JOY: Transform Your Life With this Powerful Intention

What life could you live if you lived with joy every day?

 

One of the most important things I’ve learned on my journey is the power of intention. Intention is more than a wish or a goal; it’s a conscious choice that focuses your thoughts and actions in a purposeful way. It’s how you want to feel and the energy you want to carry into the world. When you set an intention, you invite a specific vibration into your life. Every intention must be cultivated so it can anchor in your heart, like a mantra. Over time, intention can shift your perspective, shape how you think, how you respond to challenges, and how you move through the world, helping you attract what you truly desire.

This month, I’m sharing practices to cultivate five powerful intentions: JOY, LOVE, PEACE, CLARITY, CONFIDENCE. Each intention will be supported by a short yoga sequence, a pranayama practice, a meditation, a ritual, and a mantra. By the end of the month, you’ll have gathered 25 different practices to support these beautiful intentions. And you don’t have to choose just one—keep them all in your toolkit, ready to return to whenever you need a little help to rekindle and reconnect with these important intentions.

I’m beginning with JOY—the intention that has had the most profound impact on my life. In the midst of high stress and personal difficulty, I made a conscious decision to choose joy every day. Intentionally cultivating joy has made it a steady state of mind and heart, quietly transforming how I live and experience my life.

Joy shifts the way you see the world. Choosing joy isn’t about denying difficulty; it’s about refusing to let difficulty define you. Living with joy activates your imagination and creativity, opens your heart to abundance, and deepens your sense of presence. Joy enables you to see more beauty, kindness, and possibility. If you choose to stay in fear in any of its forms (stress, worry, jealousy, comparison, rejection, or the fear of not being enough…) you close yourself off from the joy and abundance that already exist around you, waiting to be noticed.

So today I invite you to choose JOY and to use these five practices to cultivate it so that you can anchor it in your heart.

 

1. I AM JOY YOGA PRACTICE
This short sequence is about cultivating joy—about being joyous, with intention. Let that intention guide your practice: feel it flavour each pose, each breath, each movement. Savour the process and luxuriate in every sweet sensation in your precious body. Be brave enough to recognize how good things truly are, and let that joy shine through your practice. Enjoy! 10–15 minutes. For in‑depth explanations of each pose, click HERE.

1. Mountain pose with lotus hands (Tadasana)
   
2. Dance/Shake your joints
3. Falling tree (A playful version of Vrksasana) 
   
4. Spinal rolls
   
5. Half sun salutations (Ardha Surya Namaskar)
   
6. Cross lunge twist with a block (Parivrtta Anjaneyasana, a. right and b. left)
   
7. Camel pose with open arms (Ustrasana)
   
8. Happy Baby pose (Ananda Balasana)
   
9. Savasana

 

2. BREATH OF JOY - A Joyful Pranayama to Awaken Lightness of Being
This is a very powerful and uplifting breathing technique to awaken your entire system and get the energy flowing. I guarantee you’ll have a smile on your face when you’re done! Breath of Joy synchronizes movement with strong inhales and exhales, done in four parts in rapid succession: inhale in three small sips, raising your arms with each part, then exhale fully with a loud sigh (HAH!!!). Repeat as many times as you like, perhaps 8–10 rounds. Here’s how.

 

3. MUDITA MEDITATION - A Sense of Shared, Boundless Joy
I learned about Mudita Meditation while on a silent meditation retreat a few years ago. Mudita is a Buddhist term that literally means a happiness that arises when you see someone else’s joy, success, or ease. It’s an intentional turning toward another person’s happiness with warmth and celebration, as if their joy adds to your own instead of threatening it. Here is how to do Mudita Meditation:

Settle into a comfortable, upright posture and take a few slow breaths to settle in.
Bring to mind someone who is happy or doing well.
Gently observe their joy, success, or ease, and inwardly repeat phrases such as:  “I’m glad you’re happy. Your joy is mine, too.”
Notice any envy or discomfort, and gently return to feeling glad for them.
For a minute or two, let that feeling of shared joy rest in your heart.
Then expand this feeling outward, ending in a sense of shared, boundless joy.

 

4. INCENSE RITUAL - To Reconnect With Your Joyful Self
At the start of your practice, light some all‑natural incense to reconnect with your higher, joyful self. As you watch the rising smoke, bring to mind a moment of intense, child‑like joy—a memory of yourself fully present and delighted, or a moment of pure joy you’ve witnessed in a child you love. Remember all the sensations, the happiness of the moment, and the lightness in your body. Let the rising smoke carry that same playful, radiant joy back into your heart, making space for more joy to meet you today.

 

5. MANTRA - ANANDA HUM आनन्द हूं  - I am joy
ANANDA means bliss, joy and love.  Linked with HUM, this mantra declares that you are joy itself, and helps you to resonate with that very high and happy vibration. I AM JOY.
I move through my day with lightness, gratitude, and joy.