Absolutely, Delia. As long as happiness is a genuine heartfelt emotion and not one that is forced upon us, we can maintain the state of grace. Quite often, people who are feeling sad deny that feeling and put up a front of being happy which can lead to far reaching consequences for themselves and their loved ones. If a feeling of sadness comes up, that is normal and human but if the sadness lingers long, it is time to take a family member of the family doctor into confidence if self-introspection and analysis does not help us to identify what has to change to return to a state of internal contentment.

However, it took me a while to accept it, but I came to realization that it’s also OK to be sad sometimes. Otherwise we’re creating too much of a pressure to always be upbeat and happy, which can become stressful. Quite the opposite of what happiness should be about 🙂

In Yoga, one of the ways to attain self-realization is through the path of learning and it seems that is the right yoga for you, Beverley. At the beginning of our spiritual journey, we more often than not seek solace and satisfaction in external sources for our happiness until we realize that happiness is within us, or as you put it so well, joy. I tend to think of it as being in a state of grace and use my 5 habits which include gratitude to strengthen my happiness muscle.

Thank you Shawn for bringing attention to Zen. You are right, using the 5 habits that I mentioned in my other post help us to strengthen the happiness muscle and while nobody can be happy in sorrow, it helps to build our resilience and cope with life and find ways to solve our most pressing problems from a state of grace.