Five ideas for how to embrace our INNER JOY

co-created with Elisabeth Budenz

Elisabeth and I are running a Yoga & Thai Massage retreat in Spain together this year. The theme will be The Summer Dance, and awaking our innate Joy. When we started to post about this retreat on Facebook, we came up with a little bit of fun, and put together these five ideas for how to ignite the spark of that special summer energy. 

Idea 1: Dance!

Dancing is fun and relaxes. Moving body and mind helps to let go of tension. And just like that, we create joy in our being. :)
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Put on your favourite music, turn up the volume and DANCE (jump, swirl, shake) :) :) :) for as long as you want :) Afterwards, take a few moments and notice how the body is doing and enjoy the feeling!

Idea 2: Eat ice cream!

Ice cream, no matter where you eat it, instantly gives you that holiday-feeling. We associate it with sunshine, lazy afternoons, joyful moments and being ever so slightly naughty.

Do you have an organic ice cream shop in town? Why not go there for a special treat. Or you can make your own vegan version with coconut cream, avocados, and any fruit you like. Delicious :)

Idea 3: Laugh with friends!

Laughter is the best medicine. The increase in endorphin levels promotes a general sense of well-being. Laughing exercises muscles, gets the blood flowing, decreases blood pressure and stress hormones, improves sleep patterns and boosts the immune system - how cool is that!?! And it’s so much fun and fills our hearts with joy :)
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Pick up the phone and call your best (or finniest) friend and arrange a date. Maybe go and see a comedy at the cinema, or just go out and laugh about nothing. Hehehe.

Idea 4: Early morning sun!

The sun is rising earlier and earlier every morning now. That first dawn is a precious time of the day, before the noise, before everybody speeds up, before any interactions. Everything is calm. The air is deliciously fresh, before the sun begins to warm the day.
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Get up really early one of these days, maybe on a day you know the weather forecast promises a clear sky. And go out for a morning-walk. Tune into the calmness, notice how nature is waking up around you, take deep breaths, enjoy these precious moments. A walking meditation.

Idea 5: Heart meditation!

The heart is the centre of love, compassion, respect and joy….. Here is how you can open your heart and let it shine:

• Sit in a comfortable position with a long but relaxed spine (you can sit on a chair or on a cushion on the floor), put your right hand into you left, and rest your hands in your lap (or add a cushion to help relax the shoulders more, and close your eyes.
  
• Take a few deep breaths, and with every exhalation let your eyes relax a little more. Feel how your eyes are sinking deeper into your eye sockets.
  
• Relax your tongue inside your mouth. Relax the whole face.
  
• Image, you meet a kind person, who smiles at you, or maybe you see something beautiful. Collect this smile and this beauty with your eyes.
  
• Let this smile spread across your own face. (Feel how this smile relaxes your jaw.)
  
• Now send this smiling energy down your throat all the way to the chest, and a tiny bit over to the left side.
  
• Let this smile enter your heart. Feel how your heart blossoms, how it fills with joy, and how it sends this joy to all your other organs with every heartbeat. Feel how your heart opens and relaxes. And feel how this joy spreads through your whole body.
  

The Summer Dance: A Yoga & Thai Massage holiday in Andalusia with me and Elisabeth Budenz. Join us at the beautiful Pura Natura, 18-24 August 2019. Click here for all the details!

​Our SUPER EARLY BIRD ends 18 April!! You can save 155€!! Kindly share with anyone you think might enjoy our retreat.
Love & light
Elisabeth & Katrin