Morning Happiness Meditation: Start Your Day with Joy and Intention

We guide a gentle morning meditation that uses breath, a soft smile, and memory to cultivate contentment, then expand it with appreciative joy for others. We close with simple ways to spot micro‑joys during the day and carry calm into action.

• settling the body and softening judgment
• breathing with awareness and smiling through a body scan
• reframing meditation as access to joy in the present
• recalling a personal moment of happiness with sensory detail
• repeating clear affirmations for worthiness and agency
• practicing mudita by celebrating others’ happiness
• returning to breath and smile to anchor calm
• spotting micro‑joys in daily life and reinforcing attention
• gentle reentry with stretch, yawn, and a closing blessing

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Chapters

• 0:46 Welcome and Intention Setting
• 1:38 Settle In and Begin Breathing
• 3:50 Smiling Into the Body
• 4:20 Reframing Meditation as Joy
• 6:00 Recall a Personal Joy Moment
• 7:07 Affirmations for Happiness
• 7:56 Appreciative Joy: Mudita Practice
• 10:33 Building Joy Through Repetition
• 12:12 Joy as Daily Awareness
• 13:33 Gentle Return and Closing Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Good morning. This meditation is meant to help you open up into a beautiful, beautiful day. So, congratulations for being here. You're already ahead of the game for setting yourself up with beautiful intention to build a life of happiness and appreciation. Find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie down, whatever makes you feel best. And when you're ready, allow your eyes to gently close. Our bodies feel a little different in the morning, so no judgment. Just meet yourself where you are, and when you're ready, go ahead and connect with your breathing. Your breath is your life force energy. As you breathe in and out with awareness this morning, feel the corners of your mouth raise a little bit. Feel your chest expanding, your belly feeling. And smile. Allow the warmth of your breath and the smile to wash over you, to fill you with a sense of contentment and joy. Completely unattached to having done anything other than being just right here with me in this moment. Congratulations, you've just created a sense of contentment and joy. As you continue to breathe and smile, feel it travel from your face down your neck, your chest, your ribs and your belly to your hips and pelvis, your legs, your feet, and your toes, all being washed with this beautiful smile and breath. Being with your breath is so beautiful. Many seek this state of peace or enlightenment through their meditation practice. But what if each time you meditate, you take one step closer to joy, bliss, and happiness, unattached to the past, untethered to the future, simply living in this moment, breathing into it, and setting an intention to enjoy the journey and process. Yet we can live a life of joy, happiness, and contentment right now, if we wish to. Again, bring your awareness back to that beautiful smile. And breathe into the smile and notice how you feel as though you breathe with this expression. Visualize a moment where you felt truly happy or joyful or content. We're going to connect with that sensation in your body right now. Feel what it felt like. Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing when you felt truly happy, joyful or content? Give yourself permission to truly reflect back and engage and relive that moment again. Feel the sensations right into your body as you breathe them in. And as you do this, gently repeat in your mind, I deserve happiness and joy. I can create happiness and joy. Happiness is available to me. As you continue breathing, bring to mind another moment of happiness. This time it's a moment experienced by another. For us to experience another's joy and happiness and delight is known in Sanskrit and Buddhism as mudita, which means appreciative joy. Again, bringing to mind another moment of happiness, the moment experienced by another. So take a moment to see a friend or a loved one, a stranger or an animal delighting in happiness. How do they look? Can you feel their happiness? This form of happiness has the potential to fill our hearts. Feel your heart expanding and your happiness increasing as you visualize this. Again, smiling, connecting, and recognizing that happiness is all around. What we seek is also seeking us. So with that awareness, allow happiness to build in your own life and in that of others. Repeat after me, happiness is my natural state. I create my own happiness. I delight in the happiness of others. And as I connect to feelings of happiness, these develop and grow. Again, bringing your attention back to your breath, feeling the corners of your mouth raise. As you smile, feel your chest expand, and allow the warmth of your breath and your smile to wash over you, to fill you with a sense of contentment and joy that's always available to you. Feel it travel from your face down your neck, your chest, your ribs and your belly, your hips and your pelvis, your legs, your feet and your toes, all being washed with this smile and this beautiful breath. As you move through your day and the days of your week, and the weeks of your month, and indeed the months of your years, I urge you to remember that you have access to happiness. You can create happiness for yourself and for others. I encourage you to view the happiness all around you, to notice the cat that gently purrs, or the baby that giggles, the children laughing and playing in the playground, or maybe just a gentle smile from a stranger, or the friend that delights in the compliment you gave them, or the smile or hug, the joy that you feel as you witness the sunrise, or noticing something new that you hadn't seen before. For when we pay attention, happiness is all around us. Take a moment to stretch your arms way above your head. Give yourself a great big stretch. And maybe you feel like having a big yawn. Start to wiggle your nose and your mouth and open your eyes when you're ready. Take a deep sigh. And know that you are ready for a fabulous day, wishing you much happiness from my heart to yours. Namaste. Have a great, great day.