Kintsugi (pronounced-keen tau gee) is the Japanese art of golden repair. When growing up, I oftentimes broke a cup or plate while trying to help set the dinner table. If a mechanical thing broke apart, I’d figure out how it worked and put it back together again. In the end, although I was upset I broke something precious, my parents gave me a way to feel proud of my efforts. Many years later, I read about kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken vessels by sealing the cracks with lacquer and carefully dusting them with gold powder. The
Japanese believe the gold cracks make the pieces even more precious and valuable.

I believe the Japanese art of golden repair is a beautiful way to explain to children how to see the broken, difficult and painful parts of our lives as valuable making us stronger
and better than before. When we can adopt an attitude of acceptance. allowing things to be just the way they
are instead of hiding them or resisting, then we can grow into our magnificence with all the golden cracks radiating a new kind of beauty. Unfortunately, many kids today demonstrate little capacity for difficulty and discomfort.

When you realize you are energy – a living energetic being – youʼll be more likely to use your energy intentionally before you enter a room, speak a word, write a letter or begin to take action of any kind. If you donʼt believe me, run a little experiment and try this for a week. Become a “Human Sparkler!”

Relaxation of the mind, body and spirit is essential for everyone. Join me on an Audubon Sanctuary walk of Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Breathing on Saturday, June 27 by tapping into the earth’s energies as a powerful way to recognize the aliveness and interconnectedness of all living things, reinvigorate yourself and release stress.

By Dr. Roxanne Daleo

Breathing is natural. It’s given to you the day you’re born. Without breath, you have no life. 

But with breath, you have power! Everyone on the planet is given this gift. It’s yours… it’s the gift of life.

You’re breathing all the time, and yet you can forget that you are breathing. You can go through your day without awareness of breath – without awareness of your power. This is the gift, that your breath is a tool. 

Discover how to use your gift, and you’ll know your self. Know your self, and you’ll know your power; a silent power.

You have the ability to use your breath with intention. Using the Breath of Intention changes everything. Let me explain…

I once heard a story of a sea captain who sailed around the world using just his breath to fill his sails.  

If you have no breath, you cannot sail. If you cannot sail, you cannot move forward.  If you want to go anywhere, breathe… breathe deep to give wind to your sails.

Like the sea captain, breathe into your sails with all your might. Breathe with all your intention. Breathe with all your desire, passion and determination. You do this by holding within your mind and heart the picture of where you want to go.

You see? You’re creating all the time, whether you know it or not. So why not create intentionally? Why not use the power of intention, the breath of intention?

When you have no intention, it’s as if you’re lost. Like filling the sails of your boat, but your boat has no rudder, no way to navigate the seas. The rudder is what the captain uses to steer his boat. The rudder determines which direction your boat will sail. Do you understand? Lost intention is like going through your day – your life journey – without anything to give you direction.

Without a rudder, you will only flutter-

Without a sail, you’d surely fail.

With the two together: vision and desire, you can harness the wind and have a way to steer the direction of your boat- your life. 

You have the ability to create. You were born with it. So use your Breath of Intention – it’s natural; it’s your nature.

Unless you have a want – a desire – you cannot move forward. Although your desire is invisible, it has energy. Your thinking is the invisible force that fills the sails and moves your boat forward. Your thinking of what you desire and the “feeling good” feeling, the “feeling happy” feeling, about your vision is what moves you forward. It moves you in the direction of your desire.

To activate and energize your desire, use your Breath of Intention. You do this by holding the vision of what you desire as if you already have it. Feeling the happy feeling of having that vision NOW.

Your breath is constant; it’s a gift. Grab hold of it! Too many people lose focus.  Know that you can choose differently – it’s all in the rudder. You decide where you want to go. So ask yourself, “What do I want? What do I truly want?” 

Remember: Breath is life, and what you decide to do with your life is up to you. No one can breathe for you! Remember: treasures are hidden. But if you look deep enough, you’ll always find a treasure. Just be willing to look; be willing to try. Be willing to uncover the treasure of the love, peace and joy you are. And you’ll never lose your way.

Five Keys to Activate Your Silent Power 

Become aware.   Without awareness of your inner power and your breath of intention, you can blow as hard as you like, but you’ll only blow yourself in circles. Without a rudder, you go no where fast! Remember to become aware 

of the vision you hold – it will move you forward in that direction. 

