Health Journal Online

Tag: Hard

  • A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

    A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

    Accessing real happiness when we are struggling can feel impossible—but it’s also a key to our recovery, healing, and well-being.

    When we are going through a difficult season personally, or we are bearing witness to the pain of others, our relationship to genuine joy or happiness can get complicated and confusing. Happiness can feel out of reach, or it can feel like a betrayal, like it’s something we don’t “deserve” in hard times.

    But strengthening our ability to notice and soak in moments of beauty, tenderness, connection, and gratitude can actually have a fortifying effect on us. It can help us build resilience and fill our empty emotional tanks—which can foster our own healing and make it possible for us to show up in healing ways for others.

    Teacher Wendy O’Leary shares a guided practice to tune our attention to the reality that shimmers right alongside our genuine seasons of struggle.

    A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

    Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.

    Maybe, like so many, you have wondered, How can I even think about being happy when I’m having such a hard time right now? 

    Or, How can I be happy when there is so much suffering in the world? 

    And yet, happiness is not just accessible once basic needs are met, but also essential for our well-being and resilience. We need that resilience both for ourselves when we are struggling and to support others when they are. Both can be true. 

    Things can be hard and we might also be able to touch some happiness in life. It can’t be forced, so this practice is not an encouragement to push down the hard stuff. Instead, it is a very gentle invitation to also make a little space for the good as you’re able to enhance capacity and wellbeing. 

    This practice is adapted from Rick Hansen’s practice of taking in the good. 

    1. Let’s begin by settling into a comfortable position. If it works for you, I invite you to close your eyes. 
    2. Gently direct your attention to the felt experience of your body. You might feel your feet on the floor, the backs of your legs on a chair or cushion, or where your hands are touching. Direct your attention to wherever you can most easily connect with the experience of the body sitting. 
    3. Now, gently widen your attention to feel the sensations of the whole body sitting, including the sensations of the body breathing. The invitation here is for a wide, soft and receptive awareness of the body sitting and the body breathing. 
    4. If difficult emotions or thoughts arise, it’s not a problem. There’s no need to push them aside. Gently acknowledge their presence, maybe even saying to yourself, Oh, unpleasant thoughts or emotions. Then let them drift to the background as you focus on the foreground of the experience of the whole body as we settle in here for a minute. 
    5. Now, call to mind a time when you felt really happy. It could be a time you felt peaceful or calm, or maybe you felt a sense of contentment, or it could even be a joyful time. If there are a few experiences that are vying for your attention, just pick one for our practice together. There’s no right or wrong choice here. 
    6. Notice where you are during that experience and who you’re with. Look around and notice what else you see as you remember this experience. You might notice what sounds you hear. Were there any tastes or smells? Just be curious. And what about physical sensations, like the sun on the skin or the feet in sand or even movement, like the body rocking or dancing? Just notice any physical sensations connected to this experience. Take it in with all your senses. 
    7. Now, let go of the specific experience and just check out for yourself. How does my body feel when you’re happy, peaceful, content or joyful? What’s that like in the body? What’s that like in the mind? What’s like in your heart? You could even say to yourself, Oh, happy is like this. 
    8. Imagine letting that feeling expand throughout your body. Basking in the experience of happy, letting that grow and expand. You might even say to yourself, This feeling is worth keeping to help your brain remember and access this feeling more easily. Oh, happy is like this and this is worth keeping. Bask in the experience, growing the experience and reminding yourself that it’s worth keeping. Happy feels like this. 
    9. Remember that happiness isn’t in that specific experience you remembered. It’s in you, and it is accessible. You just have to take a moment to call it up and lean into the felt sense of happiness. Happiness is like this. 
    10. Before we close, let’s offer some well wishes. May we and all beings be safe. May we and all beings be healthy in body, mind, and heart. May we and all beings be happy, truly happy, peaceful, content, and free. May our practice be of benefit to all beings. 
    11. As you go through your day, you could set an intention to notice the little moments of happiness, peace, and connection. Stop for at least three breaths to take them in, noticing them with all your senses. Notice how the body feels when experiencing happiness and invite that felt sense of happiness to stick around and even expand in the body, mind and heart. 

    Thank you for practicing with me.



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  • ‘Don’t Push Too Hard,’ Warns Coach After Neck Artery Tear From Squats Trigger Strokes

    ‘Don’t Push Too Hard,’ Warns Coach After Neck Artery Tear From Squats Trigger Strokes

    Gym enthusiasts who pride themselves on pushing their limits for the perfect lift should take a moment to listen to the cautionary note of a gym instructor who suffered strokes after tearing her neck artery during squats.

