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Daily Darshan with Ezina
Daily Darshan with Ezina is a short-form daily podcast designed to bring clarity, inspiration, and spiritual alignment to the start of your day.
“Darshan” is a Sanskrit word meaning a moment of sacred seeing—a glimpse of truth that shifts perspective and opens the heart. Each episode is a brief transmission of insight drawn from prayer, meditation, or passages from the books Ezina is currently reading.
In just a few minutes, you’ll receive a powerful reflection, mantra, or contemplative thought designed to center your mind, elevate your awareness, and support you in making aligned, decisive choices throughout your day.
Whether you are leading a business, pursuing a vision, or simply seeking deeper connection with yourself and your purpose, Daily Darshan offers a quiet moment of wisdom to guide you forward.
Pause. Listen. Receive.
This is your daily moment of clarity.
Welcome to another edition of Daily Darshan. Today's topic is happiness. As I was preparing this morning for my prayer and meditation, I was just recalling some conversations that I've had with a few of you over this past week. And my daily Darshan always encompasses my own personal life, like what is going on in my life, as well as my community, you. And as I was preparing my mat, I was unrolling my mat slowly, and I was setting my candle and my timer.
Ezina LeBlanc:I was thinking about what are the things that truly contribute to our happiness? You know, happiness is not a destination, but a direction. And it can be achieved regardless of one's circumstances. You'll see stories online of people, I'm thinking particularly of this family in Africa, they're in Nigeria, and they're on the less fancy side of town. They live in a home.
Ezina LeBlanc:It has a dirt floor. They have a sofa. The sofa is pretty beaten and tattered. They do not have a stove. They cook on a hot plate.
Ezina LeBlanc:They sleep on a mattress on the floor, their mattress is covered with net to keep the mosquitoes and bugs out, and yet this family appears to be so happy. Every time I see their post I'm just in awe of the genuineness of their spirit. I love watching them just get ready for the day. They have two or three, I think three boys and seeing them bathing their children, getting them dressed, you know, her as she goes throughout her day. She's sweeping this dirt floor.
Ezina LeBlanc:She's cleaning this tattered sofa. She's washing the children's clothes in a bowl. And yet all I see is peace and happiness. And so happiness can be achieved regardless of one's circumstances. And many philosophers, they give different definitions of happiness and none of them agree on what true happiness is.
Ezina LeBlanc:And so I'm going to throw my hat in the ring because I believe that happiness is finding your life's purpose, accepting your fate, and behaving morally regardless of personal cost. Happiness is complex and it can be defined as a bunch of macro movements, enjoyment, satisfaction, purpose. Enjoyment is derived from the brain's reward system while satisfaction is a thrill from accomplishing goals. So you have those two sides, right? The thrill for accomplishing something and the enjoyment from a reward.
Ezina LeBlanc:And the thing about happiness is it allows you to go through and deal with so many complexities that life offers. Birth, death, financial setbacks, winds, windfalls. You know, it helps you to survive all of these things. But when you take it away from yourself, you focus on the stress of life, the darker parts of life, you kind of squeeze out happiness. Right?
Ezina LeBlanc:And so what we need to do is focus on our happiness. And there's this concept of a gratitude journal. And I've been keeping a gratitude journal for years. And many of you in the community, I've suggested for you to keep a gratitude journal, like keep a list of what you're grateful for. But I want to switch that on its head because I really think we need to focus on happiness, on a happiness journal, on making a note of all the things that make us happy.
Ezina LeBlanc:Because many of you are like, Oh, I'm just not happy, or, you know, I haven't been feeling like myself, or I feel like there has to be more to life, like I feel like I'm missing out, I'm behind, yada yada yada yada. And I think if you focus more on the things that bring you joy and make you happy, that that will shift for you. You know, a happiness journal, which I started keeping one, I think in 2024. Yes, 2024. I started keeping a happiness journal.
Ezina LeBlanc:And now I feel happy the majority of the time. And when I'm not, it's fleeting. So I encourage you to start a happiness journal because it's very interesting how when you focus on that, what you focus on expands. So focusing on happiness, like what am I happy about? And also I want to focus on celebrating and rewarding yourself for accomplishments.
Ezina LeBlanc:We as a gender do not reward ourselves enough. We will say, Oh yeah, I got that promotion at work. You know, yeah, I'm glad I got it. And you may go out with drinks or something with someone and that's the end of it. And that's very surface level, you know, celebration.
Ezina LeBlanc:What is a real reward? A real reward is something that is lasting. So I want you to start thinking about that. And we also do not celebrate enough. I was talking to someone a couple days ago about celebrating.
Ezina LeBlanc:And this is something in my own family that I have to work with, with my spouse who does not come from a family who celebrates a lot. So it can be uncomfortable to celebrate your wins, but you have to celebrate. You have to celebrate the all of the changings of life. You know, I think that's why we have all of these holidays, to be honest with you. In the pagan tradition, there's Ulstara, which is coming up on March 21, that's the beginning of spring.
