Dear Joyous Resilience Community,

I have spent some time this month thinking of you, and in lieu of a live book signing during COVID, and as the Joyous Resilience book comes out today, getting so much joy from writing surprise notes of love and resilience : ) in each book for readers wanting a signed copy (thank you for your love and support). And, recording these 9 Joyous Resilience meditations that you can access immediately as a complimentary offering for your self-care/resilience tool kit, as we prepare for the year ahead.

As we emerge into 2021, like many of us, I am aware of the need for cultivating a crucial resilience skill: the ability to feel and hold contradictions in our individual and collective healing journeys. We might be finding ourselves at a time where there is an expectation and even a desire to set new goals and intentions and to start afresh. Yet, we are met with the knowing that our lives continue to require being with uncertainty, waiting rather than surging forward, and the work of grieving amidst hope and change.

Collectively, it is the same, we might be buoyed by the feeling of  hope and the potential for important change in our collective communities, specially here in the US, in the wake of the elections and the vaccine. And, starkly aware of the immense, ongoing burdens of the pandemic, systemic racism, economic inequity and climate change, that are a source of immense suffering, and that will require short and long term, intentional and rigorous action.

Allowing ourselves to feel multiple experiences at once, rather than trying to reduce our feelings to a binary; right or wrong, good or bad, happy or sad, hopeful or critical, causes much unnecessary suffering. Joyous Resilience is the art of allowing ourselves to be exactly where are, and knowing that will often involve varied and contradictory feelings. Learning to care for ourselves in this way is the crux of the Joyous Resilience book, which is out today and available for purchase worldwide here!
                   
          Guided Meditations from the Joyous Resilience Book*

To share in the celebration, and as a gift of care during this year of change and uncertainty, i have recorded 9 Guided Meditations from the book for you. Each meditation can be used alone, or you may go through them at your own pace sequentially, to cultivate your inner resilience. They are meant to be used as often as you like, and some may become a part of your daily practice or self-care tool kit

You do not need to be reading the book to make use of the  meditations, though the content in book will add greatly to the journey.

If you are reading the book, thank you! I am so glad to join you in this journey
If you have not purchased the book, you may do so here, or simply enjoy the meditations on their own. For folks interested in signed copies, with a special resilience love note inscribed, you may purchase at my local, independent bookstore here. For some great online events and conversations on joy and resilience, join me on Feb 26th at CIIS here or on Mar 6th at Eastwind books here (events are free or by donation).
         
    These meditations are offered as a complimentary gift from my heart to yours <3
 
9 Joyous Resilience Meditations that provide a foundation for getting grounded, nurturing yourself, feeling safe and protected, listening to your soulful wisdom, and connecting with creativity, play and pleasure! Listen to them at your own pace, return to them as much as you need, and may they become a part of your daily self-care tool kit.*

Body Mind Relaxation
Your Safe Space
Inner Nurturer
Boundary Setting
Inner Protector
Soul Self: The Light Within
Your Soul Self: Cave of the Heart
Self Care & Nurturance
Creativity, Play, Pleasure (Archetypal/Sensory) - YouTube vlog
And a bonus Joy Meditation!

*Loving the meditations and want to share them with others? Feel free to forward this newsletter to loved ones, clients, and fellow healers, so folks can subscribe through the links or directly through my website: anjulisherinmft.com. These are copyrighted and not meant for personal distribution. 

May the book and guided meditations be a  ​​​​source of much joy and healing in your lives.
​​ 
With much love,
Anjuli

​It's midsummer in the Western Hemisphere, a pivotal marker since ancient times of the turning of the turning of the wheel of the year, at the time of longest light. Amidst the work day responsibilities, the daily rituals, the creating and producing, a time to pause and give thanks and refuel resilience through a celebration of life through all of our senses.

We have been taught to look outside ourselves for joy and fulfillment. To fix ourselves rather than to be restored and transformed. To believe someone else has the answers, rather than to connect with the guidance of our body and it's innate desire to move towards what feels good. We have been given quick highs that create sharp lows, in place of sustained, nourishing fulfillment. Not so very long ago, our ancestors, were connected to innate ways of finding meaning, connecting with joy, moving through hardships and stress, in communal, creative and celebratory ways.
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​Food was not just a fuel for bodies, it was a grown, harvested and brought to the table in reverence that was expressed through slowing down, taking in the pleasure of taste, and the gift of the season and the grace of the Earth. It was eaten together, and followed at times with song, story, crafting, dance, firelight and friendship, with loving laps or gnarled hands braiding hair, offering touch, or the warm presence of home animals, all leavening the hard day's work, the tribulations of the time, the stressors of the unknown. All providing natural ways of returning to laughter, contentment, expression, meaning making, upliftment, connection and hope, so necessary for the soul.

There was time and space, literal, to look at the horizon daily and see it's vastness. To marvel at the colors of a sunset, to recognize the beauty of birdsong, to lay back and open to awe under the brilliance of stars. To find some way to feel a part of the larger universe through feeling connected to the cycles of sun and moon, the planting and harvest, the light and dark at play all around and inside us. 

