How to increase your sense of well-being
Well-being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity. It includes having good mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, and the ability to manage stress. Dr. Tchiki Davis, founder of The Berkeley Well-Being...
Mudita lifts you away from pity and envy
Mudita is a Pali word that doesn’t have a direct English translation. It is taking joy in other people’s good fortune. Phrases used to describe it include “sympathetic joy,” “appreciative joy,” and “altruistic joy.” You have probably practiced mudita in your life....
Encouraging research on sympathetic joy and how to cultivate it
“Sympathetic joy”, psychologist Jeremy Adam Smith explains, “is sometimes called appreciative joy, empathic joy, vicarious reward, or (more broadly) positive empathy.” It’s the goodness we feel when we are happy about someone else’s good fortune. If someone we...
sympathetic joy: help for life’s envious moments
I listened to the Joy Lab Podcast Episode 103. Sympathetic Joy & Emotional Contagion before writing this post. What it is The phrase “sympathetic joy” comes from a word used in Buddhism: mudita. It’s a Pali word that means “taking delight in someone else’s good...
Jack Kornfield on gratitude
I encourage you to read these thoughts from Jack Kornfield slowly, with deep and gentle breaths, letting their meaning sink in. (Spacing is mine.) “Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small, an appreciation...
Gratitude when it’s difficult
Both spiritual traditions that nourish me remind us to practice gratitude always. They recognize that it’s not always easy, but it’s good for us, body, mind, and soul. The Bible says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all...
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