Taking Joy for a Spin
At CMP, we’re big believers that you are the best person to decide which meditation and mindfulness practices work for you: which practices, done over time, help you to feel your happiest. Our role is to create a time, place and community for us all to come together to explore them, to offer the what, why’s and how’s of the practices. Then you take them for a spin (ideally a few spins) and see if they help you to relate more wisely and comfortably to your present moment experience. Do they help you feel at peace in your body, hold yourself with kindness and give you a deeper sense of connection with those around you?
When we share the practice we call Empathetic Joy (taking delight in others’ joy as if it were our own), we often start by asking people to go around the room and recount a recent experience where they witnessed someone else being happy. Someone might mention a loved one’s joy at having a new grandchild, or the giggling delight of a child on a swing, the glimpse of someone singing in their car at a traffic light, or even (especially?) the delight of a dog as it catches a ball in mid-air and races to bring it back and have it thrown again, tail wagging, ears cocked, panting gleefully. As we make our way around the circle in this fashion, we often realize that we’re feeling joy for the people being described, AND that the people describing the joy they’ve witnessed are feeling joy in the recounting, AND that we’re feeling joy for their joy, too.
In those moments, it doesn’t matter that the science tells us how good this is for us, and we can shed the sense of “this is something I SHOULD do”. We simply feel the joy of others, feeling joy because they felt joy, and that’s all that’s needed.
We’re happy to offer the science, and happy to explain how and why it might make you feel good, but, really, in the end, it’s just your experience that matters.
And, by the way, there are days when joy for others’ joy doesn’t seem accessible. Those are rich opportunities to hold that experience with kindness, knowing that this moment is just this moment. It is exactly as it should be right now, a wonderful opportunity to practice letting go of expectations and “should be”s and holding what is with tenderness.
We hope you can join us this week as we take the practice of Empathetic Joy for a spin.
May all beings everywhere, without exception, find joy in exploring the joy of others,
Your friends at CMP
Did You Know?
CMP's mission is "Meditation for all who want it." We strive to remove all barriers to meditation and mindfulness, and offer programming to organizations on a pro bono or "low bono" basis. We are proud to announce that we will be supporting the well-being of front-line caregivers at
Building 1 Community, Americares Free Clinics and the Center for Family Justice in the coming months. We can only do this with the support of donors. Every dollar helps us fulfill our mission and bring meditation and mindfulness to communities.
We Need Your Support
CMP thrives on donations. All of our weekly sessions are free and open to the public, but donations are essential to our sustainability. CMP is a licensed charity in the state of CT as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Checks can be given to facilitators at our weekly sits or mailed to Community Mindfulness Project, P.O. Box 1713, New Canaan, CT 06840. Credit cards are accepted in the Giving section of the website (www.CommunityMindfulnessProject.org). For donations of wired funds or appreciated securities, please email welcome@communitymind.org. Thank you!
