Choose Happy with Swami Nityananda

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 Meditation Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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 Meditation Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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 Meditation Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Fear often grows when we become attached to an outcome we cannot control. This teaching reminds us that we can still act with love and give our best without carrying the weight of knowing exactly how things will turn out. When we dedicate our actions to serving the highest good, we create space for greater freedom, joy, and peace. The outcome may not always be in our hands, but how we show up can be. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “‘There’s always the fear of loss. You know that. We’ve all been there. Fear of loss of job, position, honor, health, fear of losing a loved one.’ He [Swami Shankarananda] says, ‘You don’t fear losing an enemy. Performing everything as an act of worship’, or if you don’t like that phrasing, performing everything as an act of being of service to highest good. He says that frees you from attachment to outcome. That frees you from worrying. That frees you to do everything with love. “And when you’re back in that energy of: I’m here just to be of service to highest good, to do everything with love. And the outcome is not always in my hands, but I can still be in this energy of fullness; I can still be in this energy of joy; I can still be in this energy of light, no matter what the outcome is, and that’s melting away fear as well” 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 Meditation Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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 believe we’ll finally feel peaceful once someone else changes what they’re saying or doing. But this teaching reminds us that happiness and harmony don’t have to depend on what is happening around us. When we turn within and choose the energy of wellbeing, we can meet difficult conversations, relationships, and everyday situations from a place of greater clarity. The shift begins when we stop waiting for life to change and start cultivating the harmony we want to live from. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “I know that from a human perspective, we think, ‘Oh, if this person would only do what I want them to do, or say what I want them to say, or stop doing what I want them to stop doing, then I would feel happy. Then I would feel harmony.’ ”But instead, what the yogis say is happiness comes from within, harmony comes from within, and then I’m happy independently of whatever the person is saying or not saying or doing or not doing, and I’m not waiting for anything outside to change. “And then I’m living fully in the consciousness of harmony. I’m living fully in the consciousness of wellbeing. I’m living fully in the consciousness of highest good from moment to moment. And then that’s able to share through me very practically, like in my kitchen when whoever is talking, is deciding who’s going to do what chore when everybody’s tired. “Very practically in a workplace when you’re sort of making big decisions, you’re just opening and you’re aligning that highest good to keep unfolding.” 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Pain and discomfort are part of being human, but sometimes our minds add another layer of suffering. One difficult experience can become a spiral of mental anguish when we keep identifying with the thoughts and stories around it. This teaching invites us to notice when the mind is piling more suffering onto what is already difficult. With awareness, we can create space between the experience itself and the additional suffering our minds may create. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “There is suffering in the world because the mind creates suffering. That’s what the mind does. And as long as we are identified or attached with maya, with the mind, then we can also create suffering, and also experience suffering deeply, emotionally. “And so it’s not that in the realm of time and space we won’t know pain or discomfort. That is a part of being human. But if we are identified to that which changes, it becomes a keen emotional pain, a keen mental anguish, that we do not need to experience. We don’t have to add to what is already human experience of which we will experience discomfort. But sometimes by our choices, we pile it on. “It’s like something shows up and I’m uncomfortable, and then the mental anguish begins, and then that mental anguish can spiral, and then we can be mentally anguished for years.” 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, We all have moments when fear, anger, or old habits seem to take over. But this teaching reminds us that these moments are not who we truly are. They simply invite us to remember the light that has always been present within us. Meditation and karma yoga help us return to that deeper truth. The more we practice remembering our divine nature, the less power old patterns have over us. You are not here to fight the darkness. You are here to remember the light that has never left you. