Joy on Demand: The Art of Discovering the Happiness Within

by Chade-Meng Tan

I’d like you to take three breaths. In the first breath, bring full attention to the process of breathing. In the second breath, calm the body. In the third breath, bring up joy.

Shawn also suggests a nice daily practice he calls the “doubler,” which is to recall one positive experience of the day in detail, because the brain can’t tell the difference between visualization and actual experience, so by doing this, you double the experience.

If we feel brave only when we are a safe distance away from danger, that is not courage. In the same way, if we feel calm only when we stop caring, that is not equanimity.

There are two parts to this step. The first is to be willing to experience joy in the midst of emotional pain. The second is to be willing to experience the emotional pain itself.

We experience emotion in the body, so we must work with them in the body.

The most important insight here is that aversion is the proximate cause of suffering. Therefore, to reduce or eliminate suffering, the point of attack is aversion: the more this aversion can be reduced, the less suffering one experiences, despite the sensation and perception of emotional pain. In other words, the feeling (sensation and perception) is the same, but the feeling about the feeling is different.

Love yourself enough to allow yourself the space to suffer, without shame or judgment.

Thus it is, thus it shall be.