One of the quiet heartbreaks of early recovery is how gray the world can seem. After years of chasing the intense highs that substances create, it’s common to feel like life without them is… flat. A cup of tea, a warm breeze, even laughter with a friend can feel muted. You might wonder: Will I ever feel good again?
This is a phase many of us go through, and it’s deeply human. Addiction floods the brain with artificial pleasure, hijacking the natural systems that give us joy. When we remove those substances, it takes time—sometimes a long time—for the nervous system to rewire and allow us to feel simple pleasures again. But that day does come. And yoga, meditation, and the practice of mudita can help guide the way.
What Is Mudita?
Mudita is a Sanskrit word often translated as “sympathetic joy” or “vicarious delight.” It’s one of the four brahmaviharas, or “sublime states,” taught in yogic and Buddhist traditions. While compassion (karuṇā) means feeling moved by someone’s pain, mudita means feeling uplifted by someone else’s happiness. It’s the warm smile we feel when a friend finds love, the deep pleasure in seeing a child dance, or the quiet pride in someone else’s recovery milestone.
But mudita isn’t just about others. Practicing it opens the heart to joy everywhere. And in recovery, that’s powerful medicine.
Mudita and the Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sūtra that directly discusses feeling happiness at others’ joy is Yoga Sūtra 1.33:
“maitrī karuṇā muditā upekṣāṇāṁ sukha duḥkha puṇya apuṇya viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātaś citta prasādanam”
(Yoga Sūtra 1.33, Patañjali)
Translation and Meaning:
“By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the suffering, joy in the virtuous, and equanimity toward the non-virtuous, the mind becomes clear and serene.”
This sūtra presents four essential heart practices—maitrī (friendliness or loving-kindness), karuṇā (compassion), mudita(joy at others’ happiness), and upekṣā (equanimity)—as tools for mental clarity and emotional balance.
The phrase “mudita toward the virtuous or the joyful” encourages us to actively delight in others’ well-being, rather than feel envy, indifference, or self-pity. For people in recovery, this can be a powerful shift: rather than resenting the joy others seem to have, we can learn to feel uplifted by it—and over time, this practice gently helps our own joy return.
This sūtra reminds us that cultivating positive attitudes isn’t just moral—it’s practical. It supports a peaceful mind (citta-prasādanam), which is the foundation for healing and deepening yoga practice.
Yoga, Recovery, and the Rediscovery of Joy
Yoga and meditation create a steady path back to feeling good—gently, slowly, and in a way that supports healing rather than harm. The physical movements of yoga help release endorphins and stimulate vagal tone, calming the nervous system and increasing our capacity to feel. Pranayama (breathwork) helps regulate mood by shifting our inner chemistry. Meditation teaches us to sit with whatever is present without needing to escape it.
Over time, these practices begin to re-sensitize the body and mind. One day you might notice how good your feet feel on the earth during a standing pose. Or you might take a deep breath in savasana and feel, for the first time in a while, a genuine, quiet ease. Read more about this in a related post.
That’s joy returning.
From Numbness to Natural Pleasure
Science backs this up. Studies have shown that regular meditation can increase activity in brain areas associated with positive emotion, like the left prefrontal cortex [1]. Yoga has been found to increase levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter linked to mood regulation [2]. These changes don’t come all at once, but with consistency, they come.
Practicing mudita along the way supports this process. When we attune ourselves to joy—especially the subtle, everyday kind—we begin to rewire our pleasure pathways. Even if we don’t feel joy ourselves at first, simply noticing it in others can help reawaken that part of the heart.
Try this: At the end of your next yoga practice, bring to mind someone who is doing well. Maybe a friend, a child, or even someone you’ve only heard about. Picture them smiling, alive, and content. Let yourself feel glad for them. That’s mudita.
And slowly, it opens the door to your own joy too.
Walking the Joyful Path
Recovery is a re-learning of how to live. It’s also a re-learning of how to feel. We don’t need the intensity of a high to enjoy our life. We just need a way to reconnect with the quieter forms of delight.
Yoga, breath, and meditation are the tools. Mudita is the lens. Together, they remind us that joy doesn’t need to be chased, it can be cultivated.
Even now. Even here.
References
[1] Davidson, R.J., & Lutz, A. (2008). Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation. Scientific American.
[2] Streeter, C.C., et al. (2010). Effects of yoga versus walking on mood, anxiety, and brain GABA levels: a randomized controlled MRS study. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.