Experiencing the world through taste, sight, sound, touch, scent and allowing ourselves meaningful time each day to connect with pleasure, play, fun and creativity are necessary remedies of the soul. They are also in our own hands, in our power, to create and enrich our lives with. They belong to no one culture, and certainly no profession or academia. They belong to the rich, wise traditions, housed in our bodies, imbued with the best of our heritage which when tapped into intentionally, contain the way back to our most resilient self.

May this midsummer meditation (in video) provide you with the very reminders and resources you need to fill this summer and all the days ahead with the sensory play and pleasure that is a return to your wise and resilient self.

​What are your favorite ways to restore and reset your energy in summertime that involve your senses?
What does summer taste like? Ice cream, watermelon, peaches, sweet tea? 
What does summer smell like? Tang of sea air, fresh cut grass, jasmine in the sultry night air, hot pavement?
What does summer sound like? Outdoor music, summer thunderstorms, crashing of waves, laughter at barbeques
What does summer touch/move like? swimming, biking, digging, weeding, dancing
What does summer look like? Whether you had these experiences or its your first time. What would you create this summer if you were to use it to replenish yourself through the senses. 
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Share with us your resilience play and pleasure in comments below.

Let's play ourselves whole again and use our joy to reengage with purpose in the world.
With much love and midsummer blessings,

Anjuli

 One of the things I have been fascinated with as a Resilience & Joy Focused practitioner, are the hidden costs of living in a technologically focused age with all of it’s “time saving” and “efficient” devices that have been taking over tasks that humans engaged in by hand over centuries. While, many of these technological advancements have provided enormous benefits in every arena of life, they have also inadvertently relegated to the ‘lost’ pile, certain vital mental, physical and relational benefits and most importantly the satisfaction that joy that can only be derived from living a hands-on life. ​

Hello Loves, 

​Everywhere i go in the bay area, I find myself drawn to those glorious yellow wild flowers-brave banners of spring-heralding new life to come. Full disclosure: I am a sucker for spring and her magic. I don't quite know how nature does it, but no matter how far stuck in our urban, computer driven lives we get, that rising sap in the trees, the rising light and heat, & the little yellow flower that will push it's way through the tiniest crack in the most hardened concrete street, also swells up & pushes through the most disheartened of hearts.  Born of a forgotten seed called hope. A little yellow flower named dream.  

And gosh, is that flower pushing up everywhere. Inside my heart and that of my friends and clients. It looks like wanting to start to exercise again, or wanting to dust off that dream to start a side business, to go after a promotion, or think about having a baby, or that most spring like of urges-to open to dating and love again. At times, it's more akin to having a good weed whacking party-from the iconic physical space decluttering, to wanting to make space for grief, clearing undercurrents of anger, or getting under a stubborn despondency that just hasn't gone away. Or, even harder to pinpoint, but so valid-it can look like an urge to stop doing so much and finally stop and rest in what is. 

​It's not about the goals-your particular band of flower growing or weed clearing-it's more about alerting you to these urges that are rising and inviting you not to trample these flowers. It's about how you respond to that tiny voice inside you that is urging you to open this spring-and find out exactly what kind of dream is budding inside.

​Diagnosing Your Spring Fever-So if your spring fever looks like restlessness, like wanting to day dream more or go outside, like feeling like something is missing, feeling bored or sad or lonely. Before you label these emotions, as we have been used to being labeled since we were young, as unfocused, depressed, distracted or ungrateful-it might be worthwhile to actually think of them as a start to a wonderful conversation. 

​Same goes for the  more tangible desires-that persistent idea that keeps nagging you, that goal you keep putting to the bottom of your list with a sigh, that vacation you keep hearing about but never allowed yourself to have, those jobs you keep meaning to apply to, that fun activity that just needs to be put on a calendar.

​How to Handle It? Now that you know that you have the signs, and that spring fever is a hopeful condition. Next, it's time for the conversation.

Rules of Engagement? Get Grounded & Present.
Get Kind, Curious, And Open. That means no shutting down what this part has to say just because you are not sure how to make it happen.

Ask-where do I feel this urge in my body? Put your hand there.
If it could speak what would it say? Trust the first things that come.
Ask it what it's afraid of or upset about? Let it get all of that fear & upset out.
Ask That Part, what it wants? Let it get all that want out.
Ask That Part, Is there anything I can do now to help you? Listen. See if you can meet it.
​Ask That Part, Is there anything I can do in the coming weeks to make this happen? Listen. See if you can meet it.

Make small concrete plans (putting it in calendar, booking it, making a budget for it, researching it). Tell that part, if I cannot do this, I will get help. And make a plan for getting help. 

Thank yourself for sharing your dreams.
​Thank yourself for learning how to pause and respond to those dreams.

If you have a connection with something larger than yourself; Unconditional love, the universe, light, God, Source Energy-now Is the time to surrender this to something larger and ask it to come to your assistance too. 

​Want To Be A Green Thumb Gardener Of Dreams? If this ability to get good at noticing your inner state, reducing your reactivity, and clearing your limiting beliefs is one you'd like to build, with great support from loving community, and ever greater support from a connection with the Unconditional Loving Energy of All That Is-come join us at the Spring ThetaHealing Classes, and let's do our spring cleaning together.

​And when you see those lovely spring flowers waving their bright heads your way, may your heart open to their bright promise with tenderness, and then may it open again to the sweetness of your own dreams-

Much Love,
​Anjuli