and you pause, and you take that deep breath, the life breath, where you hold for full and hold for four, inhale for four, exhale for four, hold for four. And you when you do that process, you really start to figure out how what your heartbeat sounds like, and it gives you that ability to have that deep breath that your lungs desire.

Because the more stress you have, the higher you're up, you're breathing, the less stress you have, the lower your breathing. And the goal is to have your whole lungs be filled with breath, and that only happens when you're able to slow down and be intentional with your breathing. So inner joy comes from within. You have to be open to be able to believe that inner joy comes from within. It is an internal process that's true, yeah.

So whatever you believe in, it becomes your reality, yes. So Veronica, how do you find joy in your life?Well, that's a very good question. So usually for me, I try to do it like a routine,

right? So positivity like affirmation, I usually do it like each day when I wake up or at the end of the day, just to reinforce a positive mindset. You know, in the morning, I always set an intention, okay, what is, you know, my purpose for today, and each day, I put in a color to remind myself, so Monday is a red color day, and that is to create love, right? So that's my and so Tuesday is orange, and orange is the color that activates the sacral chakra, right, the creativity that we're a passionate about. So either in you know, writing a like, for instance, what will be topic for today, like creating that you know, or drawing you know. So that's just an example. And the other thing is the gratitude, right? So at the end of the day or during the day, like, what am I grateful for? Like things I am grateful for, and that shifts my focus to what is lacking versus what is abundant, right? And creating a positive environment, right? Like where I work, where I live, you know, like uplifting music, like when I drive in the morning, I can always see the the mountain, right? So that creates joy within me. And I will turn on the music, so I will be dancing, right? And that, you know, I feel happy and grateful

and so. So that's basically the routine. And as well as spiritual practices, like what you're doing, I'm also doing meditation. I spend time with nature. You like walking and taking care of myself. I do practice acupuncture on myself.

I love that right patients we are, and also exercising because those exercise and getting enough rest and relax, as well as eating balance and healthy food can help improve my mood as well as sustain that positivity, and at the same time, I try to smile a lot, right? Because that also helps.

Another thing that's important is passion.

I mean, how can someone be joyful if there's no passion in our lives? So what really gets me excited each day is that I love my job. I love helping people, and the smile in their face, like when they're feeling great and they're even humming, you know, you can see the transformation in their life. That's really priceless for me. I love that. I mean, I truly believe that too, and it's so important. Like, smile is such an easy game. When you smile at somebody else, you want them to like it's probably just an easy gift to give back to people, and you receive that smile back.

And I was reading this book called The Surrendered Single by Laura Boyle. She said, so if you are single and you're in the dating world, you should smile more to smile at anybody that comes your way, and you will feel so much better about yourself, and you will spread inner joy outward, because people like to be around positive people, people don't like to be around negative people. So it's the ability to have that smile and wear that smile, it is such a beautiful thing, right? And having that ability of just connecting, just by nonverbal communication of your eyes are widening and there's a smile on your face, and also cultivating curiosity.

Like, I'm always curious to learn new things, and I'm always taking classes that excites me, you know, like, Okay, I cannot, you cannot wait. You know, you're always happy and that you wanted to learn more like like that. And also, I think one of also, the most important thing, is establishing a meaningful relationship with ourself, 100% and because you are yourself. I mean, nobody's going to take care of you like the way you right? Nobody is going to acknowledge you like the way you acknowledge you. So don't disregard who you are being. Don't disregard your essence of your body, right? Admire what you God has given you, admire what the source has given you, and appreciate it from head to toe, because when you start loving yourself every single day. I tell myself, Michelle, I love the way your hair looks today, or Michelle, I love the way that twinkle in your eye when you compliment yourself your brain might inner joy to come from within as well, right? Yeah, so those are very important, and doing it every day, incorporating it in your daily routine makes it more effective, because you're able to cultivate that joy and sustain it absolutely.

Veronica, is there something that you can give us like, is there a way where you can provide that to us today? Well, we can try.

I invite you to sit in a comfortable chair and relax your head, your neck, your shoulder, move it around.