Ezina LeBlanc:And I love Ulstara. You know, I'm not a pagan, I'm not Wicca, anything like that, but I love the celebration of it is spring. You know, the flowers are blooming. I look around my property and all the flowers are blooming and they smell beautiful and they look beautiful and they make me happy. I mean, it's just another layer of happiness, You know, just experiencing like, oh, these flowers are in bloom.
Ezina LeBlanc:They feel smell so nice. And I want to encourage you to celebrate the changing of the seasons. You know, also in our community, as you know, we celebrate the moon and some people are uncomfortable with that. They're like, oh, you know, what is this? Why are we celebrating the moon?
Ezina LeBlanc:Because every time we celebrate the moon we celebrate ourselves. As women we are led by the moon. The moon is our part of our internal guidance system. When the moon is full, we are full and it is a time to celebrate. The most prolific mothers are those who have their cycles timed to the moon.
Ezina LeBlanc:So if you are bleeding on the new moon, you are pregnant by the full moon. If you are starting a new project on the new moon, it is, if not coming to fruition, it is well on its way by the full moon. We are deeply, deeply connected and led by it, which is why we celebrate the moon in our community. And some people think, oh, it's devil work, is this, you know, they just have all these negative connotations about it, but it's honestly just another way to celebrate, another reason to celebrate. So if I invite you, which you know you're all invited in my community to our New Moon celebration and our Full Moon celebration, do not be afraid.
Ezina LeBlanc:Come and join in. It's prayer, it's meditation, it's gathering, it's food. It's just a wonderful time to come together. And I want you to focus on gatherings, attending gatherings. Some of you are out of the country, some of you are in different states all over The United States, and I have a few of you in Europe and a couple in Africa and Australia and Mauritius.
Ezina LeBlanc:I'm trying to remember where my whole community is from right now. And maybe you've shared this with someone new who's new to our community. Maybe you're sharing this with them. So if you're new here, welcome. But I want you to celebrate.
Ezina LeBlanc:I want you to get out in community and learn how to celebrate more. I want you to laugh more. I want you to have more joy in your life. And you don't need any particular thing to celebrate. You can celebrate, Oh my gosh, my kid got up this morning and they got themselves dressed without me asking.
Ezina LeBlanc:Oh my gosh, that's the reason for celebration. Okay, hot chocolates for everybody. You know, just think of the little things because as mothers, and I think the majority of us in my community are mothers, you set the tone for the family. You are the memory maker. You are the memory keeper.
Ezina LeBlanc:And so let's raise our children in joy and happiness. Let's teach them how to celebrate. Let's teach them how to focus on their happiness and their joy. Now children naturally do this, but as they start to get older, they start to lose that resilience, that bounce back to happiness, that factory reset to happiness. And we want to teach them how to keep that.
Ezina LeBlanc:Like you should really be happy 90% of the time or more. You know the times when you're unhappy should be brief and fleeting. Of course a death, a loss, those things happen. That's part of the roller coaster of life. But those dark times should be very small and brief compared to your happiness.
Ezina LeBlanc:So thinking more about happiness, we go back to in the previous episode where I was talking about, you know, living a life that you love. And I really challenge you to stay on course with us here and focus on how can you bring more joy in your life? How can you bring more joy and happiness into your home? You know, what things are broken in your home that are just getting on your nerves that need to be repaired? Repair them or discard them.
Ezina LeBlanc:You don't need that extra energy in your brain of processing. Oh yeah, that lamp is still broken. I got to get that done. No, it or discard it. Period.
Ezina LeBlanc:The end. Because that is seeping away from your happiness, seeping away from your joy. You've got clothes that need to be repaired. Repair them, donate or discard. You know, you have some clutter in your house that needs to be cleaned up.
Ezina LeBlanc:You got a junk drawer. Clean it, dump it or whatever because your mind is cluttered with all of these things. And these things just, they just tick away at your happiness because they're just these minor annoyances and they keep adding up. And before you know it, your annoyances have stolen your joy. So we wanna try to focus on getting rid of all of the the little things that is taking away our joy.
Ezina LeBlanc:You know, you've got clothes that need to be folded, like just make a game of it, get it done, you know, or if they're clothes you don't wear anymore, put them in a bag, go donate them to goodwill. Like we have to clear the decks, right? Because we want to have a life that we love. You should love your life. You should love everything about it.
Ezina LeBlanc:You should love where you live. You should love, you know, your surroundings. You should love the city that you've chosen. You should love, you know, the place where you're employed or where you're building your business. You should love that.
Ezina LeBlanc:You spend a lot of time at work. You should love it. You spend a lot of time at home. You should love it. And we really just need to focus on recalibrating our happiness.
Ezina LeBlanc:We have to get back to factory reset, which is happiness. When a baby is born, a baby is full of happiness and joy. That is our factory setting. And we need to really focus on getting back to that factory setting. So I've been going quite a while today and I know you guys are busy.
Ezina LeBlanc:I just want to give you a little bit of of, what's coming to me this morning as I was unrolling my mat and putting my rug down and lighting my candle. I was just thinking about I love my mat. I love my rug. I love my candle. The candle smells so good.
