Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda

Dear Choose Happy Community,It can take practice to recognize the patterns that keep us disconnected from our deeper truth. This teaching reminds us that beneath fear, limitation, and human pain, there is a capacity for unconditional love, compassion, creativity, and wholeness. We don’t have to pretend difficult emotions aren’t there. Instead, we can meet them with honesty and ask the source of unconditional love to guide us toward a different choice.Choosing truth and love is a practice we return to again and again. And each time we choose it, we create more space for healing, connection, and wellbeing to move through us.Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “If I’m in contact with the pure love of my being, which is unconditional, it’s universal goodwill, it’s compassion, it’s generosity, it’s creativity, it’s the energy of wholeness and healing, it sees the human pain that humans experience, and it also sees deeper than that to their potential to come into contact with self-remembrance, with wholeness, which is present with and within them always.“It sees the ability of everyone to wake up from delusion and to remember that’s not the truth of my being. Truth is the truth of my being. And it’s actually so much more fun not to build a relationship by saying lie to me. It’s so much more fun by building a relationship in truth and in love and in honesty and in compassion and generosity and forgiveness and creativity and wellbeing.“And, you know, also I will acknowledge, I hear from a lot of people, and it takes practice. It takes willingness day after day to say, ‘I’m here. I’m here for this. I’m here to keep choosing unconditional love in the times when that’s easy and in the time when that’s really challenging, and I’ll just keep.’“If I’m having a hard time choosing unconditional love, I’ll ask the Source of unconditional love to choose through me, and that will happen. That melts away any human patterns of thought or feeling or thinking or behavior that are limiting my ability to allow the Source of unconditional love to share unconditional love through me.”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 Healing Consciousness 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 MeditationEverything available to a paid subscriber. Are you one yet?This is a free post made available to everyone. If you are not yet a paid subscriber to Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda, consider becoming one today to receive exclusive audio talks, articles, meditation service replays, access to the archives, and so much more.Podcast Episodes*: All EpisodesDarshan Articles*: All ArticlesFrom the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer SeriesLive Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • SatsangsBook Excerpts**: All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami ShankaranandaWorkshops (formerly eCourses): All Workshops • The Spiritual Art of Intentions: Creating a Life You Love • Pillars of Self-Realization: 50 Days with Swami Shankarananda • Love: The Eternal Flame of Life Within You • Wisdom: Discovering the Peace in Our True Nature*Also available to Free Subscribers**Select posts also available to Free SubscribersConsider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga MeditationYour generosity makes it possible for AYM to share Kriya Yoga, meditations, and teachings of truth with people around the world. It also allows the community to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). The presiding teacher for Awake Yoga Meditation is Swami Nityananda.Consider making a financial contribution to Swami’s BowlAs the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda selflessly offers her wisdom without taking a salary from Awake Yoga Meditation. Your gift honors her giving and ensures she can continue to share her invaluable teachings. The tradition of meditation communities like Awake Yoga Meditation is to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). All of the other myriad expenses of life are offered from student to teacher through Swami’s Bowl.Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awakeyogameditation.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Choose Happy Community,It’s easy to wonder if the small things we do really make a difference. A kind word, a moment of support, or simply showing up for someone can feel insignificant when the world’s problems seem so much bigger. But this teaching reminds us that we rarely see the full impact of what we share.When we choose kindness and service, the effect can travel far beyond the moment we’re in. We may never know whose life was touched by something we did, but that doesn’t make the ripple any less real. Sometimes, making a difference begins with simply choosing to be of service right where you are.Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “There is always positive ripple effects created by the kindness that we choose, by the support that we share. And that’s what Swami Shankarananda is talking about as well.“He’s saying when you share support, when you are of service, it goes out. And it doesn’t just stay in your immediate neighborhood or your immediate environment, and you have no idea how many people it touches and the lives that it moves and transforms.”