Jul242018
Team BlogsJoyful

This week I have found myself very busy, but also still tired after my stomach bug of last week. I was leading our Joyful Club weekend and retreat at Samye Ling in Scotland, going straight from there to a two and a half day meeting of the U.K. Network of Mindfulness Teacher Training Organisations in Crewe and then straight back from there to Samye Ling for weekend one of Compassion.

I feel tiredness in my eyes, but if I relax my eyes back in their sockets or nap for a few minutes this goes away. Then there is just the story I am telling myself about how I must be tired because I am so busy. But actually when I check in I am fine – it’s just my eyes. They seem to have to work hard to see through my vary-focal glasses these days.

I am here at my last day of the Joyful Club retreat, which has been lovely. Choden, Rosina and I have taken turns to teach sessions and lead practices within a still sunny Samye Ling. So I have had lots of time to practice. We have done joyful singing, made a nature collage together as a mindful pottering exercise and have written reflective poems. So lots of joyful creativity. We haven’t become giddy with excitement as the practice has kept the joyfulness real and grounded – a gentle contentment, a tranquil happiness.

 

Together we lit 1008 candles in memory of Jane’s dad who died last week. A moving ritual of loving remembrance.blank

It has been a joy to spend so much time practicing together. Embodied and present for each other. Spells of silence. Time for walking in a beautiful and sunny Samye Ling. Taking in the good around us – natural beauty, birdsong, flowers. The lichen on the tree bark has stopped me in my tracks several times. It’s as if I never saw a tree before.

So not so busy a lot of the time – despite my story!

One of themes of the Joyful Club was that we have to choose joy – choose to cultivate joy rather than following our usual habitual patterns, which tend to be focussed on threats driven by fear or anger or on drives driven by desire – my usual habitual patterns tend to take me away from joy. So the message is to drop our usual stories and cultivate a cheerful curiosity towards the underlying feelings in order to see what can be learned.

 

We explored some tips for cultivating more of a joyful attitude in our minds and in our lives:

  • Take any opportunity to do a random act of kindness – for ourself or for those around us – we can be an undercover kindness doer!
  • Write down three things we are grateful for when we wake each morning: people, life circumstances, things – whatever comes to mind.
  • Write down three things that went well that day just before we go to sleep – small or large.

 

Here is a daily life joy practice to have a go. The more we are joyful, the more those around us will benefit!

So am I really tired – no I don’t think so – the mindful walking and lying down practice this afternoon have nourished me and I am about to be led in a bodyscan. I can joyfully effortlessly move from one experience to the next and I’ll be just fine – so long as I don’t think about it!

 

Kind Wishes

Heather

Author: Heather Regan-Addis

Heather began training in Mindfulness Meditation with Rob Nairn in 2004. She is British Wheel of Yoga trained yoga teacher, has a Post Graduate Diploma in Mindfulness Based Approaches from the University of Bangor, Wales and has a Masters degree in Studies in Mindfulness from the University of Aberdeen. She is a co-founder and director of the Mindfulness Association, a Mindfulness, Compassion and Insight teacher and leads the team that developed and delivers the Mindfulness teacher training program to teach the Mindfulness Based Living Course. She is an honorary Fellow of the University of Aberdeen and was involved in the development of the Masters program in Studies in Mindfulness at the University of Aberdeen, which is a collaboration with the Mindfulness Association and also teaches on the program.