Black Sun

    Joy Theory

    Step by Step Instructions

    Difficulty

    Beginner

    Duration

    5-25+ min

    Avg Change

    +3.2/s

    Rating

    4.7

    Joy Theory

    A visual meditation technique that harnesses the power of emotions and transforms emotional reactions by guiding you through a positive emotional step-scale from neutrality to joy, hope, and gratitude. Read a more in-depth explanation to understand Joy Theory here.

    Benefits

    • Works for 80-90% of people on average
    • Increases emotional awareness and insight
    • Creates permanent emotional change
    • Helps you feel joy in your life by recognizing that feeling joy is a choice and a mindset
    • Simple and easy to understand

    Why This Works

    • The brain nearly can't distinguish between reality from imagination which makes visual meditation a powerful tool used by professionals to improve their skills in many fields. Instead of using visual meditation to enhance physical ability, you will be using it to train your emotional reactivity and maturity.
    • Emotional maturity is characterized by nonreactivity and getting to a state of joy is fully taking back your power by not allowing anyone to take your state of joy away from you, including yourself.
    • Different emotions hold different energetic states: depression is a very low energy state while joy is a high energy state. More energy = more power. By focusing on emotional states with more energy it provides the brain increased power to create and sustain change.
    • Emotions are strongly correlated with psychological and physiological benefit. The five most beneficial emotions for the human body are peace, love, joy, hope, and gratitude in that order.
    • Bilateral stimulation should be used while doing this theory to speed up the healing process.

    Important Considerations

    • In order to create change you MUST feel the emotion in the given emotional step while engaged in visual meditation. Emotions create change. If you don't feel the emotion 100% before moving on to the next step, you are severely decreasing the likelihood of this theory working.
    • The principle of projection is EXTREMELY important for this theory. Take the time to read up on it before attempting this theory.
    • The state of acceptance is being able to accept what is happening without judging yourself or others. For example, "I made a stupid mistake, and that's okay, that doesn't make me stupid."
    • The state of love is being able to love yourself without judgment and being compassionate towards others. For example, "I made a stupid mistake and that doesn't determine how I feel about myself. Making mistakes is how people learn." Or "That person calling me stupid says more about them than me and I can feel compassion for how they are judging themselves."
    • The acceptance and love steps both have two phases. The first phase is giving the emotion to yourself and the second is giving it to others. For example, if you are trying to work through the belief "I'm a failure" you would first work on accepting a personal failure and accepting it without judging yourself negatively and then you would focus on accepting someone else calling you a failure without judging yourself or them. Same with the step for love. Remember the principle of projection while attempting to feel acceptance and compassion towards others as that will help you get there. DO NOT justify feeling any other emotions besides the one given in the step towards yourself or others as that will prevent you from healing, the one exception being sadness which can coexist with these other emotional states.
    • Joy, hope, and gratitude should be used as applicable. For example, if you are working through the death of a loved one, joy may not make sense for you to try and feel. That's okay, don't use it then. Use all of the ones that make sense to you for what you are working through.

    Proven Practice

    Step-by-Step Instructions

    Measured Efficacy

    +3.2

    Avg Change / Session

    53

    Sessions Measured

    4.7

    7 Ratings

    Speed
    1. 1Choose something you want to work through - a fear, limiting belief, goal you want to achieve, or something distressing.
    2. 2Close your eyes and visualize the situation that triggers the unwanted emotional response.
    3. 3Begin bilateral stimulation.
    4. 4Begin the emotional step-scale: First, visualize yourself reacting with NEUTRALITY to the belief or situation. Do not move on until you feel completely neutral as you visualize the initial distressor. If neutrality is too difficult to get to, try getting to one of these other emotional states first: apathy, desire, anger, pride, or courage. Then proceed to neutrality.
    5. 5Once you feel neutral, move to ACCEPTANCE - visualize yourself fully accepting the situation as it is. Apply acceptance towards yourself, then towards others. Do not move on until you feel completely accepting towards yourself and others as you visualize the initial distressor.
    6. 6Progress to LOVE - visualize responding to the situation with love both for yourself and then compassion for others. Do not move on until you feel complete love towards yourself and compassion towards others as you visualize the initial distressor.
    7. 7Continue with JOY, HOPE, or GRATITUDE - use whichever emotions apply to your situation and visualize yourself feeling them genuinely. Do not move on until you fully feel the chosen emotions.
    8. 8Bring up the initial distressing belief, fear, or situation and notice how your emotional response has shifted to the initial distressor. At this point you should feel no negative reactivity (with the possible exception of sadness) towards the initial distressor. If you do you will need to revisit previous steps as you didn't fully complete them or try a different theory.
    4.7

    7 ratings

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