Appreciative Love, The Third Face of Love
How do you feel when a friend has a success? Or see someone celebrating good fortune? What feelings arise in you?
This week, we’ll explore the third face of love—Appreciative Joy, or as it is also called sympathetic joy or mudita, in the ancient language of Pali.
Appreciative joy is the delight that springs from an open heart for our own or someone else’s joy and good fortune. You just feel good without thinking about it. When we are mindful and our hearts are open, our appreciative joy grows. Appreciative joy is the other side of the coin from compassion. With compassion, we recognize our or another’s suffering. With appreciative joy, we recognize our or someone else’s joy.
Simply feeling joy for someone else’s good fortune opens us to our humanity and our connectedness to all beings. It settles the mind, increases our happiness and well-being, and breaks down barriers that cause unhappiness.
Appreciative joy is contagious. When you see someone who is joyous, it is hard to have a scowl on your face; from somewhere deep inside a smile and that visceral feeling of joy emerges.
We'll also investigate how feelings of envy, jealousy, and unworthiness obstruct feelings of appreciative joy. We'll see how, instead of pushing these mind states away, being mindful of and observing them without getting caught up in them allows them to release. We'll see how by doing this this, we open our hearts to appreciative joy.
As always there's an invitation to practice. First by amping up our appreciative joy in our daily lives by rejoicing in our good qualities and expressing gratitude for the kinds acts of those around us. And, second by practicing appreciative joy in our formal meditation practice.
I hope you enjoy the show. I invite you to listen, subscribe, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen.
And, if you’d like to join a mindfulness meditation class, new morning and evening classes begin the first week in May 2022. To register go here. And while you are there go here and sign up for the newsletter using the link in the footer.
As always I am grateful for you, my listeners, and I am grateful for the people behind the scenes that make this podcast possible.
Allie Allen in San Francisco, California for logo and podcast cover design;
Gorgias Romero in Santiago Chile for original music, audio engineering, and production;
Bill Rafferty in Sydney Australia for technical web support and
Margaret Haas in Los Angeles, California for announcing the show.
Have a joyful week.
Be well. Be mindful.
DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical or health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the guidance and advice of your health professional.
