The season of Winter calls on the wisdom of the Water element, in its myriad of forms from raging rivers to delicate crystalline snowflakes. In the same way, you can cultivate your ability to adapt and flow as you move into the hush of the season.
Associated in Traditional Chinese Medicine with the kidneys, winter is the season to nourish and support this important organ, which regulates and balances water and fluids in your body.
The seat of the adrenal glands, which produce the fight / flight response, the kidneys are associated with the emotion of fear. Whether that fear has to do with growing fully into your own power or wrestling with your “inner critics” or external challenges, this is a perfect time of year to turn and face those voices, while keeping the inner flame of your consciousness alight to sustain your vision of where you want to go.
For me, while I’ve been thrilled to see registrations literally pouring in for my upcoming New Year’s event, it’s been vital to not get bogged down by old fears. So many participants from last year’s Nourish the Flame: From Resolutions to Results have contacted me recently to re-register and report the amazing things they manifested this past year as a result of their experience in that one short afternoon. Powerful stuff! Ironically, as I take in the impact of what they report, I find myself facing my same old fears. So time to nourish my kidneys, get over it and get On with it.
SAVE THE DATE! DEC 29 Nourish the Flame: A FREE Winter Workshop to Transform Ideas into Reality and Resolutions into Results. Bring in the Joy for 2014!
“Renegade-Woo” Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, brings together East Coast Attitude and West Coast energy consciousness as a master teacher, transformative 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 transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think as I type the title above, which is a quote by Fritz Perls. And I know that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, (Franklin D Roosevelt) at least in my mind. But when my demons are clattering at me, I forget that I have the option to invite them in, as the wise monk did in an old Tibetan Buddhist tale, to tea.
I guess it’s inevitable that as I prep my upcoming event to Turn your Ideas into Reality and New Year’s Resolutions into Results, that I need to face all the ways I get scared that I’m not up to the task of delivering these potent tools well, despite past successes and testimonials.
What helps me spiral out of those old tired doubts is the absolute commitment I have to passing forward this potent information to people who will use it well. Well — that and, of course, embodying it All with qigong.
SAVE THE DATE! DEC 29 Nourish the Flame: A Winter Workshop to Transform Ideas into Reality and Resolutions into Results. Bring in the Joy for 2014!
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. On-line videos you can use to supercharge your energy in less than 4 minutes a day: From Muck to Mastery.
Whenever you make the choice to really own your power, things inevitably bubble up from below the surface. If you can accept that everything that happens is actually essential to the fulfillment of your potential, you’ll have more capacity to trust your process and be in your power…This, then, is the essence of the Practice Allow Alchemy—letting there be space for any and all fear, doubt, or anxiety and then learning to transform that energy. —Way of Joy
Do you ever experience that tiresome, worn-out mindset that to quote the White Rabbit “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!”?
With summer ending and autumn in the air, I have been feeling that sharpened pencil, gotta-get-going, one-more-thing-itis — where no matter how much I accomplish, there always seems to be one more thing to do. It’s actually ok with me that I ask a lot of myself, but I would like the rush to be carried on a wave of joy instead of dragged along by that tiresome same ol’, same ol’ harangue about my flaws.
Vicki Dello Joio, founder ofThe 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.
“I believe every time we make a fundamental shift of consciousness that opens a circle into a spiral, we face a kind of death. Sensing this impending death, we move through a period of fear, facing our demons. Like gargoyles, these demons are the protectors of the gates of transition.” The Way of Joy(excerpt)
As a kid, I grew up with some heavy-hitters from the arts world hanging out in my family’s living room. The classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz (Volodya to friends) played the piano in the living room of our summer house when he was too nervous to go home during a thunderstorm; Frank Loesser, humorist extraordinaire and composer/lyricist of shows like Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying, used to try to convince my younger brothers and me to chop up my composer father’s piano with a hatchet; and Martha Graham listened to my young dreams to become an actress and looked directly into my eyes and told me I must always follow my dreams.
I think that one of the most important things I learned from being around these “big names” in my daily life was that being a star does not mean being protected from our inner demons. I learned very quickly that uncertainty, those nagging inner nay-sayers and crazy-makers, are a companions in our life’s journeys with our successes as much as our failures.
One of my treasured friends, the brilliant playwright, theater performer, and teacher, Jean-Claude van Itallie, once told a story in an improv class that I absolutely loved. It is about Milarepa, the great Tibetan hermit, singer, teacher who, it’s been said, lived a thousand years ago.
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.
When you Embrace Wholeness (Tao), you move into a state of wisdom—fully present with all-that-is—without falling into the trap of polarities—good/bad, doing/being, expanding/contracting, etc…The Observer Self provides the key that opens us to that larger vision, creating a personal connection to the cosmos. —The Way of Joy
Have you ever felt joy in your heart at the very same time you had tears in your eyes? This might have happened during times of great joy—such as seeing a new-born baby—or times of profound sorrow, such as saying a final goodbye to a person or animal companion when you are acutely aware of the deep love you have shared at the same time you feel struck down with grief and loss.
I believe with all of my heart that it is only when we truly embrace the whole of our experience, we are able to live our lives with presence and power
When have you found yourself enriched by embracing a polarity in your life?
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.
The season of Winter calls on the wisdom of the Water element, in its myriad of forms from raging rivers to delicate crystalline snowflakes. In the same way, you can cultivate your ability to adapt and flow as you move into the hush of the season.
