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april / may 2017yogajournal.com.sgART DIRECTION : ANUJA BAGADE, ILLUSTRATION : DESIGNED BY FREEPIKWISDOM
live well
LIKE THE ABILITY TO learn a language or love
another human being, the ability to feel joy is
something we’re all born with. And perhaps
surprisingly, we can feel joy independent
of whatever else we’re experiencing, even
amidst intense physical or psychological
pain and suffering, according to psychology
research. That said, many of us still believe
that joy isn’t innate—that it only comes with
possessing a specific item or achieving a
particular outcome. So we keep searching
for joy through objects, relationships, and
experiences, which prevents us from realizing
that this essential emotion is already within us,
patiently waiting to be experienced.
Unfortunately, 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 2os, 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 ofLet joy in
How to find happiness, even in your darkest hour.
By Richard Miller, PhDjoy 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 a good medicine
Since ancient times, joy has been recognized as
a powerful medicine. For instance, in ancient
Greece, hospitals were built near amphitheaters
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
a life-threatening illness. While researching his
disease, Cousins learned that negative emotions
are detrimental to health and healing. He then
correctly hypothesized 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’s 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 canJoy can strengthen your immune
system, boost your energy, and
protect you from stress.