Joy is a state of being that relishes our full range, the open embrace of all that life brings us, those moments of deep feeling when we know, and can sense, that we are truly alive. This is our birthright. —The Way of Joy
Many people have asked me what I mean when I say I teach the Way of Joy. So I thought I’d “out” myself and the ideas lying beneath this integrative method to access vitality, presence and power.
I think of joy as a limitless wellspring: the more you use it, the more there is to use. Self-replenishing, like a spring bubbling up from its source, it can pervade our lives, our sense of purpose, our place in the world, just as water moves from springs to creeks to rivers into the ocean.
I believe that this limitless wellspring is always available to us for inspiration, creation, and motivation. I believe joy lives in our essence, our chi (life force), in the space and in the very particles of aliveness that unite all living beings and that it is expressed differently through the uniqueness of each one.
Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, is a teacher, speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to increase awareness, transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
Whether or not you can see signs of Spring yet in the area where you live, Nature has begun to move us forward into this next season.
Although many people associate Spring with light-hearted images of young love and butterflies, Spring is also a time of “emergenc-y,” where your life force — as well as any suppressed feelings or intentions — may come out in unexpected and potent ways. Signs of budding energy emerge in our bodies and spirits as Nature begins to show signs of birthing.
In my book, The Way of Joy, there is a concept, Circles Open into Spirals, which looks at how the Natural World, and we as humans, evolve through an unending cycle of life, death, and rebirth. For me, perhaps because I was born in the Spring, there is no time when these cycles are more evident than during this time of year. Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, on a purely physical plane our actual bodies are born, live, then die and return to the earth as compost, which is in itself the source for new life.
Given that this is a time to water the seeds of what you have planted, how will you nurture and tend to what is growing in you or may even be clamoring to Burst Forth?
Because the Dragon year holds the energy of growth, change, innovation and leadership, this is a fantastic time to consider how you are growing, changing, innovating and leading in both your personal life and in the ways you contribute to your greater community and the world. Bigger than life, the Dragon is traditionally considered to be a symbol of good fortune with an enterprising, independent, and ambitious spirit.
Water has a calming influence on Dragon so s/he is a little less bombastic and overbearing than the other elements. More perceptive, empathic, and able to “go with the flow,” the Water Dragon is able to take leadership by working with others in teams and fostering cooperation and creative exchange.
2012 is a time of transformation. Because water feeds the wood element within the Five Element cycle, and wood, the home element of the Dragon, signifies the growth of spring, this is a great time to focus on what you want to grow and transform in the months ahead. It’s time to think out of the box! After all the dragon, so huge, you can’t see its head and tail at the same time, would never fit in that box anyway.
What innovative vision will you carry as you ride the back of the Water Dragon in the year to come?
Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, is a teacher, speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to increase awareness, transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy: An Evolutionary Process to Awaken Inspiration, Focus Intention and Manifest Fulfillment, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
Do you ever have days when you find yourself railing against things that Just Don’t Feel Fair? —where it feels like the universe is conspiring in a Job-like way to keep you from doing what you want to do? How can you follow your passion when you hit the roadblocks, the nay-sayers or the voices of self-doubt that appear to drag you down? In fact, is all that appears to be bad really bad?
In an earlier blog, I spoke about The Law of Attraction and how, for me, the most interesting work is to hold the stance of accepting, even welcoming, all that happens as food for spiritual/personal growth and development.
I want to be very clear that when I say to accept what’s going on, I don’t mean submit or “there’s nothing you can do to change things so just buck up and deal with it.” For many people the idea of acceptance is so connected to submitting or enduring that they believe the choice to “accept” would result in even fewer choices than they already have.
But I mean something very different.
I’m talking about avoiding a pitfall, the trap of keeping your focus on what should be and so losing sight of opportunities embedded in what is. Focusing on “what is,” rather than on something more “ideal,” makes you better able to make clear choices about how you want to relate to a situation rather than getting stuck in a self-defeating, powerless state of “it is not supposed to be that way” or “it’s just not fair.”
When have you seen an undesired situation transform from a challenge into something that ended up being a gift?
Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, is a teacher, speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to increase awareness, transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy: An Evolutionary Process to Awaken Inspiration, Focus Intention and Manifest Fulfillment, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
I’ve always loved Halloween, learning who are today’s heroes and villains and what triggers the imagination of little kids as they march door to door in happy anticipation of the sugar high to come Halloween night. I also enjoy seeing what costumes adults choose to express themselves when given a chance, as I saw this weekend when I hosted a booth at a Healing Arts fair which included a costume competition.
I often think that we are all actually wearing costumes all the time. Or as one beloved friend, (now deceased), a political drag queen named Tede Matthews, once said, “We are all born naked. Everything after that is ‘drag.’”
I think many people think of who they are as somehow fixed, unchangeable, a result of different circumstances that have happened to them over their lives. Or, as scientist Bruce Lipton describes, they mistakenly believe that they are simply victims of their own genetics, with no real choices along the way. For example, have you ever heard someone get so attached to their own irritability, impatience or defensiveness that they explain it away as simply being “just how they are” or “born that way”?
I actually believe we make choices all the time that influence and affect who we are. What costume, or the aspect of your personality—humorous or serious, will you be wearing this week, including and beyond Halloween?
Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness program, is a teacher, speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to increase awareness, transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy: An Evolutionary Process to Awaken Inspiration, Focus Intention and Manifest Fulfillment, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
While I was videotaping this vlog in my garden this afternoon, eight squirrels crossed my path, jaws bulging with nuts. One after another, they stopped to sit up on their haunches, and look at me inquisitively, as if to ask “why aren’t you taking care of the business of storing energy for the winter ahead?” Each little animal gifted me with eye contact, a moment of presence. I found myself slowing down, sometimes with a burst of laughter, and always with a sense that these interactions were a precious teaching. Then I would start my video over again.
These moments of what Eckart Tolle calls the Power of Now, of being present with “what is,” feel incredibly valuable to me. So often people tell me they feel so overwhelmed by their lives, whether from an overabundance of “to-do’s” or from a sense of exhaustion, that they feel like life is passing them by. I have certainly experienced both sides of that equation. Either way, the experience is stressful and certainly not an optimal way to live.
I believe that anytime you are able to relax your attention, focus on your breath, lengthen your spine, and take a moment to slow down enough to become present, you are entering a “qigong” state of being that has the capacity of transforming stuck energy into a flow that can serve you much better.
What are some of the ways you reclaim your birthright of being a “baby Buddha”?
Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness program, is a teacher, speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to increase awareness, transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy: An Evolutionary Process to Awaken Inspiration, Focus Intention and Manifest Fulfillment, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