    The 33-year-old fitness coach Bridgette Salatin from Ohio is still dealing with memory issues two years after the catastrophic stroke. Now easing back into her gym routine with lighter weights, she warns others: “Don’t push yourself too hard.”

    Salatin remembers the moment it happened; she was midway through a 70kg barbell squat when she suddenly felt dizzy, followed by a “really bad” headache. She had not eaten or slept enough the night before and had pushed her limits, holding her breath before lifting the weight.

    “When I woke up that day, I had a pain in my neck but I thought I’d probably just slept on it funny. I was squatting and I had a barbell on my back. I started to get a really bad headache,” Salatin said.

    The sharp pain shot from her shoulders to her right temple before she collapsed to the ground. Later, she learned the intense strain had torn an artery in her neck, triggering three mini-strokes.

    Doctors also diagnosed Salatin with occipital neuralgia, a painful neurological condition caused by injury or inflammation of the occipital nerves, which run through the scalp. The condition can result from pinched nerves, muscle tightness in the neck, or a head or neck injury.

    “They did a few scans on me and they said ‘you’ve had a stroke’ but how in the world does that happen at the age of 31? I felt an instant grief. I thought ‘I’ve failed myself’ and ‘am I ever going to be right again?’. I felt like I lost a sense of myself,” she recollected.

    Although months of bed rest and blood thinners helped her recover, Salatin said her life has never been the same, even two years later.

    “My short-term memory is gone and doing everyday things is hard for me. I used to teach a yoga class that was strictly on learning headstands but I can’t do that anymore,” she said.

    She now urges others to start with lighter weights and find a balance between pushing limits and avoiding injury.

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  • 10 Mindfulness Lessons for Hard Times

    10 Mindfulness Lessons for Hard Times

    10 things you learn from having a mindfulness practice that help foster resilience in the face of whatever life brings.

    Here’s what I know from my practice. I know that:

    1. Things change. Emotions change, thoughts change, the breath changes. Nothing is static. And ideologies change; political movements come and go. And if I try to hold on to the way I think things are supposed to be, I will surely suffer.

    2. That doesn’t mean I can’t have opinions. It is not UN-mindful to deeply want the world to be a certain way.

    3. It’s normal to feel any emotion right now: despair, betrayal, outrage, loss… Someone else is feeling elation, joy, and righteousness. Or maybe you’re feeling nothing—shock or numbness. Mindfulness tells us to be open to any emotion as it is part of the human condition. But the more important question is, how can I practice with it?

    4. Practicing with my emotions means—feeling them in my body in vivo. Can I feel my stomach clenched? Can I feel my heart racing? What is happening right in this moment, in my body? When I can feel it, without trying to change it, I can allow the emotion to be. I can make space for it, without getting overwhelmed.

    5. The same with thoughts: When I’m entangled in my worries for my child, or my worst-case scenarios, I can remember to return to the present moment. What do I feel right here, right now? My toes on the floor. My breath in my belly. That’s all there is right now. I can prevent thoughts from snowballing out of control just by returning to the present moment.

    6. Equanimity—balance and even-mindedness are the fruit of mindfulness practice. The more I sit with my inner experience without reactivity, the more I foster resilience in the face of whatever life brings.

    The more I sit with my inner experience without reactivity, the more I foster resilience in the face of whatever life brings.

    7. This does not mean I don’t act. That is a misunderstanding. It means that I do act, but act with awareness. When I act out of anger or fear, I’m not usually happy with the results. I know this. Acting from equanimity leads to wiser and more skillful actions. But I need to take my time with this. Appropriate action may not be evident immediately.

    8. Peace begins with me. The peace activist A. J. Muste said, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” The only way to promote peace is to be it. Now. Through my practice.

    9. Having my meditation practice is the single healthiest thing I can do right now. Having a place to cultivate more capacity to accept change, work with my emotions and thoughts, and cultivate equanimity is what is going to get me through.

    10. Kindness is what matters. In our deeply divisive world, so many of us are at odds with each other. It’s time for us to practice regular acts of kindness—to listen deeply to ourselves and to others. Our meditation practice teaches us not to turn people into enemies, that we are all connected. Can we dig deep within us to find a way to kindness, even in polarized times? I know we can.

    Read More

    Let Your Practice Guide You Beyond Crisis Mode

    While many of us lean on mindfulness to help us through times of inner and outer chaos, we can cultivate the greatest resilience through consistency in our practice, even when it doesn’t feel urgent.

    A Guided Meditation for Turning Awareness Into Action
    An illustration of being compassionate to other.



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