When I think of the word joy, I think of wide smiles, sparkling eyes, and a burst of emotion. I think of laughter, friends, and love. As a principle of yoga, joy is a natural part of our life experience, but too often gets buried under the pressure we put on ourselves to advance, grow, and meet expectations that aren’t in alignment with our own desires.
In yoga, experiencing joy, or bliss, is about experiencing your True Self–the authentic you–and meeting your needs without guilt, shame, or fear. And although feeling bliss is nice, it’s unrealistic to think that we can be joyful 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. We have to make room for other emotions too. But you always get to choose how you prioritize your emotions. You get to choose how much happiness you want to consciously cultivate in your daily life. Joy can be spontaneous, but you can also actively work to ensure you find it in the most basic moments of your everyday life.
Where I find joy
Before I ever stepped on a yoga mat, I intuitively practiced a nightly ritual to help me connect with feelings of bliss before I went to bed each night. In high school, I took a trip to Spain and France with my Spanish teachers and about 20 of my classmates. Some of my best friends went on that trip, and I happened to meet my first boyfriend on the back of the tour bus as we passed over the Pyrenees into the south of France. (That boyfriend is now my husband and “Dad” to our son Oliver.) That trip, up until that point in my life, was the best trip I’d ever taken. Each night before I went to bed I would replay in my mind all the things we did every day, all the moments that made me smile, all the encounters I wanted to remember. I replayed joyful moments in my head as a way to soothe my soul and ease me to sleep. I can’t say how long I did this, but I remember certain memories from that trip so vividly because of that nightly practice.
Today, I make an effort to find joy in the mundane. Especially these days, there is no guarantee I’ll be hopping on a plane anytime soon to jet off to some exotic locale and experience some fabulous new culture. Instead, I focus on the little moments each day. I find joy in the warmth of the sun as it touches my skin while I stand outside, even if I’m just going to get the mail. I feel it staring into the vastness of a cloudless, bluebird sky (a rarity in Ohio, which makes it even better). I find bliss simply sitting and watching my son use his imagination as he plays with his toys. I delight in his excitement when he sees a deer or the moon and announces it exuberantly (and incessantly) to all who will listen.
Finding joy, to me, is about finding beauty, love, and magic in the mundane. It’s about situating yourself in the present moment and allowing bliss to bubble up naturally because the feeling of presence is, at its core, pure joy.
The Sutra
Sutra 2.14: You will either experience this life with joy or with sorrow depending on whether or not actions taken in past lives were virtuous or impure.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra doesn’t have a lot to say about cultivating this principle specifically but it does mention the feeling a couple times. In Sutra 2.14, in a conversation about the function of karma in one’s life, Patanjali reminds us that our happiness is a function of our karma. While at first glance, and without the context of the rest of the sutras surrounding it, it appears that you have no say in whether or not you get to experience bliss in this life, that is not what Patanjali is saying at all. Yes, your karma will influence the ease in which you experience joy, but that never means you have no choice. You can decide right now to life more joyfully if that is what you want in life. It might take a little more effort on your part if you have karmic bonds that prevent you from experiencing it easily, but you can still do it.
Joy, as a principle of yoga, is more often discussed in other yoga traditions such as Bhakti Yoga, Tantra, and even in the Upanishads. In these traditions, joy is a function of devotion and devotion as a practice shows up through song, dance, chanting, prayer, ritual, and worship of your chosen deity or God. You can certainly adopt these practices as part of your spiritual practice, but you can also look to connect with the spirit of the divine in your everyday life. Simply by pausing for a moment and looking at the sky or closing your eyes and feeling the warmth of the sun you can find the divine in you and experience pure joy.
Find joy in your practice
When it comes to asana practice and meditation, do you approach these practices with an intention to find joy? Do you find joy in movement, in meditation, in reading yoga books? As you’re practicing asana do you spend time moving in the way that makes you feel good or do you blindly follow practices that don’t necessarily feel good in your body but that you think you have to do because that is what the teacher is providing? Do you continue to practice techniques that are painful simply because you think you have to do the techniques the way they’ve been presented in order to experience the benefits? What if you chose joy instead? The best thing you can do to bring joy into your asana, meditation, and yoga practices is to do more of what brings you joy, unapologetically. Move for the sake of feeling good. Meditate because it brings you deep feelings of peace. Chant because you feel more connected to the divine when you do it. Read yogic texts because it helps you develop a more profound understanding of this practice and tradition you love. Pray because that is your direct connection to God. Orient your entire practice around cultivating joy and your entire practice experience will shift.
As a yoga teacher you can do the same thing. Are you teaching what you love? Are you teaching in places that bring you joy? Orient your entire teaching practice around joy and your joy will increase tenfold in your daily life. Your authenticity will shine through clearly and you will more effortlessly attract students to your classes, workshops, and offerings.
Put it into practice
One of the best ways to connect with a sense of inner joy is through the chanting of OM. In the video below, I break down where OM comes from, what it means, why we chant it, and how you can incorporate chanting OM into your daily practice. After watching the video, set your timer for 1 minute and chant OM as a means to cultivate more joy in your life today.
Namaste!
