To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love. —Eckhart Tolle
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, autumn is a time associated with the metal element, which includes the theme of letting go, grief, and coming back to core in the way of trees losing their leaves. At the same time, for many of us in Western cultures, it is a time when we are ramping up, getting back to work after summer.
Do you find you get overwhelmed with “So much stuff to do!” at the same time, you want to resist, maybe curl up and rest as the days grow shorter, nights longer?
That’s been the main repeating mutter in my brain this last week. While I absolutely love (and choose) everything I’m working on, I’ve had abundant opportunities to work on the stress of overwhelm.
So today, I decided to “practice what I teach” and take some time to remember the first of the Way of Joy Laws, Within Motion, Stillness, Within Stillness, Motion. “To experience stillness in your life does not require shutting down your senses or building a barrier to the chaos of an energetic, alive and unpredictable world. Through the power of your breath and attention, you can sustain an awareness of that inner space of quiet constancy, the peaceful Observer, while the world around you spins and twirls.” (excerpt from The Way of Joy).
This is one of my favorite methods to embed this intention in your body, to live it from the inside out.
What do you experience when you’re in that place of inner calm?
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Author and Founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, Vicki Dello Joio is a transformational speaker, life-changing workshop leader and show-stopping theater performer whose brand of brilliance is motivating people to claim their birthright of Joy.is a transformative speaker, life changing workshop leader 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 and break open a circle (repeating dysfunctional life pattern) 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. When you confront the gargoyles at the gate, you have three choices: to resist by running away and continue on the closed circle, to continue downward into an inverted spiral, or to spiral up and out. The Way of Joy
When I was writing the words above in my book, I think I was offering myself a reminder or blueprint to look at when I feel challenged. Like now.
As I have been reworking my business over the last couple of months, I have been profoundly inspired by the work of three important business mentors, Ann Evanston, Brandy Mychals and Vinca Heart. Each of these powerful teachers and mentors “walks her talk” with authenticity and grace. Each of them challenge me to dig deeper into who I am—for myself and then for my work in the world. So where does that take me? Bumping up into my own resistance and fear. Big Time.
What do you do to interrupt a negative loop?
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. Information about the BEMER
The Natural World demonstrates unending cycles of life, death and rebirth…As human beings living in that world, our lives are also cyclical and will either unfold as closed circles within which we stagnate or open to ever-widening spirals thatallow us to most fully realize our potential. —The Way of Joy
In last week’s video blog, I told the story of when I was hit by a car while walking across a street. I described how, often around the anniversary of that “kick-in-the-butt for change” event, I experience a visceral sense of anxiety or stress without recognizing why. It takes a moment for my mind to remember what my body is already processing.
There is a concept in the Way of Joy I call Circles Open into Spirals. Whether conscious or unconscious, we make continual choices about whether to repeat old patterns of self-defeat and victimization or to grow and become more fully realized. When we recognize our lives as cyclical rather than linear, we can observe our patterns as we would observe nature, without judgment, blame, and shame. This leads to a new level of understanding that can open the door to creative problem-solving.
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. Information about the BEMER
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.
Have you ever felt like you were so focused on Getting-Things-Done that you forgot you were in a body? You know, those times when you’re pushing like crazy or succumbing to the temptation of “one-more-thing-itis”?
Too often, the consequence of my brain speeding ahead of my physical body is that something’s gonna take a bite “out of my hide.” That’s sure what happened to me last night. Literally.
I was speeding along, in a pretty good mood, getting ready to walk my dog before running over to pick up one of my sister cast members, to go to the theater in Berkeley where we were performing a show with our theater company, Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble. I was Jazzed— freshly showered, make up on, hair gelled (Yes, sisters, that is a Big Deal for someone who is essentially kind of a nature-grrl who loves soft comfortable clothes and is not real big on mirrors).
Anyway, I was getting something out of my car and being careful not to hit my little dog’s head with the car door and, instead, slammed it right on my thumb. The next 2 seconds took about 3 hours, where my head said, “err, why can’t you move your hand…OMG…it’s jammed in the car door! (And Finally) OPEN THE D**N DOOR!”
What happened after is kind of a blur as I went into major coping mode. I gotta say that I received enormous support from my Playback Theater family (heart-filled shout outs especially to Allison, Roni, Merry, Gina, and John) including love, sympathy and even some Reiki, I also managed to bring my portable BEMER—(a pulsed bio-electro-magnetic energy regulator that is an Awesome healing device) So I got through the show and even had serious fun making people laugh or cry with the stories we enacted.
Today, as I type through the throb, I’m remembering that if, instead of saying “yeah yeah yeah later” when my body is yelling “slow down Just a little—take a moment, Vicki,” I could actually take a moment to breathe and open some inner space, it might help when I am feeling running late, over-extended or just plain crazed. I might not only avoid this kind of accident, I might even discover that I can slow time down.
So in the spirit of opening space in time, I would like to share this “Space Shake” Way of Joy practice. Shaking is a common Qigong exercise that spans many different styles. The benefits are enormous including increasing your blood flow, supporting your joints, building cartilage, and relaxing your brain.
Shake loose tension and open space in your body, heart, mind, and spirit. Brush away any energy or thoughts that interrupt your well-being. You can even place your hands on your belly and give those inner organs a little shake to stimulate their functionality.
One of my teachers, Daisy Lee, once told me that she knows a 100 year old woman qigong practitioner in China, who attributes her health and longevity to shaking for 20 minutes a day. So would you be willing to try this “space shake” with me for just 1 minute? Just stand up, or even do it as you sit at your computer? You don’t need to follow my timing, just shake it awake!
(Music: Shake It Awake: Mambo by Sherry Mouser)
When you’re done, place your hands on your belly for a moment and notice whatever you might notice…
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.
