That’s all it took  for us to feel re-balanced and re-centered; beautiful natural surroundings, along with a good hike, the sound of the wind blowing in the canyons, and the running water.  It’s so simple really, although at times it seems so hard to remember the simplicity. 

It was a good reminder that we create our own reality, and that we constantly have a choice of how we want to be and feel in each moment! 

Yesterday we chose blissfulness and that is my new daily intention, to choose blissfulness!

I wish you all blessings and bliss today!

Warmly,
Joy

ps. Although photos really don’t capture the magic of a place, they’re still beautiful to look at! : )  Enjoy!

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©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Joyce Mills and I returned from Marrakech one week ago tomorrow, and what an incredible experience it was!

The first part of our adventure began when we arrived at London, Heathrow and waited for 6 hours for our Royal Air Moroc flight which was meant to stop in Casablanca and then go directly on to Marrakech.  After being grounded for 2 hours in the Royal Air Moroc plane, we finally took off for Casablanca.  The 3 hour flight was very nice, however, rather than stay on the plane like we were originally told, we had to disembark in Casablanca; but not before waiting 1 & 1/2 more hours just to get off of the plane.  It was then that our real Moroccan adventure began! 

Although with Joyce’s little French we were able to say hello and thank you to many people in the airport, and meet a really nice Greek pilot who helped us get through the document and immigration line, we were still unable to get any relevant information regarding our flight to Marrakech.  We eventually learned that our flight had been cancelled with no explanation. 

So after hooking up and hitching a ride with an English tour group, we finally arrived in Marrakech 6 hours later and were safe in bed at 6am.  All in all it only took us 1 day & 1/2 to get to Marrakech from Phoenix, all the while keeping a playful adventurous attitude, knowing that nothing was as it seemed.

After sleeping through the entire first day of the conference, I awoke just in time for the Moroccan Gala.  The food and the people were wonderful! 

Joyce’s first presentation entitled, “Inspiring Children to Soar: Planting the Seeds and Reaping the Harvest,” was on Wednesday the 19th of May, and she was amazing!  My presentation followed on Thursday the 20th, (also my father’s birthday: )

I so enjoyed presenting how I have implemented the StoryPlay® model in the classroom and I loved how well it and I was received by an Internation audience. 

Joyce also presented the 4 day post conference and I was again able to experience for myself the impactful self-empowerment that occurs though story, metaphor, play, and the reconnection to my strengths and my Imaginal Discs. 

I am so deeply grateful to Joyce for all of her time, dedication and love, as well as for her trust in me to present her wonderfully creative and strength based model called StoryPlay®.

Before I go I want to give a quick note of thanks and gratitude to Monika Jephcott , the president of Play Therapy Internation (PTI), and her husband Jeff for organizing such an amazing Congress.  

I know they were disappointed that the participation count was much lower than it was meant to be due to an unexpected withdraw of support from UNICEF and Play Therapy Africa.  Both Monika and Jeff are dedicated to bringing treatment and healing to the children of the world by training professionals in Play Therapy world wide.  

They have recently spent much of their time and energy in Ethiopia following up on promises from UNICEF to provide “Child Friendly” schools and other programs only to recount thier visit with tears and heartbreak after witnessing the real goings on and happenings.  After listening to their horror stories I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to get the word out. 

Please if you are interested in learning more and taking action contact Monika, and she will discuss with you how to proceed.

Until next time!

Blessings and love,
Joy

ps. Please enjoy some of the photos from our trip!

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©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

I just returned from a wonderful weekend in Philadelphia where I
introduced my partner Jeff to my amazing family, and celebrated my grandparent’s, Sam and Ruth Wilf’s, 65th wedding anniversary.

The day before we flew out of Phoenix, Philadelphia had yet another huge snow storm that was being described as a snowicane.  Many flights were cancelled and I could hear the concern in Jeff’s voice regarding our early flight the next day, but I just had a feeling that everything would be ok and and that our flight would depart as scheduled.

So, it turned out that my feeling was right on, and although the capitan gave us a brief scare when he announced that we would be grounded for 2 hours before taking off, sending out an echo of groans from the passengers, we were airborn shortly after his announcement; all was well.