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “Darkness can only be present in us if we’re forgetting our divine nature, which is such a healing teaching. So any darkness that we’re aware of in ourselves, and so it might just be like, ‘I have a bad temper, and I sometimes can’t control it’. I’m not speaking autobiographically , but whatever it is, like, you know your patterns. “Whatever that is, that’s only possible to be activated if we’re forgetting the Divine within us. And Lahiri says when we meditate, when we practice karma yoga, that helps us to live continually connected in self-remembrance, remembering the Divine within 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Grief can feel overwhelming. It can make you wonder if you’ll ever feel like yourself again. But what if your tears weren’t a sign that you’re falling apart? What if they’re a reflection of how deeply you’ve loved? This teaching reminds us that we don’t have to fear grief or rush past it. We can honor the love beneath our sorrow, stay present with ourselves and those we care about, and keep taking the next step. Even in the hardest moments, you can rise, stand firm, and discover a quiet strength that’s been with you all along. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “If I’m crying, these are tears of love, and I honor the love. I honor the love of my being, and I honor that I am connected in community to the goodness and the beauty that dwell in all hearts. And when I’m honoring that, that will help me be of service to that. So then I’m not afraid of the sorrow or the pain or the grief or the loss. “I’m just honoring it, and I’m saying, ‘Yes, that’s true, and I’m moving through it. And I will be with my loved one, whatever it is that they’re moving through’. And then we’re back again into that energy of Psalm 20. We will rise up and stand firm. And so this is something that moment by moment each of us can do. “I will rise up and stand firm, and it’s always happening in the now.” 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, The words you repeat to yourself matter more than you may realize. If your thoughts or your self-talk leave you feeling discouraged, fearful, or small, this teaching offers a simple but powerful practice: notice them with honesty, then choose something that strengthens you instead. Every thought and every word is an opportunity to reconnect with your inner strength. When you invite wisdom to guide your thinking, your speaking, and your choices, you begin creating a life rooted in clarity instead of fear. Real transformation doesn’t happen all at once. It happens one strengthening thought at a time. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ As Lahiri is saying, be in contact with your inner strength always, and also practice scrupulous self-awareness. Are there any thought patterns that are not helping me be in contact with my inner strength? And if so, then that is my sacred obligation to lay down those thought patterns and to choose thoughts that help me be in contact with my inner strength. “And so too, with the words that I speak, are there words that I am speaking that are unintentionally not strengthening me and unintentionally not strengthening others? And if so, give yourself the gift of awareness, and then you can lay them down, and you can say, ‘I am going to speak words that strengthen me.’ “And I’m--if I don’t know, I’m going to ask the light within me to think through me what is strengthening; to speak through me what is strengthening; to choose through me what is strengthening. I’m asking the light that my consciousness and my energy are here in service to what is strengthening, and it will be so. “And so we’re just reminding ourselves each of us can do this from moment to moment right where we are.” 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, This teaching reminds us that our brains and nervous systems respond to negativity as a form of stress, but we’re not powerless. Through self-awareness, we can recognize what’s affecting us, gently calm our stress response, and reconnect with the part of ourselves that is creative, peaceful, and clear. You can’t always control what you’re exposed to, but you can choose how you care for your mind and heart. The more you return to awareness, the more space you create for clarity, healing, and genuine inner peace. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ I looked it up: What neuroscience says is that if we are exposed to negativity, and so this would be sort of like a stream of negative thought or a stream of negative speech, the brain actually registers that as a low-level threat. And so to just kind of have self-awareness, and to practice self-awareness - ‘How does my brain and how does my nervous system respond if I’m exposed to negativity?’ “And so I also respectfully acknowledge that I know there are people who serve as caretakers, for teenagers or for children or for elders. And then sometimes the people that we’re serving as caretakers for, are expressing negativity and they almost can’t help it. But it’s really great for us to have some tools so that we are aware, ‘Okay, this is actually triggering a cortisol response in my brain, and if that gets turned on and I don’t turn it off, that affects cognitive function. It affects the part of my brain that is able to learn and is able to remember. It also can affect my immune system. It can affect my sleep. It can affect my ability to be present and to connect with other humans. It can affect my relationships as well.’ “And so, for so many reasons, there’s an amazing gift that we give ourselves if we just say, ‘I’m giving myself the gift of self-awareness. I’m aware if I’m around a person or if I’m exposed to a stream of information or energy that is focusing consistently on negativity, here’s how my brain reacts. And it’s great that I know that because then I also have available tools so that I can choose to down-regulate that stress response, and I can choose to reconnect with the part of my brain that helps me to learn and remember and sleep and connect with creativity, connect with the ability to learn and to grow and to expand.’” 