Listen now
Most of us only want to be happy and free from our pain. But how comfortable are we with the sensation of happiness? It can be challenging to be present with this emotion, especially in the face of so much global suffering. But it’s of great benefit to both ourselves and the world to be capable of connecting to joy.
In this guided meditation with Sean Fargo, we’re invited to cultivate feelings of happiness by bringing to mind a past joyful experience. By working with memory, we invite happiness into the present moment. In this way, happiness is always available, here and now.
Listen in a safe, quiet place where you can be relatively free from distraction. Find a posture that balances comfort with alertness, whether standing, seated, or lying down. May this meditation be of benefit to you in your mindfulness journey.
Find hundreds more guided audio meditations or download 200 meditation scripts to expand your personal practice, or to share with others.
When working with happiness in meditation, we do so not as a means of bypassing or avoiding negative feelings, but to spend time familiarizing ourselves with positive emotion. After all, when we turn toward the emotion of happiness in an effort to get to know it better, we might at first notice some resistance or discomfort.
With practice, as our mindfulness of happiness deepens and grows, we develop a means of more easily accessing positive feelings in all sorts of unexpected circumstances and conditions.
When working with happiness, note there are two types of happiness. External happiness arises from getting what we want, from satisfying our craving or aversion. Internal happiness is more akin to contentment and not at all dependent on external circumstances.
While the first type of happiness (relief) is impermanent, the second type of happiness (contentment) is lasting and ever-available, even if temporarily obscured from our view.
Learn more about how to uncover a more lasting connection to happiness with the following free mindfulness resources:
About Sean Fargo:
Sean Fargo is a former Buddhist monk and the founder of Mindfulness Exercises. The online platform, which has shared free and premium mindfulness resources with over 3 million people worldwide, has now certified over 500 Mindfulness Teachers.
Sean is the lead instructor for the teacher training program, a unique self-paced approach which invites world-renowned mindfulness teachers to share their insights and experiences. Sean has taught mindfulness and meditation for corporations including Facebook, Google and Tesla and for health and government organizations, prisons and hospitals around the world.
