Joy is a big emotion

It tends to be associated with big events: marriages, births, ceremonies, and accomplishments. But it can also overtake us at strange times. Athletic events, national anthems, phone commercials... (Curse you, Ma Bell, for making me cry for fictional strangers!)

I've sat with it for a long time, experimenting. What is this? What does it invite me to? What becomes possible if I trust it (because I know it well enough to tell it apart from its shadow companions)?

And I've come to the conclusion that joy is, at root, a sensation of connection. Connection with the self, connection with the breath, connection with something Bigger Than. It's not blind optimism, and it's not a denial of reality. It's a combination of being grounded and fluid, confident in your ability to move from the center.

This five-day mini-course introduces some foundational practices that will help you come to trust the experience of joy. By learning our own paths into and out of center, more intense emotions become less risky. Joy becomes accessible.

I want to invite you to this experience of Joy, as something that you can trust without grasping. It'll be back. And the more you learn to welcome it in, the more comfortable you will become with it.