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Life doesn’t always unfold the way we imagined it would. Change can make the human mind feel threatened, uncertain, or afraid. But this teaching offers a gentle reminder: in this moment, you are safe. When we return to that truth, something shifts. Instead of reacting from fear, we begin listening more deeply for what is most loving, most helpful, and most aligned in each moment. Even when everything around you changes, there is a grounded and steady presence within you that never leaves. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ We can feel threatened. Our human personality self can feel threatened when change arises. And so just notice, is that part of your response? When change arises, does your human personality self feel threatened? Because if so, what you would do, and there was a very brave retreat participant yesterday who said this, ‘In this moment, I am safe. In this moment, I am safe.’ ”And that allows you to listen from moment to moment, what is most of service with my thoughts? What is most of service with my words? What is most of service with my actions? And as you keep listening in that way, what happens is that wholeness, which is the truth of your being, it’s always with you and within you, is very steady and present. “So I’m going to start to use words that we use today. You start to feel very grounded and centered, no matter what is happening outside of you.” 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Sometimes the deepest pain comes from the people closest to us. And when someone continues behaviors that hurt us, it can feel impossible to find peace. This teaching offers a different kind of freedom: the realization that healing does not always depend on the other person changing first. The moment we choose to stop carrying resentment and reconnect with love, something inside of us begins to soften and open. That doesn’t mean ignoring harmful behavior. It means refusing to let pain define the state of your heart. Liberation begins when you choose peace within yourself, even before external circumstances change. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ Someone said to me, I think this was maybe last summer, ‘I’m ready to liberate myself’ in relation to unresolved pain that they had in relation to a parent. And the parent is still present in their life and engaging in these behaviors that are painful. ”And so this person made a conscious choice. No matter what, unconditionally, to stay in the energy of love, and to stay in the energy of kindness, to stay in the energy of...They didn’t use these words, but it’s, ‘I thank you for the gift of life which I received through you. And I choose to respect you unconditionally for the gift of life which shared through you. I choose to stay in the energy of love and appreciation unconditionally for the gifts which have shared through you.’ “And they are now free. They have freed themselves. They feel only love in relation to their parent’s behavior. So it has transformed their relationship with their parent, even though their parent is still engaged in the painful behaviors. So this person liberated themself even without the other person transforming or changing.” 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Change can feel overwhelming, especially when it affects your relationships, your work, your family, or the world around you. This teaching reminds us that fear and resistance are not the only ways to meet uncertainty. There is another possibility: remembering that even in the middle of change, you still live in a universe filled with guidance, love, wisdom, and support. When we stop fighting change and begin opening to it, something softens inside of us. We become more steady, more creative, and more able to meet life with clarity instead of fear. You don’t have to control everything to feel supported. Sometimes peace begins with remembering what you’re already connected to. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ Just notice, check in with yourself, ‘Have I been resisting change?’ And if so, one of the solutions to that is, ‘I open to realize I live in a universe of infinite genius, abundance, guidance, and love’. “How much more fun does that feel? And so you’re acknowledging I’m facing this change, or my family is facing this change, or my country or the world is facing this change, you’re acknowledging it, and you’re saying, ‘And, I live in a universe of infinite genius, abundance, guidance, and love.’ “What is going to help you meet change more gracefully? Being in the energy of fear and resistance, or being in the energy of ‘I'’m open because I live in this universe of genius, abundance, guidance, and love’?” 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Sometimes the mind becomes so full of stress, stories, worries, and attachments that we can no longer feel clarity or possibility. This teaching offers a different approach: instead of trying to force answers, become empty enough to receive them. The yogic teachings remind us that infinite energy and creativity are always available when we loosen our grip on who we think we have to be. Letting go doesn’t mean giving up. It means making space for something deeper to move through you. Peace, insight, creativity, and healing often arrive when we stop clinging and allow ourselves to simply be present. