Eric Maisel - Everyday You: Create Your Day with Joy and Mindfulness

We can create the life we want by focusing on three simple ideas: joy, mindfulness, and connection.

In these pages I invite you to remember some simple things: that joy is available and that joy matters; that mindfulness is available and that mindfulness matters; that connections are available and that connections matter. Your heart warmed, your mind quieted, your arms outstretched: is there really a better philosophy of life?

In Everyday You, Eric Maisel issues the most gracious of invitations, to pay careful attention to his words, to take them to heart, to try the practices he suggests, so that we may create, day by day, the life we want to live. Daniel Talbott's accompanying photos invite us to slow down, to smile, to breathe deeply, and to ponder.

First published in 2007 by Conari Press,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2007 by Eric Maisel. Photographs copyright 2006 by Daniel Talbott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

ISBN-10: 1-57324-286-1

ISBN-13: 978-1-57324-286-8

Cover and interior design by Maija Tollefson

Cover and interior photographs Daniel Talbott

Printed in China

MD

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You can create the life you want by focusing on three simple ideas: joy, mindfulness, and connection. Each of these three seems to have gotten lost in the fracture of modern life: joy falling down a rabbit hole and vanishing like the White Rabbit; mindfulness replaced by to-do lists, television commercials, and mental chatter; and connection transformed into Internet surfing and families with more cell phones than conversations. These are great losses.

In these pages I invite you to remember some simple things: that joy is available and that joy matters; that mindfulness is available and that mindfulness matters; that connections are available and that connections matter. Your heart warmed, your mind quieted, your arms outstretched: is there really a better philosophy of life? Take each page of this book as it comesa few words, a small exercise, an imagein the same simple way that it is offered, as itinerant poets offer their verses on the road we all travel together.

Create your day as you might set your table, adding a bouquet of joy, a candle of mindfulness, a stunning centerpiece of connection. The work of life never goes away, whether we find ourselves in the private hours of dawn or the bright light of midday employment. But that work is made easier by a new, genuine openness to joy, thoughtfulness, and connection. Open this book and open up to your brand new day.

How will you bring new delight into your life? What pathways to joy will you explore? What follows are thirty suggestions. I invite you to embrace the idea that joy is an attitude; that wonder is a special doorway to joy; that deep joy arises out of mystery; and that friendship, play, exploration, and relaxation are each sunlit avenues on the road to joy. Let your joyous journey begin!

Decide to be joyful.

Really commit!

Feel the joy rise up within you.

Make a fist. Shake it. Shout, I will be joyful! Chuckle at your little display of obstinacy but treat the idea seriously. A stubborn commitment to joy is necessary for joy to take hold.

Joy is an attitude.

A decision to side with life.

A conscious, loving opening.

When you wake up, stretch and say, I will enjoy this day! Try smiling rather than frowning as you get ready for work. Let joy circulate with your blood supply even as your day fills up with stresses and challenges.

Life wears us down.

Our dreams fade.

Joy marches out.

Create a list of beautiful dreams. Try not to censor yourself or dismiss your dreams out-of-hand. Pick a dream from your list and make it your new goal. Can you feel the joy well up in you, despite your doubts?

It is a miracle that we don't melt in the bath.

It is amazing that termites build breezeways.

It is astounding that we get a billion second chances.

What wondrous place have you been longing to visit? A bakery across town, a beach down the coast, a monthly jam session, a specialty bookstore? Pick a place and a day and make a joyous expedition.

There are 206 bones in the human body.

Not counting the funny bone.

Remember that one?

Rent a funny movie. Read a funny book. Make a funny face. Embrace silliness as a path to joy. Even science decrees that laughter is the best medicine. Make it a priority to laugh.

Life's mysteries prompt many feelings.

Awe, surprise, even fear.

And, to the ready heart, profound joy.

Get ready for the night. When it's dark outside, find a spot where you can see the sky. There are no questions to pose or answers to receive. Just let mystery course through you like a wave.

Give up your commitment to sourness.

Quiet your critical nature.

Release your bile, your anger, your resentment.

Name a grievance that really upsets you: the critical things your mother used to say, the unfriendliness of a neighbor, the difficulty of your commute. Breathe gently and begin to smile. Let the grievance evaporate like mist on a sunny morning.

Work well.

Admire your efforts and your results.

Take satisfaction in a job beautifully done.

Select a big project whose completion would make you proud. Create a plan for reaching your goal and execute your plan. Smile each day as you picture your project completed beautifully.

Mingled breath.

Funny habits.

A history of sorrow and happiness.

Fall in love with your loved one again. Open to love; bring roses; bring kisses. Let the old hurts vanish. Promenade down a leafy boulevard, you and your lover hand-in-hand, doing nothing.

Cut class.

Go down to the river.