Tantra Yoga: Increase Your Joy Toleration Level

We all have a joy toleration level where we allow ourselves to experience only so much joy until we ruin it with negative thoughts like worry, doubt, sadness, or any number of emotions that get in the way. I call it self-sabotage. Attachment and fear of losing joy can also be a major contributor to the attenuation of joy. (We don’t let ourselves be completely happy because we are afraid of losing our happiness- so we subconsciously hold back on feeling joyful.)

However it happens, it’s directly related to the Anava Mala (dust on the surface of the heart) that brings the feeling of limitation, lack, not enoughness, and a sense of missing something, not being whole and complete. Anava Mala is something that everyone experiences. According to yoga philosophy, it arises because we are a limited expression of Divine Consciousness- we are not the all-powerful, all-knowing ONE, but we are a part of it, and we have a desire to get back to that wholeness and completeness. The antidote to the Anava Mala is self-love, acceptance, and letting go.

In fact, if we could just learn how to let go, we’d have joy all of the time, or at least, most of the time. This is why the goal of joy is not about getting good at meditation. It’s about getting good at letting go.

When you can let go and surrender (acceptance of what is as it is), you release the barrier to joy. You go to the edge of your joy, to the boundary, to your joy toleration level, then let go. When you can truly let go and release resistance to what is, you expand the boundary. Then your joy grows. 

There’s no upper limit to joy and happiness.

I invite you to grow your joy with me this summer in the Ashaya Membership – Summer of Happiness. 

May your joy toleration level expand and bring you unlimited joy beyond your wildest imagination! Joy is your true nature! I hope to see you on the mat!

Namaste,

Todd

Affirmations to help let go and expand the joy toleration level:

I release all the rough edges around my heart.

I allow my heart to soften and open.

I take down the walls around my heart.

I willingly lift the veil of my heart to let the light in.

I lower my shield, for I know that I am eternally safe.

I release all that is unresolved in my heart.

I am complete with whatever is incomplete in my heart.

I am patient and I trust the process because I know that life has my back.

I no longer need perfection to find my joy as I know that I am joy.

I am perfectly imperfect just as I am.

I am joyous with who I am right now because now is all that is.

I embrace the pain of a broken heart.

I embrace the pain of a grieving heart.

I embrace the pain of a fearful heart.

I know that love is stronger than fear.

I know that light overcomes the darkness and that challenges only come when I'm ready to rise up.

I am at peace within my heart.

I'm okay just as I am.

Want more of Todd's writing in your inbox? Sign up for the Ashaya Newsletter!