Art of Joy

Discovering Joy: An Introduction
1 Day

In this introductory workshop, we will explore:

What is joy: The neuroscience, biology, chemicals & hormones of joy (and sorrow). The environment of joy – which environments to cultivate to promote joy, and joy-killing environments to avoid or change.

Cultivating joy: Setting up your physical environment to promote joy, and how to set up your internal environment to promote joy. How to create the four happy hormones – serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin in your body. Developing physical awareness, to recognise states as they change.

Retrieving joy: What to do when the stress hormone cortisol takes over.
Gut health and the four exercises to create happy hormones every time. How to begin to redirect your neural pathways away from negativity and towards positive change. How to make time when you have no time. How to take your main prejudices and blocks and begin to turn your attention to their opposites. Four games to trick the mind into changing its outlook. 

Sparking Joy: Level 1
2 Days

Practicing Joy: Now you know and have implemented the basics of joy, it’s time to go deeper, creating a more lasting practice of joy. Over the two days we explore the law of attraction, and how to create more room for joy in your life. We also explore the giving and sharing of joy; four simple ways to create joy in others, and how that brings joy back to you, amplified. 

Optimising for joy: How to use nature for joy in all seasons, including dark, wet winter. Harnessing your body for joy: developing positive body awareness, learning how to move through nature like a hunter-gatherer, tricking your brain into the optimum human state. The creation of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor – the building block of neuroplasticity) and how to cultivate connections in your brain and nervous system. How to use rest and repose – non sleep deep relaxation (NSDR) as a regular nervous system reboot. Working with the breath & movement to develop emotional states, and finding your heavens on earth.

Joyful connection: Connection with yourself; understanding emotions and how they relate to the outside world. Connection with others; four ways to develop the happy hormones with others while staying safe. Connection to the divine; how indigenous cultures have always harnessed these methods for healing, and four easy ways to start this in your own busy life.

Reigniting Joy: Level 2
2 Days

Developing courage: Emotions are dynamic – having discovered joy, how do you re-ignite it when times get tough? This workshop will look at dissolving the barriers to joy, and what to do when it turns out that you might (a little bit) be your own barrier. Working through barriers to joy, and how to work with your mind and body in ways that lead to positive change, in time. The way out is often through – but how do you get “through” to end eventually? Does time alone heal all wounds, or is there something else we need to be doing? Putting emotions into context and transforming pain into power.

Healthy relationship with ourselves: Developing positive interoception (feel) to understand the way into and out of states as you move through them. Treating yourself as a friend, with the ready forgiveness and acceptance you may give to your friends but not, perhaps, to yourself. Silencing the inner critic, allowing yourself to harness your desire to do your best while shedding the toxicity of perfectionism and the need for control. Toxic relationships and how to transform or avoid them, starting with ourselves; what drives our least-favourite behaviours, and how can we change them? Four tools to recognize and cultivate better self-relationship and self-care without shame.

Healthy relationship with others:
Understanding the impact of coherence & flow – developing practices to heal ourselves and support others. Understanding the difference between escapes and authentic change. Letting go, gracefully – how to identify harmful situations, leave them, and avoid them in the future. Finally, healing the inner child through four visualization techniques. We will also explore the role of and potential for play, exploring ways to integrate behaviours that produce serotonin, oxytocin, and BDNF in daily life.

Nurturing & Sharing Joy: Level 3
2 Days

Developing authenticity: Having developed a process for clearing barriers to joy, we explore ways to transform what seem to be real obstacles into yet more tools and superpowers, harnessing a new set of techniques to open our hearts and minds further, and developing greater freedom and new paths to follow in our lives. Learning to find delight through missteps, mistakes & wrong roads taken, reinforcing your reserves of joy.

Embodied connection: How can you offer good support to others in their search for joy? And what does it feel like to accept help, as well as to develop your own resilience? What is it that makes people resilient, and how do they stay connected to the world? Harnessing the properties of cerebral spinal fluid to unlock wellbeing, as well as working with the chakras & frontal vagus nerve both alone and with a partner to explore and shift long-held tensions. Exploring the role of sacral rocking for developing physical, mental and social comfort through the release of oxytocin, serotonin, vasopressin and testosterone. Developing sensitivity and attunement to others, understanding co-regulation and supporting others to move through emotional states – as well as knowing your own “way home”.

Spiritual connection: Exploring practices to find your own spiritual way – developing joyful processes and flow states. Discovering how brain wave states relate to joy and how to work with them to amplify joy on a daily basis, even in chaos. Developing a spiritual approach in line with ancient practices, not as an escape or an avoidance, but as a lens for understanding the world around us – integrated with evidence based practices for expanding joy in daily life.