Joy

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness,” says Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. “If you are attentive, you will see it.” In Joy, author and teacher Cher Kaufmann offers readers several ways to become open to joy. Here are uplifting, hand-drawn mantras for readers to color. By interacting on the page with the words through color, the exercise becomes meditative. Kaufmann also provides dozens of her beautiful illustrations to color, simplified here to basic patterns and symbols so they can be completed in just a few minutes. In only ten minutes, readers will be able to tap into the ancient knowledge and deep wisdom of this art through coloring, but also through carefully curated short meditations and tips for attaining bliss.  

Research has shown that simply by thinking positively, people can train themselves to have more of these thoughts. The brain regions that regulate happiness literally receive a surge of blood. Like a river on a bed of rocks, this carves out a neural pathway, making it easier for more joy to flow. Bring it on!