Recently, through a friend’s invitation, I attended a workshop led by Vicki Dello Joio on the uses of specific Qigong exercises to help set personal goals and intentions. Vicki is a long standing practitioner and teacher of Martial Arts, a performance artist and a very open person who I enjoyed meeting and learning from.
I purchased Vicki’s book called The Way of Joy and was moved by many of her ideas. I want to share one concept I found really simple and helpful and perhaps you will too.
Vicki guides the reader to observe our daily lives and pay close attention to the ways we increase, or decrease our emotional, spiritual, and physical energies. She suggests we create a chart or another way to visually document (even for a day), activities that nourish and those that deplete our energy. Vicki codes this simply as Energy In and Energy Out. Some examples of energy out may be: long rigid workdays, household chores, difficult phone conversations, driving through heavy traffic, tedious work assignments, disciplining children, caring for someone sick, etc. (most of modern life)
I think we all know the activities that relax and bring energy to us; free time, watching an inspiring movie, eating a good meal, having an interesting talk with a friend, walking in a beautiful place, dancing, hiking, playing music, etc. Many activities, of course, fall into both categories and can balance each other out.
This exercise is pretty simple to do, and I noticed that consciously practicing it has helped me create a more natural awareness of how and where my energies are moving in a given day. Please try it, play around with it and let me/ us know what you notice or what you think.
