Finding Time for Joy

Hello, it's Eve here. Thank you so much for joining me in this guided exercise that is intended to remind us to make time for joy and for play. And to help get us started, I invite you to get into a comfortable seated position, and we're going to do a quick reflection together. See it as a bit of a warmup. So, I'd like you to think back to a time when you found something really funny, it made you laugh a lot. Maybe you even cried with laughter. And it's okay if you have to go back quite some time, there are no judgments. And if it helps you can close the eyes. So, just taking 20 or 30 seconds here for this little reflection. How did that feel? Are you smiling now? It's okay if you're not, and it's okay if nothing arose. Don't give yourself a hard time. In this exercise, we are inviting space for joy and play to naturally arise. We're not trying to force anything. And life can feel very serious sometimes. And we can forget what it feels like to see joy, even in the simplest of things. We forget what it feels like to give ourselves permission to smile, to allow ourselves to be playful and curious. And this can especially be the case when we are experiencing a lot of stress or we're going through a very difficult time. We operate in doing mode so much of the time, juggling a multitude of responsibilities. And for many of us, we are in a care-taking role, whether that is taking care of children, partners, or family members. And it can be very easy to get caught up in the mundane aspects of life; the chores, the responsibilities, the things that feel challenging. But all of this doing can distract us from the moments in life that are joyful; a shared smile, a beautiful sunset, the smell of fresh cut grass. So, with this exercise, we are going to practice cultivating our beginner's mind. This sense of seeing or experiencing something for the first time. There is a natural playfulness to it. We are curious and interested and open to new experiences. There are no preconceived ideas about what it is. And we all have this quality. It is especially present in children, but as we get older, it's almost as if it gets turned down or dulled down. So, today, we're going to tune into it and turn it up. So, just inviting you to adjust your posture if you need, making sure that you're comfortable. And as you settle into this exercise, just taking in the space around you. And actually going from one side of the room to the other. Now, this is not an invitation to make a list of things to do. Instead, it is an invitation as if you are seeing the space for the first time. Even if you have been in this space 1,000...