And we can go into the 555, breathing technique,

inhale slowly and deeply for five seconds, and tense for five seconds and breathe

out slowly for five seconds. So let's go ahead and do it,

inhale,

close your eyes,

tense your body

and breathe out for five seconds,

four more times, inhale for five,

tense for five

Breathe out for five seconds.

Inhale, tense,

breathe out, breathe

inhale,

tense,

breathe out,

and one more time, inhale slowly,

dance your whole Body

and breathe out for five seconds slowly.

Imagine that at the soles of your feet

there's roots coming out,

going down below the ground,

connecting to the center of Mother Earth.

And imagine a big rock anchoring the roots groundingly.

Then visualize a blue colored light coming from the center of Mother Earth, and moving up to your feet, to your legs, stomach, the heart center, neck,

Up to the source, to the universe, feeling the unconditional love of Mother Earth, a

sentient, living being.

Now visualize a white light coming from source or universe going down to the top of your head, face, neck, chest, down to the stomach, to your legs, down to your feet, down underground into the center of Mother Earth,

feeling your body with light, joy, peace.

Now go ahead and bring your awareness to your heart center, listening to your heartbeat, and I'm going to sound the heartbeat through the drum to help us focus and bring our awareness to our heart center,

listening to our heartbeat

and breathing in and out.

Feel the unconditional love of Mother Earth and

the peace and joy

from the source,

visualize the white light and the blue light merge at Your Heart Center,

take a deep breath

and out

and as you breathe out,

allow the light and the love and the joy radiate throughout Your body,

feeling every cell and organs of your body with light, love and joy.

Take another deep breath

and out

and let the love,

peace and joy radiate all around you,

bringing your awareness to your heart center,

feeling that joy,

that Love and peace,

the plants, the animals, the trees,

all living things all around You

are breathing as one,

connecting from my heart

to Your heart,

the heart of Mother Earth, throughout nature and

heartbeat,

beating us one,

feel the love and the joy and the peace

in Your heart throughout your body,

breathing in And out and

Feel the calmness

and whenever you're ready, you can gently open your Eyes,

give yourself a big hug

and do an affirmation.

I am love, I am peace. I am Joy, blessed. I am blessed. I am blessed I am

Thank you for joining us. And if you are interested to join our monthly meditation, you can check it out on my website, awesomehealing.com and join us.

How does that feel? Michelle, I loved it. Actually, I feel so much more calm in my body, and I feel extremely centered and grounded. So this meditation is always at your fingertips. You can go ahead and listen to the last five minutes of it if you want to keep doing this meditation on repeat, Veronica has graciously given her our time in giving us a monthly meditation. So please do check out the website, awesomehealing.com,

to learn more about the monthly meditation.

If you want to connect with us one on one, feel free to visit us at on social media, and mine is at, I am Michelle Mehta, and we also do the Tai Chi Chih moving meditation every week on Tuesday too. Love that. Love that. So thank you so much for joining us today.

We look forward to connecting with you on our next episode where we talk about bringing in and deepening this joy and we're adding in abundance and prosperity along with it. So hope you guys have a wonderful, wonderful time listening to us and we will see you next time. Bye.

Here are some practical ways to incorporate daily self-love and appreciation practices:

1. Morning Intentions

   Set a daily intention focused on self-care

   Practice positive affirmations

   Choose a color or theme for each day to inspire creativity and positivity

   
   

2. Gratitude Practices

   Keep a daily gratitude journal

   Reflect on things you're grateful for at the end of each day

   Shift focus from what's lacking to what's abundant in your life

   Self-Acknowledgment

   Compliment yourself daily

   Appreciate your body and unique qualities

   Practice kind self-talk

   
   

3. Mindfulness Techniques

   Meditate for 5-10 minutes daily

   Practice deep breathing exercises

   Connect with nature

   Do a body scan to release tension

   
   

4. Physical Self-Care

   Exercise regularly

   Eat balanced, healthy meals

   Get adequate rest

   Practice self-care activities you enjoy

   
   

5. Passion and Learning

   Engage in activities that excite you

   Take classes or learn new skills

   Cultivate curiosity

   Smile and maintain a positive outlook

   
   

Consistency is key - incorporate these practices into your daily routine to sustain inner joy and self-love.