Our taxi drive to my grandparent’s house was quite beautiful as the city was covered in a blanket of snow.  I hadn’t seen snow for several years, as I live in Arizona, and was as giddy as a little girl.  Jeff and I had so much fun playing with my niece and nephew, throwing snowballs and making snowmen, and I was cozy warm and thrilled to death to be wearing for the first time; my winter coat, scarf, and most of all, my Ugg’s! : )

I made sure Jeff got the full tourist tour of Philadelphia.  We saw the Picasso exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, (running up the steps just like Rocky), went on a tour of Independence Hall, saw the Liberty Bell, and most importantly, ate a cheesesteak with wiz at Jim’s on South Street!

The anniversary party was beautiful!  Most of my cousin’s, aunts and uncles were there, and the room was filled with generations of adoration and love.  Toast after toast was made expressing admiration, love and gratitude.  My grandparent’s are really quite incredible and inspiring, and I felt and feel so grateful to have been born into such an amazing family.

I intend on writing further blogs about Ruth and Sam and their amazing saga.

Goodbye for now.

Love and blessing,
Joy

©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

We had made plans the week before to go hiking, and I was dressed in my hiking gear and ready to go.  As I was waiting for Jasmin to come out of her school, I watched the most adorable children exiting the building with these huge smiles on their faces as they saw their mom, dad, and other loved ones awaiting them.  I couldn’t help but smile along with them; witnessing such natural and pure expressions of love.

At this school the grades are dismissed in order from kindergarten to sixth, so Jasmin was one of the last ones to come out.  As she approached me I noticed that she was shivering and hugging herself to try and stay warm, while holding her jacket in her other hand.  I gave her a big hug and then offered to hold her oversized and very heavy backpack so she could put on her coat.  Then as we walked to my car she proceeded to tell me that she was freezing and she hated the cold.  Oh well I thought, there goes hiking…

So I immediately offered up a plan B, as I knew that she also loved to go to the mall.  She took me up on my offer without hesitation.

As I don’t know that end of town very well, I drove us to an indoor mall on my end of town, Scottsdale Fashion Square.  Our conversation flowed easily in the car and for the next couple of hours in the mall, as we walked, talked, and warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and cinnamon pretzel bits. 

Jasmin showed me some of her favorite accessories in stores such as Hot Topic and Claire’s, as well as how to make a teddy bear in the Build-A-Bear Workshop.  We talked about our favorite Disney characters in the Disney Store, and I learned about and saw some of the new fashionable teen styles, such as the Skinny Jeans, in Macy’s. 

For those two hours I felt like I was 13 again; light hearted and playful, without a care in the world. 

Jasmin is quite a remarkable young girl, and I look forward to many more excursions and shared experiences.  I know that I will learn just as much from her as she will from me, and I am very grateful that she is in my life!

Love and blessings,
Joy

©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

For me this women’s healing journey held many new insights and awarenesses, as well as a taste of two traditional Native American Ceremonies; the Talking Stick Ceremony and two Sweat Lodge Ceremonies. The facilitators; Mona Polacca, Charlee Sutton, and my spiritual mother Joyce Mills, were absolutely amazing!  

I left this wonderful retreat as part of a new sisterhood. 

Please enjoy some of the photos from the retreat!

To all of my relations
Joy

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©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

After last night’s amazing monsoon rain and thunderstorm,
here in Phoenix, AZ, I woke up this morning feeling quite cleansed, very inspired, and incredibly greatful to Mother Earth and Nature!

I was very excited and anxious to get myself downstairs, drink a cup of coffee, and finish the enchanting story I had begun the night before called; The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry.

As I sat lazily drinking my coffee, reading, and gazing outside at the still gray skies, the rain drops like pearls of water sitting on the leaves, and the ultra-sated, bright green trees and bushes, I came upon a line in the story that gave me pause;

“Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

I stopped reading for a moment then, as I continued to dreamily peer out at the still wet world that was my backyard, I consciously softened my eyes, jaw, shoulders, and feet, and I asked myself what that beautiful truth meant to me, and this is what I heard:

“When I look with my heart, everything and anything I search for can be found in a single solitary drop of rain.”

“With my heart as my eyes I can clearly see my connection with All That Is, and then I remember my ability to easily and joyfully yield to the impermanence of life, as the present moment is illuminated in love.”

I know, pretty profound huh; I too was surprised, and deeply moved by this insight and remembrance!

