"Ain't too bad! Getting by"?

 You cant control what is unfolding but you can control how you process it...You have a right to enjoy your life!

Michael A. Singer (Somewhat paraphrased possibly? Taken from notes where I forgot to add quoatation marks...my bad!)

You enjoying your life? Hmm! That's a tough question for many of us to answer. Around my part of the world we might answer like this, "Sure! It aint too bad. Getting by." We so often tend to equate "not too bad and getting by" with joy. 

There is, however, a big difference between "not too bad...getting by..." and joy.  Not too bad might mean we are not in physical pain 24 hours a day; that we are enduring what Life is throwing our way and  making the best of a hard situation.  It might mean we haven't had our houses blown away by a Tornado...yet...so it is all good! It might mean that our white knuckle clinging to the tail end of  a relationship that could have ended long ago...is still working.  We are not alone.  It could mean we still have that minimum paying  job we hate going to...and considering the unemployment rate, that's a positive thing. It could mean that we have a good Netflix series to binge on every night or that we are able to get up every morning, take a shower, and get on with it.

Hmm! That is getting by, but just getting by is a far cry from joy, is it not?  What we experience above. I believe, is a very common form of suffering in the desensitized state.  Huh? It is not joy, it is  a collective form of suffering that we have  "settled" for and have come to believe is not only normal, but all there is. It is numbingly and unconsciousnly  living below, well below, what we are capable of experiencing, and doing so in collective, socially approved way. But it aint joy!

Yoga teaches that there is so much more to life than this. It teaches us how to process Life with joy. We just have to refocus and look in, up, and away from this conditioned way of being and doing we have come to see as normal. There is an abundant river of joy flowing within all of us.  We can experience it.  We can enjoy our lives!

All is well

Michael Singer; Temple of the Universe ( April 8, 2024) Ceasing to let your mind limit your happiness.https://tou.org/talks/