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 Healing Consciousness 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 MeditationEverything available to a paid subscriber. Are you one yet?This is a free post made available to everyone. If you are not yet a paid subscriber to Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda, consider becoming one today to receive exclusive audio talks, articles, meditation service replays, access to the archives, and so much more.Podcast Episodes*: All EpisodesDarshan Articles*: All ArticlesFrom the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer SeriesLive Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • SatsangsBook Excerpts**: All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami ShankaranandaWorkshops (formerly eCourses): All Workshops • The Spiritual Art of Intentions: Creating a Life You Love • Pillars of Self-Realization: 50 Days with Swami Shankarananda • Love: The Eternal Flame of Life Within You • Wisdom: Discovering the Peace in Our True Nature*Also available to Free Subscribers**Select posts also available to Free SubscribersConsider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga MeditationYour generosity makes it possible for AYM to share Kriya Yoga, meditations, and teachings of truth with people around the world. It also allows the community to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). The presiding teacher for Awake Yoga Meditation is Swami Nityananda.Consider making a financial contribution to Swami’s BowlAs the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda selflessly offers her wisdom without taking a salary from Awake Yoga Meditation. Your gift honors her giving and ensures she can continue to share her invaluable teachings. The tradition of meditation communities like Awake Yoga Meditation is to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). All of the other myriad expenses of life are offered from student to teacher through Swami’s Bowl.Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awakeyogameditation.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Choose Happy Community,Some pain stays with us long after the person or situation is gone. This teaching offers a powerful shift: healing may begin by forgiving ourselves for carrying the impact of what happened and giving ourselves the love and understanding we need.It doesn’t mean denying what hurt you or pretending it didn’t matter. It means turning toward the part of yourself that still needs care. As we meet ourselves with compassion, we can begin to release the pain and navigate our relationships with greater wisdom, strength, and love.Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video:“ If you have any pain in relation to any humans from the past in your life, does that sound familiar to anyone? He’s saying you’re forgiving yourself, for allowing yourself to have been affected by them adversely. I know it’s a really interesting formulation, but it’s reminding each of us, ‘I have the freedom to heal myself the moment I decide to forgive myself for having been affected by anyone else adversely. I have the freedom to fill my heart with such love that then there is just a natural arising of forgiveness.’ “There is a natural letting go of pain in relation to, it seems to have been that the pain was connected to another person, and what he’s really saying here, it’s not actually ever about the other person.“There’s always some aspect of yourself that you’re being invited to give understanding to, give connection to, give caring to. And then the situation, if it does involve another person, will resolve itself, as you’re coming from caring, you’re coming from connection from within yourself. And then you’re free to navigate with love, with wisdom, with affection, with good humor, compassion, courage, strength in relation to yourself, and then also in relation to others.”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 Healing Consciousness 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 MeditationEverything available to a paid subscriber. Are you one yet?This is a free post made available to everyone. If you are not yet a paid subscriber to Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda, consider becoming one today to receive exclusive audio talks, articles, meditation service replays, access to the archives, and so much more.Podcast Episodes*: All EpisodesDarshan Articles*: All ArticlesFrom the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer SeriesLive Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • SatsangsBook Excerpts**: All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami ShankaranandaWorkshops (formerly eCourses): All Workshops • The Spiritual Art of Intentions: Creating a Life You Love • Pillars of Self-Realization: 50 Days with Swami Shankarananda • Love: The Eternal Flame of Life Within You • Wisdom: Discovering the Peace in Our True Nature*Also available to Free Subscribers**Select posts also available to Free SubscribersConsider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga MeditationYour generosity makes it possible for AYM to share Kriya Yoga, meditations, and teachings of truth with people around the world. It also allows the community to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). The presiding teacher for Awake Yoga Meditation is Swami Nityananda.Consider making a financial contribution to Swami’s BowlAs the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda selflessly offers her wisdom without taking a salary from Awake Yoga Meditation. Your gift honors her giving and ensures she can continue to share her invaluable teachings. The tradition of meditation communities like Awake Yoga Meditation is to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). All of the other myriad expenses of life are offered from student to teacher through Swami’s Bowl.Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awakeyogameditation.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Choose Happy Community,How often do we put ourselves last in order to make everyone else happy? People pleasing can lead us to ignore our own needs, sacrifice our rest, and even mistreat ourselves in the process. Sometimes, the pressure isn’t even coming from others. It can come from our own fear of disappointing them.This teaching invites us to pause and ask: Who am I trying to please? When we practice honest self-awareness, we can begin choosing kindness toward ourselves without believing we have to earn love or approval from everyone around us.Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video:“ Who am I seeking to please? Who am I seeking to please? That which is internal or that which is external? And again, going back to that source of people pleasing, man, we can contort ourselves, mistreat ourselves, be unkind to ourselves in order to please other people. ”How many of us are the person or know a person who will put themselves on the back burner? Health is unwell, not getting rest, totally stressed out in order to please other people who may or may not be making those demands. Who may or may not be making those demands. So it’s just something for us to self-reflect on.”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 MeditationEverything available to a paid subscriber. Are you one yet?This is a free post made available to everyone. If you are not yet a paid subscriber to Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda, consider becoming one today to receive exclusive audio talks, articles, meditation service replays, access to the archives, and so much more.Podcast Episodes*: All EpisodesDarshan Articles*: All ArticlesFrom the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer SeriesLive Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • SatsangsBook Excerpts**: All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami ShankaranandaWorkshops (formerly eCourses): All Workshops • The Spiritual Art of Intentions: Creating a Life You Love • Pillars of Self-Realization: 50 Days with Swami Shankarananda • Love: The Eternal Flame of Life Within You • Wisdom: Discovering the Peace in Our True Nature*Also available to Free Subscribers**Select posts also available to Free SubscribersConsider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga MeditationYour generosity makes it possible for AYM to share Kriya Yoga, meditations, and teachings of truth with people around the world. It also allows the community to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). The presiding teacher for Awake Yoga Meditation is Swami Nityananda.Consider making a financial contribution to Swami’s BowlAs the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda selflessly offers her wisdom without taking a salary from Awake Yoga Meditation. Your gift honors her giving and ensures she can continue to share her invaluable teachings. The tradition of meditation communities like Awake Yoga Meditation is to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). All of the other myriad expenses of life are offered from student to teacher through Swami’s Bowl.Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awakeyogameditation.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Choose Happy Community,Anger can rise quickly and make us feel completely caught up in the moment. This teaching invites us to see anger as a wave that arises within us, rather than something we have to become. Through self-awareness, we can pause, observe what is happening, and remember that we have a choice in how we respond. When we stop identifying with the wave, we create space for anger to settle and for peace to return.Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video:“Anger is a wave that rises in the ocean of us, if we take these teachings seriously. Anger is a wave that arises in us if we’re allowing ourselves to be in the bucket of discontent. And by the bucket of discontent, Swami Shankarananda doesn’t say this, but this is my understanding, it’s identifying with feeling separate, right?“I can only be angry if I’m identifying with feeling separate. If I’m remembering that all of this is the Tao, as all of this. All of this is pure consciousness, all of this is perfect love, as all of this non-contentiousness naturally establishes itself and anger melts away. “So with self-awareness, if a wave of anger does arise in our consciousness, we gain the ability to choose. ‘There’s this wave that has arisen, and I can watch it, and I can allow it to dissipate.’”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 Healing Consciousness 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 MeditationEverything available to a paid subscriber. Are you one yet?This is a free post made available to everyone. If you are not yet a paid subscriber to Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda, consider becoming one today to receive exclusive audio talks, articles, meditation service replays, access to the archives, and so much more.Podcast Episodes*: All EpisodesDarshan Articles*: All ArticlesFrom the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer SeriesLive Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • SatsangsBook Excerpts**: All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami ShankaranandaWorkshops (formerly eCourses): All Workshops • The Spiritual Art of Intentions: Creating a Life You Love • Pillars of Self-Realization: 50 Days with Swami Shankarananda • Love: The Eternal Flame of Life Within You • Wisdom: Discovering the Peace in Our True Nature*Also available to Free Subscribers**Select posts also available to Free SubscribersConsider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga MeditationYour generosity makes it possible for AYM to share Kriya Yoga, meditations, and teachings of truth with people around the world. It also allows the community to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). The presiding teacher for Awake Yoga Meditation is Swami Nityananda.Consider making a financial contribution to Swami’s BowlAs the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda selflessly offers her wisdom without taking a salary from Awake Yoga Meditation. Your gift honors her giving and ensures she can continue to share her invaluable teachings. The tradition of meditation communities like Awake Yoga Meditation is to support the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). All of the other myriad expenses of life are offered from student to teacher through Swami’s Bowl.Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awakeyogameditation.substack.com/subscribe