This is one of my favorite practices to do, especially at this time of year, during the winter season. In fact, I always incorporate it into my annual Nourish the Flame: From Resolutions to Results because it makes such a synergistic contribution to the practices and tools I share.
My wish for you, as we move into the New Year, is vision and sustainability. This little practice might do the trick
Please tell me what happens after you have tried this for 1 day. And it’s not too late to register for Nourish the Flame. If you are coming, do go ahead and begin this water exercise today and support your qi field to maximize the benefits of what we will be doing together on Dec. 30.
“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.
On an energetic level, stress is actually stagnant chi. When things pile up in our lives and in our psyches, we either become exhausted and depressed, or hyper and driven, or some combination. When you can access a sense of spaciousness, regardless of how busy you are, your chi will move freely and bring about transformation. — The Way of Joy
A lot 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, yoga, Alexander Technique, Feldenkreis or automatic writing, moving Chi Kung 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.
What kinds of changes do you feel when you become centered in the face of stress?
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.
Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change. — Wayne Dyer
Sometimes it feels like coping with a technologically developing culture can create as much difficulty as it does convenience. When you feel frustrated by things “beyond your control,” I believe it is always a good idea to come back to your breath.
In Taoism we are all seen as manifestations of divine breath. With my students of The Way of Joy, I talk about how when we actively inspire (draw in breath), we are more easily able to connect to our larger vision and, in so doing, experience a personal connection to the divine or the cosmos.
If you are willing to take the time for even 1 -3 long slow breaths before reacting to something that is happening in your life that you don’t want, you are far more likely to be able to shift your knee-jerk reactions into a response that is open and empowered. This indeed has the capacity to change how you experience what is happening.
This is one of my favorite practices to do, especially at this time of year, during the winter season. In fact, I always incorporate it into my annual Nourish the Flame: From Resolutions to Results because it makes such a synergistic contribution to the practices and tools I share.
