Joy is Now

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” 

~Thích Nhất Hạnh

            Mindfulness.  In yoga, we hear this word a lot.  Its usually paired with the phrase, “be present.”  So what exactly does that mean?  I’m going to borrow the term “Monkey Mind” from one of my yoga teacher training classmates to help describe this.  If you’ve ever experienced one of those times where your thoughts just kept racing around in circles, jumping from one thing to another, and preventing you from either sleeping, working, or simply relaxing, you’ll be able to relate to this term.  I remember suffering through a period of time a few years ago where I didn’t sleep for 3 straight days.  It was a most bewildering experience and I’m not entirely sure how I made it through my days.  I was teaching elementary school at the time and I remember walking into the classroom after the second sleepless night and feeling like I was in a dream.  I could barely feel my body, my eyes ached, all my senses seemed to meld together and it was as if I was walking into a vortex.  Yet on the third night, even though my body was begging for rest, my mind just kept spinning around thought after thought after thought.  If you allow it, the mind can be a powerful thing.  My colleague who coined the Monkey Mind term brilliantly described those thoughts as a monkey, swinging around from branch to branch, climbing up one tree then jumping over to the next, and really, just monkeying around inside your head.  Mindfulness is when we quiet that monkey and come into a relaxed state, fully aware of the present moment and that moment only.  We observe, without judgment, the sensations within and around our body, the noises, the smells, our feelings, even our thoughts.  Observing our thoughts without thinking might seem contradictory but its possible.  Think of it as stepping outside of yourself and hovering above your body and just watching, without thinking or analyzing, as those feelings and sensations swirl about.  Without fighting against them, allowing them to just “be.”  I try to do this every time I find my mind lost in some event or situation from the past or projecting into the future.  Coming back to the present brings on a relaxed state in which mindfulness occurs and in which we can find joy.  When something bad happens, accept it as what is.  Our misery comes when we wish things weren’t the way they are.  When things are good, be aware of and enjoy all the good, then accept it when it goes away.  There is joy in being perfectly content with things exactly as they are, in this moment, good or bad. 

I love how James Baraz, author of Awakening to Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness describes it: “Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).”