With love to All That Is!
Joy 

©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

The Positive Adult Leaders In Society, or P.A.L.S. Homeless Children’s Mentoring Program, will provide me with an opportunity to mentor a young person and encourage positive communication and interaction as well as offer guidance and support.

As a lifelong teacher and student, I look forward to many new self-growth opportunities, as well as facilitating strength-building, inspiration, healing and change, in a child or teen’s life.

A quick word of thanks and gratitude to Rebecca Klima, the P.A.L.S. Program Manager, for her kindness, compassion, hardwork, and undying effort in providing the PYAR children with interesting and creative programs and workshops! 

Last but not least, thank you Rebecca for making the mentor training at PYAR a top priority! Both Joyce Mills and I are honored to be bringing StoryPlay® training to the mentors beginning in the fall. Stay tuned to my Services page as well as the Phoenix Youth at Risk website for more current information.

Blessings and love to you all!

Joy

©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

In preparation for an upcoming English to Spanish book translation project that I’ve been given the opportunity to complete, my mission today was to find some sort of computer language conversion program, or at the very least a Spanish keyboard; either one would help to save me time when adding the Spanish accents, tilde’s and punctuation marks. As well, I needed to check into buying a new Palm Pilot, or handheld organizer since the one I currently had was on its last leg.

So, armed with a good attitude and a smile, I entered Best Buy, which conveniently was located around the corner from where I lived. As I stood in awe at the entrance of that massive store, not sure where I wanted to go first, I did what I usually do in stores of that size, I looked around until I found one of the many roaming employees; then, quickly spotting one in the Ipod aisle, I caught his eye, and I gave him the universal head bob signal for help, you know the one. As silly as I’m sure I looked, he must have understood that I needed assistance because he began heading my way.

My first question to the young helper was, “Can you please point me in the direction of your Palm Pilots?” He paused for a moment, almost as if he was stumped by my question, and then answered, “We haven’t sold Palm Pilots for a while now since they’ve become part of the cell phone; now everyone just buys the Palm Pilot cell phone.”

Well ok I thought, a little stumped myself, next question then. “Can you tell me if you sell Spanish keyboards or language conversion programs for the computer?” I then watched as he pointed to the other end of the store and said, “You’ll have to go check in computers.” So I thanked him and walked on; strike one.

Once in the computer section, I spotted and signaled for assistance from another Best Buy helper. I explained what I needed and he walked me over to the Microsoft software section, pointed to a box and said, “The language conversion programs used to be pre-installed by Microsoft, but now they charge for the program.” The price was more that $200. He apologized to me for not being able to help more and pointed me to the Geek Squad to answer any further questions.

As I walked up to the Geek Squad counter, I again spotted and signaled for help, this time I was approached by a young girl. First I described to her my Israeli girlfriend’s computer keyboard, and how she was able to click on something that converted her typing from English to Hebrew, and I asked if they had anything like that here in Spanish.

I mean we do live in Arizona, right? Lots of Spanish speaking people live here; don’t any of them ever request a Spanish keyboard?

Anyway, she told me that they used to carry Spanish keyboards but were out of them and I’d have to order one on-line. I thanked her and headed for the door; strike two.

As I was walking out of Best Buy I noticed an elderly woman weaving and wobbling as she walked towards the entrance carrying a very large box. I asked her if I could help; she was so grateful, and told me that she would help me out in her next life. I smiled as I walked inside and gave the box to the Best Buy guy who stands at the door, who then placed the box into a cart. The woman thanked me again and again, repeating over and over how kind I was, and then she gave me a big hug, and we parted ways.

I felt as if my mission had just been accomplished! I knew then that I was sent to Best Buy for just that very reason.

Well, not being one to easily give up on a mission, I remembered that the Staples Office Supply store was in this same outdoor plaza, so I headed over there next. Once inside of Staples, I again used my handy dandy nonverbal eye signal to get some help. This time I was faced with a very eager young guy who proceeded to tell me the same thing that both the guy’s, and the one girl, from Best Buy had told me; that they don’t sell Palm Pilots anymore now that they’ve become cell phones, and no, they didn’t carry Spanish keyboards or language conversion programs. Then he pulled his cell phone/Palm Pilot out and for the next several minutes showed and told me all about its features, etc. Strike three.