Make an Intention. Make a decision to focus on what you intend to do. Is it exercise more, eat less? Or find the best “feeling good” feeling you can?

Become Fearless. Fear and doubt cancel out the breath of intention. Fear puts holes in your sails! Fear and intention can’t be mixed. If you hold onto your intention, you can access your power. And that intention, that power, has energy 

to activate your desire.

Become Responsible. Take responsibility for knowing the truth. The truth is you are love and peace and joy. This gives your vision life. You can hoist your sails and decide what you want. Breathe life into the sails of your intention. 

Become A Creator.  Be one who knows what they want and use your gift.

Breathe life into your intention by feeling what it will feel like to be where you want to be. Feel the energy of intention. You activate intention with desire

and commitment to never give up on yourself.  When you activate commitment, you create more breath, more energy, more power. Then, this silent power in you gives you the feeling as if that which you intend is already done. 

Contact Dr. Roxie for FREE GIFT https://drroxannedaleo.com/roxie/contact/

By Dr. Roxanne Daleo

Have you ever noticed the way a humming bird darts from one flower to the next, barely staying long enough for you to observe this little creature? Seems the humming

bird has mastered the art of “kissing joy”; it is the practice of the light touch. Touching

but not holding on or lingering on the sweetness or the non-sweetness of life as it navigates it’s world.

In my work helping anxious children help themselves calm down, I find it is their perception of the event in their lives that causes most distress. They are not realizing they are the ones who assign meaning to all events. Here’s an example: Katie explains, “this bad thing happened at school— everyone keeps looking at me and saying I look sad, am I ok?”

The essential ingredient for tapping into our inner resources is to understand we always have a choice about how we label the events. Our own mind can heal or hurt us; awareness is the path in to manage our ocean of emotion. Awareness is being present without labeling, criticizing, or judging.

The most common reaction to the good things that happen in life is to try to hold on, hold on tighter, making every effort to have that good stay and to wall out the bad stuff.

Try as we may, we don’t want anything bad to happen to us.; whatever “bad” is! And- if that bad thing does happen, we’ll say: ”This is a very bad, horrible, terrible thing!”

Rather than, suspending judgement and saying to yourself: “This is interesting…could be bad, could be good.”

In the teaching tale, Zen Shorts: The Farmer’s Luck, the story reveals the assumptions of what the neighbors call “bad luck” or “good luck” turns out to be the opposite. Through various experiences, the farmer resists the temptation to agree with his neighbors’ opinions. For example, his son falls off a horse and breaks his leg, everyone says, that’s too bad, bad luck! But, in fact, a few days later when the soldiers come to their village to take able-bodied young men off to war, his son is passed over because he has a broken leg!

Can we be both present to the experiences of our lives while, at the same time, being non-judgmental, accepting and curious?

Can we learn to see them, be with the experience without trying to push it away? Can we allow ourselves to feel difficult feelings, rest in it and be?

And if it is a happy, welcomed event, can you learn that ”kissing joy” as she flies by is a wonderful way to play with your imagination, tapping your inner resources in order to be present, notice, enjoy it but not become attached to it? Kiss it and let it go.

And then can you practice, with this same awareness, to be present, to notice when something seems awful? Watching your feelings of sadness without getting lost in them?

Like gathering, collecting all life experiences, noticing the contrast like the many shades of green in the early Springtime?

Say to yourself: “As I use all my senses to take note and savor, I am present and open to all the feelings in my life.”

The practice of “kissing joy” is an opportunity to become aware of how you can direct your mind to focus- without judging, without making a strong, negative opinion; but rather, just noticing and collecting.

Making a collecting basket, is a tangible way to practice this idea and internalize it for yourself and your child. Say to yourself, “Today, as I am filling my basket with the little things in life— good or bad, happy or sad. I am noticing and collecting with awareness, gentleness and gratitude.”

So fill your basket, as you expand your awareness. Say to yourself; “ I’m feeling the warm breeze on my face or

I’m hearing a song that makes me cry” …

Imagine putting it all in your basket for the day.

Throughout your day, you may want to place in your basket objects like a special photograph or the penny you found on the ground.

At the end of your day, the contents can be taken out and reflected upon as a form of awareness practice. Be gentle with yourself.

Then you can begin all over again the next day. Empty out the contents; let go of the previous day to make room for the new, the now, of today.

