All the Joy Your Heart Can Hold

Stay tuned after the jump for an All the Joy Meditation to hold joyful feelings in your heart all year long.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! A holiday centered around family, friends, food, and fun? Count me in! Especially with kids who are all about leprechauns, magic, and rainbows.

In previous years, I’ve made a Guiness Corned Beef in the crockpot. I’ve been sick the past couple days and it’s Open House at school so we’re skipping the festive food today. We’ll have plenty of deliciousness at our friends’ annual St. Patricks Day party this weekend.

To spread some cheer online this morning, I created this Instagram post using a photo I took at Terranea Resort and a festive graphic in the Over app. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDDx__guLlo/

All the Joy Meditation

I LOVE this part, “All the joy your heart can hold”.

Joy is fleeting. For many of us, as with many positive emotions, it can be difficult to grasp.

In a moment where your happiness is so strong you can’t describe, here is a quick practice to help cultivate the positive emotion of joy…all the joy your heart can hold:

Feel your feet on the ground. Feel the sensations of joy in your body. Maybe its a swelling or warmness of the heart, or a tingling in the head or a warmness in the throat. Center yourself in your body through those sensations.

Move your hand to your heart, and note, “there’s joy.” For just a moment, turn your attention to your breath and feel the movement of air into and out of your body. Be aware of this flow for three breaths. 

Smile.

It is in small moments and small practices that we cultivate positive emotions. Recognizing and acknowledging the joyful moments in life, through mindfulness, allows us to develop a stronger recognition of and presence with joy, all the joy our hearts can hold…always. This is my wish for you.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Lastly, a fun announcement: We’re headed to Dublin, Ireland! We’ll be there the first week of April and we’re taking our oldest daughter.

We’ll be touring Trinity College to see The Book of Kells. We are big fans of the movie, The Secret of Kells, so we’re excited to see the book in real life.

I have a day tour of Glendalough planned for Reya and I, while my husband is working. We have friends in Dublin we haven’t seen for a couple years so we’re excited to hang out with them. On our last full day there, the three of us are going to the Cliffs of Moher, or as my husband will forever refer to them, the “Cliffs of Insanity.”

I am a lover of green, rolling hills, something that we don’t have much of here in Southern California. I also love history so this trip is definitely a check off the bucket list.

Thank you for spending this moment with me. I am grateful for you.

Thoughts on the All the Joy Meditation or any Dublin/Ireland travel tips? Let me know in the comments.