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “So infinite energy is like a well, right? It’s bottomless. It’s used, but never used up. All that we can see is that infinite energy, and it’s never used up, ever. It’s like the eternal void filled with possibilities. “Now, that almost seems like a paradox, because by definition, a void is empty, right? But it is filled with possibility. So the teaching is telling us basically to be empty vessels. And from that place of emptiness, that’s where infinite possibilities flow. ”All of those ideas and all of the solutions are there when we’re not attached. That’s what being empty means. It means to let go of all of your stories, identifications, attachments, and just let what is, be.” 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, The way we speak to ourselves matters more than we realize. This teaching reminds us that our thoughts don’t just pass through us—they shape the energy we live in every day. When self-criticism or self-rejection becomes constant, it disconnects us from the light, peace, and goodness already within us. Healing begins by becoming aware of the thoughts we are feeding and gently choosing something different. More kindness. More compassion. More truth. The more we reconnect with the light within ourselves, the more available we become to bring that same light into the world around us. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ The Buddha makes it very, very clear that the effect of my thoughts follow me as surely as my shadow follows me. I am going to be the first one who experiences the effects of my thoughts. “So what thoughts am I thinking? Am I thinking thoughts that are sweet-smelling, that are conscious of the divine light that is at the core of my being, that are conscious of the divine light that is at the core of that person who is so suffering?His words, ‘What peace can I have from God who hath taken from me peace and every good thing, and hath made me all rotten and stinking? I stink so greatly that I cannot endure my own self.’ “So that’s the energy of self-reviling. And so for each of us to heal and cleanse any energy of self-reviling that we have, because that keeps us from being optimally available and present and of service wherever divine light wants to be present and of service through 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 Expansion Within Expansion 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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 get pulled into drama—our own or someone else’s. But this teaching offers a powerful reminder: where we place our identity matters. When we identify with fear, conflict, or reactivity, we strengthen those patterns. When we identify with the light at the core of our being, we create space for wisdom, courage, and healing to emerge. This isn’t about ignoring what’s difficult. It’s about meeting life from a deeper place. The more we stay connected to the light within, the more we can respond to challenges with clarity instead of getting lost in them. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ For all of us to just be open. We’re continually surrounded by wisdom. And the Divine is speaking with such joy and courage through everyone that we encounter. And so to just be present and to listen to the way the Divine is speaking through everyone that we encounter. “And this is back to that teaching: you cannot have enlightenment and drama at the same time. You’ve got to decide what’s more important to you. So you’re choosing to identify with the light rather than the drama. It’s not a matter of suppressing, it’s not repressing, it’s not ignoring, it’s not denying. It’s just saying, ‘I identify with the light that is at the core of my being,’ and that allows me to look with love and wisdom and courage and honesty at the drama and to bring healing consciousness to myself. And if anyone else is connected with the drama, to allow healing consciousness to share through you silently.” 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 Living Inner Truth 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, Fear, anger, and insecurity can leave the mind and body feeling tense, exhausted, and out of balance. This teaching reminds us that healing doesn’t come from fighting those feelings—it comes from turning inward and reconnecting with the natural flow of love already within us. When we open the heart to kindness, peace begins to return to the body, the mind softens, and clarity becomes possible again. Love is not weakness. It’s the energy that helps us remember the truth of who we are. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ It’s not pleasant to be in that energy of fear. It’s not pleasant to be in that energy of anger. It’s not pleasant to be in the energy of insecurity. And now, if you say, ‘I go within and I open the door of my heart to the natural flow of kindness, which is the truth of my being. I open my heart to love.’ “In the Bhagavad Gita, one of the translations says, ‘To love is to know the Divine.’ So opening my heart to love allows me to know the Divine. Opening my heart to love allows me to enter into the truth of divine being. The truth of divine being is already here. “And now notice how your body is feeling. ‘I’m in the energy of love. I’m in the energy of knowing the Divine. I’m in the energy of the truth of my being.’ And notice what happens to the parts of your body that can feel discombobulated or dysregulated, out of balance, if you’re in the energy of anger, if you’re in the energy of fear, if you’re in the energy of insecurity. So choosing to heal anger, fear, and insecurity is so freeing and healing and empowering 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 Living Inner Truth 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, No matter what you’re facing externally, there is still an inner victory available to you. This teaching reminds us that fear, anger, jealousy, or frustration do not have to define our state of being. Even in moments that look like loss from the outside, we can remain connected to something deeper—peace, love, and truth within. Spiritual victory begins when we stop waiting for the outside world to change before allowing ourselves to reconnect with the light already present inside us. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “Whatever the external circumstances, whatever feels like an oppression to you - it could be internal anger, it could be frustration, it could be jealousy, it could be fear. Whatever that thing is for you, there is internal victory accessible to you in the midst of that. And then Christ goes on to fulfill that and make that even more visible, because we can see that his crucifixion is an external loss. That is not an external victory to be mutilated in that way. However, in the midst of that, he was in contact with internal victory. ‘And so that never changes. Whatever our experience, even if we feel as if we are in the darkest pits of our own misunderstanding, internal victory is accessible to us, and the way that we access that is we let go of attachment to the external victory” 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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 get pulled into anger, judgment, or resentment—especially in a world that often feels divided and reactive. But this teaching invites us to pause and ask a deeper question: Am I willing to heal? If we want peace in the world, we first have to allow peace to take root within ourselves. The moment we stop feeding the fire of negativity and open to peace instead, something begins to transform. Peace doesn’t just surround us—it can move through us. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ Am I energizing any hatred, animosity, judgment, prejudices, bigotry? And then the question that I’m asking is, ‘Am I willing to heal? Am I willing to energize the solution, so that instead of fanning those flames, those embers, that fire that doesn’t go out, that fire that keeps burning, am I willing to look to the energy of the solution?’ “And I’ve been sharing a series of teachings, but if peace is what I want to create, I create it first in myself. I create it in consciousness first, and then it expresses through me. So there’s a really beautiful prayer: ‘May absolute peace pervade the whole universe. May absolute peace manifest through us to bless the world. May absolute peace abide in us as we abide in it.’ “And so for each of us then, if I am feeling any of those things: ‘I open to absolute peace. I open and I allow anything other than peace to be transformed so that I can allow peace to share 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 Living Inner Truth 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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, When the world feels heavy—filled with conflict, injustice, or pain—it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or disconnected. This teaching offers a steady truth: even in the midst of everything, you are still being loved into existence in every moment. That love isn’t distant or external—it’s alive within you, guiding and sustaining you. When you reconnect with that, something shifts. You’re not alone in what you’re facing—you’re supported in every breath. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the video: “ No matter what wars I have known, no matter what tragedies I have known, no matter what inequities I have known, no matter what discriminations I have known, racial, religious, or otherwise, there’s not been a single moment of my existence when I have not been loved into existence, loved into form by the source of all the love in the universe. “And so if you’re actually able to know that, what happens is you also know the love that loves you into form. That energy of pure life, pure creativity, pure potentiality, that loves you into form, knows exactly what you need, every moment, every moment. Can you feel how incredibly joyful and whole and complete that is? “So there’s nothing that the Divine is giving you from outside. The Divine is flowing in and through you, and whatever appears in form is the Divine as that. So whatever you need, it’s like this amazing call and response across the universe, this amazing song of the beautiful and perfect God.” 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 Living Inner Truth 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 Everything 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 Episodes Darshan Articles*: All Articles From the Founder Series: All Series • Mantra Series • St. Francis Prayer Series Live Meditation Replays: All Services • Index of All Services by Series • Sunday Meditation Services • Tuesday Darshan Meditation Services • Friday Night Healing Meditation Services • Satsangs Book Excerpts** : All Excerpts • Satsang with Swami Shankarananda Workshops (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 Subscribers Consider making a financial contribution to Awake Yoga Meditation Your 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 Bowl As 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