Many people feel afraid to be happy, to be joyful, to really let the light in and enjoy life. Does this resonate with you? These fears usually have built up over a long period of time -  remember babies are born happy, but we, as adults, seem to have lost the ability to be joyful just for the sake of joy.

Let’s try a technique – just go into it as you feel able to, if you’re feeling low and heavy and sad, it can be difficult for you to raise yourself up to joy, so allow yourself to feel what you feel right now, without forcing it or pushing yourself too hard.

• On a happiness scale from 1-10, where 1 is devastation and 10 is sheer joy, where are you now? Visualise a scale, like a ruler in your head, with a marker on it showing you where you are feeling in relation to being full of joy in your life.
• Breathe and come into balance with where you are now.
• Relax and bring your awareness more into your body.
• Use the breath and imagine the scale in your head, and as you breathe, you can shift up your happiness score, just a little bit.
• Breathe in and connect more to your body, then breathe out, release anything in the way of you and being happy, release tightness and fear.
• Do it again, breathe in and out, let go of any fear, any tightness, anxiety, anything in the way of fear.
• Now, visualise your happiness scale, and allow a marker on the scale to move up the scale, by itself.
• Breathe into the marker, into where you are, allow it to settle. Will it move up again? Do you want to stay with the breath and relax further? Go for it!

You can come back and try this exercise again, anytime you want. Connecting into your inner ability to feel joy is much better than forcing yourself to feel what you think you should be feeling. The more you relax with the feeling of being happy, the easier it becomes.

If you want to bring yourself deeper into the work, there are more techniques like this that can help you feel better in How to Be Well. You can improve your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health, increase your capacity for joy, become empowered in your life. It is possible to live the life you want. Are you ready?

How to Be Well by Abby Wynne (Introduction)