Thank you for my Strength Meditation and Joy Blockers
- Lana L
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
To understand why we do not feel Joy 24/7, we should talk about Manomaya Kosha—our mental body - the part of us that worries, thinks negative, create dramas, changes all the time. In Yoga we call this part Monkey mind.
One of our greatest stumbling blocks is that we tend to identify completely with this mental chatter. We experience an emotion or a fleeting thought and mistakenly believe, “This is who I am.” But the reality is that the Monkey mind, or Manas, is simply one part of the total architecture of the mind. There are three more parts: Chitta (storage of deep memory), Ahamkara (the I-maker), and Buddhi (the Wisdom and Intiuritve mind). If we do not see the whole picture, we are easily drowned in our current emotion.
To truly access our inner joy, we first have to recognize that our minds possess a few annoying default settings:
Our minds are built to get used to stuff. That shiny new experience or achievement quickly becomes the new normal.
We don't realize this adaptation is happening. Because we are not aware of this process, we constantly chase the next external desire rather than cultivating internal joy.
How We Sabotage Our Own Savoring
Even when we do capture a moment of pure joy, we often throw up subconscious roadblocks. Research by Jose et al. (2012) highlights the specific ways we actively hurt our ability to savor the good moments. Have you ever caught yourself doing any of the following while experiencing something wonderful?
Focusing on the future and when the moment will be over.
Reminding yourself that "nothing lasts forever."
Telling yourself it isn't as good as you had hoped, or thinking about ways it could be better.
Telling yourself you don't actually deserve this good thing.
Thinking about how it will never be this good again.
These thought patterns, along with heavy emotions like guilt, anxiety, and shame, block our ability to access our inner joy.
The key is to stop identifying with these blockers. Instead, try treating them as temporary biological signals. When anxiety or shame arises, pause and ask yourself: "If I gently move this aside, what is underneath?"
A Guided Meditation on Strength
Moving these heavy blockers aside requires regular practice and building resilience. One way is to stop fighting reality and instead cultivate a profound inner strength, that includes accepting situation, if we can not change it.
By drawing on this strength, we can quiet the ordinary mind, step beyond the Monkey mind, and reconnect with the profound, unshakeable joy that always resides underneath.
Link to 9 min meditation Thank you for my strength.
Please share with me your Joy Blockers.
If you would like to learn more about profound architecture of the mind, check this link
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