Dear Choose Happy Community,

Some days fear shows up at the door. Other days it feels like misfortune or self-doubt. Drawing from Rumi’s wisdom, this teaching invites us to try something radical: welcome it in with love. The practice of “Choose Happy” is not about avoiding our feelings, but about meeting them with compassion and honesty. When we stop running from ourselves and start loving what we find, the heart naturally begins to open.

Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video:

“Rumi says that every day some new thing shows up. It could be at your door, there’s a fear, and it feels like a foe. Or, at your door there is what feels like misfortune, and Rumi says to just welcome it in. Welcome in your fear. Welcome in your misfortune.

“And so through the practice of Choose Happiness, we learn to extend love to whatever-to everything. So I’m going to show love to my fear. I’m going to show love to that thing in me that feels less than. I learned this when I was five. I’m going to show love to that part of me that wants to give up.

“So that’s what Choose Happy teaches us. And so, in and of itself, it invites us to invite everything in. You cannot bypass yourself. Wherever you go, there you are. And so when we’re in the practice of the yogic teachings, we learn to be with ourselves and to love ourselves as we show up. And that is what is heart opening for us.”

We also shared this video on YouTube, but wanted you to be able to have it on your Substack video player as well, in case you prefer that.

Having it on Substack makes it easy for you to see any other podcasts, videos, articles, or full meditation services that might be available in the Truth, Love and Justice by clicking here.

If you have heard this teaching before, we invite you — as Swami so often invites us — to hear it as if you are hearing it for the first time. Often we receive these teachings right when we need them.

In loving service,Awake Yoga Meditation

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