Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.
Beyond just feeling good, studies show experiencing other people's joy makes us more compassionate and satisfied with life.
How to Do This Practice:
- Find a comfortable position to begin this practice, focusing on your breath.
- Visualize a person or situation that brings you a sense of joy or happiness. It might be a child laughing, the success of a friend, or even a dog wagging its tail.
- Connect with their joy and happiness, wishing them well.
- Expand your focus to larger groups of people, like a team winning a match, wishing them well.
- Consider repeating this practice when you want to connect your sense of happiness with others.
Today’s Happiness Break host:
Anushka Fernandopulle is a Buddhist meditation teacher and leadership coach.
Learn More about Anushka: https://www.anushkaf.org/about/
Follow Anushka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anushka_dharma/
Follow Anushka on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anushkaf
More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
Happiness Break: Wishing Others’ Well, With Anushka Fernandopulle: https://tinyurl.com/jrkewjs8
What Is Sympathetic Joy and How Can You Feel More of It? https://tinyurl.com/yuzmykct
How to Overcome Stress by Seeing Other People’s Joy: https://tinyurl.com/4csukyd5
Can Little Steps Lead to Big Joy? https://tinyurl.com/3e5yt3hp
Why Experiencing Joy and Pain in a Group Is So Powerful: https://tinyurl.com/3trjtzfm
We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of appreciating others’ joy. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
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Transcription:
Dacher Keltner: Welcome to Happiness Break, I’m Dacher Keltner.
You know each week we share a practice with the goal ultimately, of increasing happiness.
Yet it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that often, there’s happiness all around us – others’ happiness – and we can actually tap into that and feel good, too.
Just takes a little shift in our attention.
So today we’re turning our attention to joy – other people’s joys.
Studies show that, beyond just feeling good, the ability to feel this form of sympathetic joy has been linked to greater life satisfaction and happiness. And it may also make us more compassionate.
Buddhist meditation teacher Anushka Fernandopulle is going to guide us through a practice in Mudita which is this vicarious joy.
Anushka Fernandopulle: Hi, this is Anushka.
Find a place that is comfortable to sit down and if you feel safe and comfortable enough, you could gently close your eyes. Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale just allow yourself to get grounded in your connection to being here in this moment can feel yourself sitting.
Can take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, you can relax any tension there might be around your face, your jaw, your eyes, your shoulders.
In the Buddhist tradition, this is called Mudita. There's not even a good English translation, but the closest ones are appreciative joy or sympathetic joy. Basically being happy for someone else's happiness.
You can actually allow yourself to be buoyed up by that joy. You can take another deep breath in and as you exhale, just relax into being present here.
I want you to bring to mind someone who it's easy for you to be happy for this happiness. Could be a friend who's had a recent success, or it could even be a dog you've seen recently wagging its tail or a little kid laughing. So bring this image to mind or invite that person into your heart in some. Allow yourself to connect with their joy and happiness, and then we'll practice with some wishes for them. May you always be happy. May your happiness increase. May your happiness continue.
You can expand out to include groups of people who might be happy. It could be that there's a team that you've been rooting for that’s won their match. Could be a group of people you see playing together. Enjoying something together, picnicking. So just having a sense of them. May your happiness continue, may you always be happy. May your joy increase. I'm happy for your happiness.
So when you're ready, you can open your eyes, move your fingers and toes, and connect again to your surroundings. You can use this practice as you move out in the world when you see people being happy and instead of just walking by or instead of finding the opposite, coming up of jealousy. You can remember that you can connect with a sense of happiness at their happiness, and some of these phrases might help you connect with that.
So I hope this has been helpful for you and I wish you well. Thank you.
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