Ezina LeBlanc:I made these candles like with my kids a while ago and just the smell of them made me happy because I thought about the memory of the kids and the fun that we had and it was just a beautiful day. And so I really want more happiness for all of you in every day and in every way. That is your factory setting. Happiness is your factory setting. So let's get back there.
Ezina LeBlanc:And for some of you it won't happen. It'll take some time. You know, it won't happen overnight. I understand that. But do know that it should be the majority of your life.
Ezina LeBlanc:And if it's not, we have some work to do. And that work is starting with The Happiness Journal. And don't get too complicated for my Virgos and my Libras out there who are gonna go and, oh my gosh, you gotta search high and low for the perfect journal and it's gotta be, you know, this custom thing with your initials and a this and a that. You know, don't complicate it. Just start with a piece of paper.
Ezina LeBlanc:You can always, once you find that beautiful journal or that perfect, you know, journal that you want to write in, can always transfer it. But start now. Start today with your happiness journal. And I would love to hear from some of you in the community, like let me know, like how you felt after you started your happiness journal. I wanna hear about it because I remember when I first started it, immediately I felt like I had a light lighter step.
Ezina LeBlanc:You know, I just felt like lighter, you know, after I started doing it because I was like, oh, was looking around for all the things that made me happy. You know, and I was looking around, I'm like, oh, I love where I live. Oh, I love my house. Oh, I love my dog. Oh, you know, I love so many things.
Ezina LeBlanc:Oh, I love living in California. Oh, I love being in Spain. I love being in France. Oh, I love, you know, these clothes in my closet. I love my jewelry.
Ezina LeBlanc:Like it started this whole thing, like all these things made me happy. And then I went to, oh, I love that I have clean water, you know, that I don't have to like walk for miles. There are so many places and countries where people have to walk a long way to go and get that clean water and they got to carry it back. You know, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can turn on my faucet and I have clean water. How wonderful, how amazing, this is great.
Ezina LeBlanc:You know, I have wonderful neighbors. How wonderful that I'm in a community of beautiful people. Like, this is great. How wonderful that I can travel the world and meet really beautiful people. This is awesome.
Ezina LeBlanc:Like, how great that my kids get to go to a cool school where they get to learn multiple languages and meet people from around the world. How awesome is that? Like, all of these things you you see where I'm going with this? Like, I I started writing all of these things down that I was so happy about. And how happy am I that I grew up in a family that we had Sunday dinner together every Sunday with the whole family from both sides, my dad's side, my mom's side.
Ezina LeBlanc:Everybody would get together. There'd be so much food. There'd be greens, collard greens and, you know, fresh made cakes and pies. You know, dad loved to fish. So there would always be like some fresh fish and there'd be, you know, a certain time of the year, there'd be gumbo and, you know, just all of that.
Ezina LeBlanc:Like how wonderful that I got to grow up in a family like that, that had that beautiful closeness and had that beautiful community, right? And just the welcoming, like my grandmother loved to cook. So there would be, the whole neighborhood would come over and she would feed everybody and it would be a wonderful time and people would be watching TV and they'd be dancing and outside, you know, and it was just always a party at grandma's house every Sunday. And she's passed on now, but how wonderful that I got to experience that beauty of community and how beautiful that I got to learn how to make all those soul food dishes. I don't cook them as much now, but just how wonderful.
Ezina LeBlanc:And so think about your family dynamic too, you know, eating together with your family and, family gatherings and birthdays and anniversaries and baby showers and funerals and just all the gatherings, like all those beautiful happy times, focus on all of that when you're putting your happiness list together because all of that is beautiful and all of it contributes to your happiness. Even your memories, your beautiful memories contribute to your happiness. That you can look back on your childhood with fondness, that you can look at going through college, the opportunities you had to even go to college, whether you went on scholarship or you had to get loans or you had help from a family member, like, oh my gosh, what a blessing. What a blessing to be educated. What a blessing to have the opportunity.
Ezina LeBlanc:What a blessing. You got to pick your university. You got to pick where you went to school. You got to pick your subject. You got to graduate.
Ezina LeBlanc:Many of you in this community with honors. You guys got those chords. So, you know, so many beautiful, beautiful blessings. And then you went from there to corporate America where you were shining like a diamond and you were going up the corporate ladder or starting your own business and just all the joy and happiness with that as well. And so no matter where you are today in your journey, let's focus on the happiness.
Ezina LeBlanc:Let's focus on all of the joy that you have in your life and how much more joy and happiness you can bring into your life. Yes, we're grateful. We're so grateful. God is so good all the time. And we are so grateful for all the many blessings and for all of the people who have helped us to get to today.
Ezina LeBlanc:And yes, we want to focus on that gratitude, but we also want to focus on listing all of the happy things, the things that we're happy about, the things that bring us joy. Because what do we want? We want more happiness. We want as much happiness as possible. So I'm going to leave you with that today.
Ezina LeBlanc:I love you all. Have a wonderful, beautiful day. I am so happy that you're here. I am so happy that you're in my community. I am so happy that you chose me as your guide, and I look forward to connecting with you all soon.
Ezina LeBlanc:Until next time, Satnam.