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?
Although I believe that this time of year can be hard for many people for many reasons, I was surprised to discover how relatively few articles there are offering tips to reduce stress at this time of year. So I laughed out loud when I saw a comment somewhere on-line that said “Want to avoid Christmas stress? Stay Jewish.”
For me, growing up with one parent who was Jewish, the other Catholic, Christmas won. That is, my family decorated a tree, left cookies for Santa and inevitably had some kind of painful fight before the day was done.
By the time I left home, I’d had it with Christmas. I just didn’t like the various pressures, the crazy-making swing between expectations and disappointments, the invisibility of the Jewish part of my heritage, and the general atmosphere of not-enough-ness — not enough presents, money spent, love connections, laughter, and well, Joy.
So when a dear Native American friend told me that she found it odd that the dominant culture here held a “give away” (gift exchange) during a season when the natural world was pared down to its least abundance, I began to think about what this season of Winter Solstice, the day that are more hours of night than sunlight, might hold for me, I began to align with what the true gift of this season might hold for me.
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.
Despite encountering many of the mind power techniques out there in the market of self help and inner growth, I admit freely that there are still times I come face to face with my own anxiety, self-doubts, or inner resistance. To be blatantly honest. my first instinct is to open the refrigerator or look on-line for something (preferably shallow) to distract myself from painful feelings. Or maybe I’ll pop in a dvd or watch an online streaming movie to focus on other people’s problems for a change.
These are times I seem to forget how much I love qigong, meditation, stretching, hiking in Nature and other activities that pivot me from inertia to a zest for life. While I was writing my book, The Way of Joy, I realized that, in part, I was creating a manual I could go to when I felt stuck. I wanted a reminder of how to access some of those tried and true, “kitchen-tested” tools that really workto shift me out of an outlook and/or activity that actually drains my energy. One of my favorite themes in my work is I call the uses and misuses of resistance.
In other words how can we Drop Dread and Flow Instead?
What images or memories help you to shift out of feeling stuck or resistant? I’d love to know so comment below!
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.
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Maybe taking a deep breath isn't such a bad idea...
Do you get annoyed when someone reminds you to breathe? Does it sometimes feel like your stress is the only thing that is keeping you together? Sometimes, I think that our lives are so hectic that we end up panting even when we are not running.
Much has been written about the health benefits of meditation, particularly in the area of stress reduction. I believe that, on an energetic level, any practices that create an internal opening—whether they be sitting meditation or automatic writing, moving Chi Kung, yoga, or prayer—create a sense of space, both in the psychological sense of “taking space” and physically inside of the very cells of our bodies, because as we breathe deeply, we oxygenate our blood. We can then open up the energy bound up in stress and transform it into something that can serve us instead of drain us.
Do you ever find that with a single mindful breath, you find life begins to flow again, regardless of how fast things seem to be going?
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.
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.
