A 16 Guidelines view on
Delight
Delight is the delicious taste we get when something good happens. Worries fade away, frustration evaporates, and anger disappears when a baby is safely born or a friend passes their exams, when a problem is solved or a conflict resolved. Delight opens the heart.
Delight can change our minds and change our lives. It is a tonic that relieves the pain of envy and shifts the blight of depression. It brings us closer to the people we love and eases the difficulties we have with those people who are further away from us.
It makes such good sense to practice the art of rejoicing that it is strange we often overlook it. Why is bad news sometimes more compelling than good news? Why are we tempted to dwell on what is going wrong rather than what is going right? One drags us down, the other lifts us up.
We have a choice about what to feed our heart and mind. If we can learn to dwell on positive stories and accomplishments, we can quickly bring more happiness into the lives of ourselves and others.
Delight
To rejoice in the good fortune of others
A reflection on
Delight
The benefits of
Delight
lift our spirits, and bring us ease and joy in almost any situation
undermine any tendency to feel envy and jealousy, and the discomfort and pain that they bring
lessen self-centeredness and depression, through shifting the focus from ourselves to others
Did you know?
Why do humans sometimes cry when they feel intense delight? 'Tears of joy', according to scientists at Yale University, could be our body’s attempt to counteract an overwhelming emotion – like euphoria – to help us better regain our emotional balance.
‘Taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other’s good, and melt at other’s woe.’
Homer
‘To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others’
Robert Lewis Stevenson