I thanked him for his help, and as I was walking out he told me he was sure that the Fry’s Electronics, on 35th Ave. and Thunderbird, would have both of those items, he said, “that store has everything, it’s incredible!” For those of you who don’t live in Phoenix, AZ., 35th Ave. and Thunderbird, from Central Phoenix, is very far!!!

Now I was really motivated and determined to accomplish my mission. Imagine that, an electronics store that has everything, wow, I just had to go and see it for myself!

Well the day was still fairly young, so I got into my air-conditioned car, cranked the tunes, and started my short road trip to Fry’s Electronics. My drive was pretty uneventful until I turned off of the freeway at Thunderbird, and standing there at the light, I saw a young homeless guy carrying a sign that said, Homeless and Hungry.

Now just that very morning in the newspaper I had been reading about the dangerous problem that the homeless people are facing now that the Arizona heat has surpassed the 110 Degree mark, and my heart really went out to this guy. Remembering that I still had a couple of granola bars in my glove compartment from a long past road trip, I got them out, opened my window, and handed them to the homeless guy. He thanked me, then immediately opened one of the bars and began to eat.

Smiling to myself as I drove away, and giving silent thanks to the Universe, I felt again that my mission had been accomplished!

As it turns out, my small donation to the homeless guy ended up being the reason and purpose for this small road trip. I laughed out loud as I exited from Fry’s Electronics store, the hugest, most gigantic, mother of all electronics stores, empty handed, because, yea, you guessed it, they didn’t have either of the items that I was looking for!

Well, one might think that my story ends here, but no, there is more. There is a happy ending to my story!

Once I was home and at my computer again, I did what I probably needed to do from the very beginning, Google my question. So I typed into the search box, ‘Spanish accent conversion’ and wallah, a page with many links appeared. I clicked on the first link I saw, and illuminated right there, before my very eyes, was this amazing page that described exactly how I could use my own keyboard to make shortcuts and create the characters that I wanted and needed in Spanish. This incredible page had everything that I needed, free of cost, and with word-for-word instructions. It was almost as is it had been created just for me!

Now, regarding my Palm Pilot, no, I did not end up purchasing a new one on-line, instead I signed up for this incredible free service called BackPack, which my good friend and web designer, Lisa Roberts, had told me about the other day. On my created page I made several lists and notes which in the end did most of the things that my Palm Pilot does, and it only took me about 15 minutes to organize it all.

I understand now that my mission today included much more than accomplishing the two tasks for which I had set out. My feelings of accomplishment occurred only when I took a pause from my objective, became aware of the present moment, and then consciously and responsibly acted on my natural impulses.

I trust that everything happened today just as it was meant to, and that I needed to experience each and every part of this day in order to realize my true mission. Thank you Universe!!!

Until next time.
Love and blessings,
Joy

©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

most recent blog post,
Power. Brought To You By The Number Eight, 
I thought to share with you all one of my own 
recent awe inspiring experiences.

A few weeks ago, on a cool, spring, Arizona morning, I was sitting on my patio drinking coffee and admiring the beautiful plants, trees, and flowers as they blew and flowed in perfect harmony with the wind, when a joyful hummingbird stopped by to pay me a visit. It was so close that I could hear it buzzing, like a big black bee, and I could see the light playing off
of its rapidly fluttering wings making it appear both red and blue at the same time.

This magnificent creature, known as Joy in Native American animal medicine, was seemingly floating in mid air right in front of my eyes, paradoxically full of motion, yet motionless. I watched in amazement and glory as this playful creature then proceeded to float slowly up into the air, higher and higher, then pausing for a moment at the top, he soared straight down with incredible speed, almost like an airplane falling from the sky.

Just when it seemed like this hummingbird was on a kamikaze mission with a horrible fate, he amazingly veered off to the right before hitting the ground and completed what looked to me like a perfect figure eight, or the sign of infinity. Then, as if he never left, there he was again, buzzing and shining in front of me in all of his glory. The hummingbird then repeated this extraordinarily inspiring act for me, his astounded audience of one, four more glorious times before making his final adieu and swift farewell.

I felt such gratitude, love, and happiness in those moments following that wondrous exhibition. It was clear to me that I was meant to see that remarkable display of conscious joy, and to be reminded that my happiness in each and every moment is my choice and my response-ability.

©2010 Conscious Joy Coaching. All Rights Reserved.