As in the ancient mediative tradition, keep your basket empty. When you do, it becomes a practice of taking in, breathing, watching, and recognizing the every day passing events–like ”kissing joy” lightly, not tightly!

As joy flies by as you’re on your way

Give it a kiss and go on with your day.

Embrace the fullness of all that you feel

Welcoming everything-keep even your keel!

Wisdom runs deepest, your open heart knows

To gather the highs, as well as the lows

“Kissing joy” instead of holding too tight

Offers the lesson: there’s no wrong, no right.

Spring has come again the earth is like a child who knows poems by heart.         – Rilke –
Want your child to feel as confident and happy as a child who knows poems by heart?

OPEN YOUR MIND TO THE POWER WITHIN YOU

Here’s how to use your innate ability to combat stress

By Dr. Roxanne Daleo

Many people know the mismanagement of stress weakens, not only, our immune system’s ability to fight infection, colds, inflammation, head and stomach aches, but also, causes emotional conditions such as anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance.

The truth is, not everyone knows that we have an innate ability to combat stress that returns the body to homeostasis or balance. This innate ability actually reverses the stress response.

Stress hormones trigger a chemical response, a kind of rush of energy. This rush of energy called the fight or flight response allows the body to run from danger or stand and fight, as our ancestors did in caveman days when we had to escape the saber-tooth tigers and such!

But today, we don’t have that problem, we have “invisible tigers” which are our thoughts of danger that turn on the stress response and never shut it off! Prolonged, without relief, our body under stress will cause us to experience mind/body symptoms.

It is your thoughts that drive your body’s response to stress. So if you want relief, you have to stay present and not let your thoughts take you for an unnecessary ride. It’s as if your mind has a mind of it’s own. Your thoughts can make you sick. So can your thoughts make you well.

But in order to feel relief, you have to learn how to tame your invisible tigers. Some kids are so used to being unhappy and stressed, they are addicted to their response. They may even think nothing will help.

If you want relief, you have to be willing to try something different, even if it’s unfamiliar. You just have to stay present long enough to change three things:

The thoughts that you are thinking

The behaviors and habits you do

The emotions you’ve memorized and identify as you (like “it’s just the way I am!”)

These three things are your habits. Habits of thinking, behaving and feeling; and the GOOD NEWS is you can change all three!

You see, learning a new skill changes your brain by making new connections. When you try something new you are firing and rewiring your brain. Isn’t that great? You have within you an innate intelligence that can restore your system, like installing a new computer program all you have to do is be willing to learn something new.

When you do, your recovery time shortens; you get out of stress mode quickly. You feel more resilient, confident and calm.

The most common ways to shift gears is listening to music, going outdoors for a hike in the forest. physical rhythmic exercise like running, biking, swimming or rowing. If you’ve done all these you may want help from a professional who will know exactly how to unlock your habits so you can train your brain and get lasting results.

Consider this: while your friends are doing the same things over the weekend, you could be learning to use the power of your mind, improving your outlook and getting ahead of the pack!

These early days of January are like walking a footbridge from the old year to the new.

And as I go on my merry way, reflections of the graces, the miracles, in my life come to me.

I take a moment of quiet, looking out on the stillness of nature, I hear life say to me:

“thank you for being a bright light, a spark of energy

the love and laughter, the peace and joy!”

And what comes to you and your child, as you reflect?

In this newborn year, may your heart be lifted from the old, yet satisfied by last year’s journey

Because that journey has taken you here, right now, in this new moment, in this new year

To birth, bring forth, the miraculous within you.

Imagine crossing over the bridge to the awareness of who you truly are- which is Love.

You are free.

Welcome the new you.

Over the crossing, you know you have what it takes to fulfill your potential and unique genius.

Make a difference in this world in need of your goodness and greatness.

Promise yourself, promise your child, to stay tuned-in to the life force energy in and around you

The rich, wild, other-ness of bird songs, cricket rhythms, the forest scent, the subtle colors of

the plants, the sunshine, the snow and the rain.

Look down over the bridge to running waterway; look up into sky, to the constellation of stars

Do not go unconscious of this awe-some beauty, but rather,

Come into a full-body, multi-sensory, part of all that is so much bigger and eternal-

The rushing wind is the holy name of the Divine

and when we take in that breath, we take in the Divine

Stay awake.

Shine on brilliantly.

Happy New Year!