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asiapacific.anu.edu.au/languagesUnfortunately, when you resist or
deny feelings of joy, your life and
relationships can lose their meaning and
value. For instance, when you feel you’re
not living life fully, or when you’re
feeling bitter or jealous about that which
others have and you don’t, these feelings
can overshadow your ability to feel your
innate joy. This happened to me in my
early twenties, when I fell into a
depression upon moving to a new city.
I failed to find employment and felt
isolated and alone. I lost touch with my
intrinsic sense of joy as I floundered in
feelings of confusion and grief, and slid
into a downward spiral, losing all sense
of purpose.
That’s when I discovered that
meditation could unearth my innate,
unchanging joy, no matter what my
circumstances. In the midst of my
depression, I found my way into a course
on yoga. At the end of the first class,
during meditation, joy unexpectedly
flooded my body. I suddenly felt
reconnected to myself and the universe,
and regained my sense of purpose and
meaning. I walked home that evening
feeling renewed, with a burning desire to
understand what had just happened to me.
Since then, I’ve come to see, through
both my personal practice of meditation
and reading countless research studies
on neuroscience, how meditation can
help us experience joy at any time.
You see, meditation deactivates your
brain’s default network, which otherwise
keeps you stuck in patterns of negative
emotions and obsessive thoughts, and
it activates your brain’s executive,
attention, and defocusing networks,
which help you open to joy and also
new possibilities of insight.Joy is Good Medicine
Since ancient times, joy has been
recognised as a powerful medicine. For
instance, in ancient Greece, hospitals
were built near amphitheatres so
patients could easily attend comedies
prescribed to promote healing. One of
the most well-known cases of joy as
good medicine occurred when the writer
and peace activist Norman Cousins,
in 1964, was diagnosed with alife-threatening illness. While
researching his disease, Cousins learned
that negative emotions are detrimental
to health and healing. He then correctly
hypothesised that positive emotions
could improve his health, and he began
reading humorous stories and watching
funny movies, essentially laughing his
way back to wellness. In 1989, validating
Cousins’ case, the Journal of the
American Medical Association published
a pioneering article on laughter therapy
as a treatment for improving the quality
of life of chronically ill patients.
Research shows that regularly
experiencing joy—whether in the form
of laughter or of activities that promote
happiness and well-being—can produce
healthy changes throughout your body.
Joy can strengthen your immune system;
boost your energy; diminish your
perception of pain, anxiety, and
depression; protect you from the
damaging effects of stress; increase your
ability to sleep restfully through the
night; and more. And the best thing is
that you can access feelings of joy at any
time through meditation.