Dear Qoya Dancers of Light,

There's a game I like to play from Ester and Jerry Hicks' book Ask and It is Given called Rampage of Appreciation, and it goes like this: set the timer and for a few minutes, name as many things in the room that delight you.

This game reminds me of a time I had an epiphany after I heard, "If you want to be happy later, you have to be happy now." It was one of the first times I really understood that instead of focusing on external events to determine or derail my happiness, it is dependent on my own perspective. What you look for is often what you see. If you look for a miracle and believe in your heart of hearts it is possible, you are the most likely to experience it. However, if you do not believe that it is possible, it may cross your path but you may not be able to see it, because when you're not looking for a miracle, you may be looking for more evidence of loss.

This is nothing to beat ourselves up about; it is something to inspire us to become miracle magnets, because that is the energy of this new moon and the medicine we're all ready for in this new year. The sacred text A Course in Miracles defines a miracle as a change in perception from fear to love.

How do you course correct?

How can Qoya help?

One of the things that makes Qoya so effective in creating environments for women to remember their essence is wise, wild and free is that it is fun! Oftentimes, the method itself is the medicine. The old paradigm models of "no pain, no gain" and "struggle to succeed" are well-documented paths. Look around and see how well that is going for people.

Qoya has always been devoted to the exploration of what happens when you follow your highest excitement, when you feel a zing in your spine, when you embrace the metaphor that there is no way you can do it wrong ('it' being the movement in Qoya and 'it' being life), but the way you know you are doing it right is that it feels good to you — more than feeling good, that it feels TRUE.

What is the feeling in your life that is the most perpetually true? Probably love. What does it feel like to be aligned with that? That's what life is about. That's what time is about. Time takes the immensity of all experience and gives us a measurement to look at a specific event. If we are able to see love in the event...it's a miracle! A change in perception! Grace! An inspiration for a rampage of appreciation!

Now a few words from the king of changing our perspective, Albert Einstein, who says:

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Einstein completed the special theory of relativity, revealing that space and time behave in astonishing ways no one had ever anticipated — they are relative depending on the observer.

Can this be true in our own hearts as well?

Of course there are naysayers outside of ourselves (and inside of ourselves) who are deeply committed to the perception that there is so much wrong with this world. They emerge most commonly after reading the news. We need a lot more than wishful thinking to continue to rise to the challenges of the day, but for those times when we doubt the power of the perception of love to heal, try this:

1) SHAKE! This is a core practice of Qoya and the most poignant way to experience the power in your own body to shift its perception through movement. It's based on the primal intelligence of animals in the way they shake their bodies and reset their nervous systems after experiencing stress. Do the video here.

2) APPRECIATE THE MIRACLES THAT ARE HERE NOW! For all those with their soul eyes sleeping, there are miracles all around you. Go count 10 of them. This is not a gratitude list; that is more like a grocery list. This is a Rampage of Appreciation. Put a little pulse in it. I recommend dancing to an amazing song while you do this and enrolling a friend to be a witness to your appreciation voiced out loud. Then witness theirs. Note: the most fun happens when we can release the idea of how it looks and focus on how it feels.

3) BE A MIRACLE! Be the light that you seek. More importantly, be the light that you are. Think of one thing you can do to lighten this world, then do it! Send flowers. Write a thank you note. Pray for someone. Smile at a stranger. Communicate from your heart. Donate to a good cause. Empower a person with a dream to keep going! Invite someone over for dinner. Search for the places where you are able to forgive and find peace.

More on that here from our resident Qoya astrologer Virginia Rosenberg sharing that:

The New Moon in Capricorn on December 29th (1:53am EST) is grounds for the miraculous. Each of us is capable of performing miracles, big and small. Do you believe in second chances? In the story of "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo, an impoverished man attempts to rob a priest. Rather than condemn him for theft, the priest covers for his crime and offers him liberty under one condition: that he become an honest man. The man who would have been a criminal becomes a flourishing philanthropist, regarded as a humble savior for others throughout the remainder of his life. The simple act of the priest offering him a second chance, with direction to cultivate virtue, is enough to shift the course of history for the better. The results? Miraculous and far-reaching. To "deem" means to consider, to judge, or to regard as. Therefore, to "redeem" means simply to reconsider. To change judgement. On this New Moon, can you make space to regard yourself in a new way? Relax any gripping or weight you may carry. Remove unnecessary burdens or criticisms to make way for unprecedented change. To restore virtue to the world, honor yourself, see others with honor, and carry forth in the virtue of compassion's embrace.

To go through life and to come back to love, every time, is a miracle. May we allow the love that is always streaming towards us like the rays of the sun to warm us. May we remember that the clouds blocking the sun are always temporary. May we keep faith in our hearts that the sun's love is still shining even when we can't see it. We can feel it, and more importantly, we can be it.

See below the list of gatherings we are hosting to explore the remembrance of our wise, willd and free essence and a short list of my rampage of appreciation. Also, here's the video of shaking again. If you want to really understand the power of your body to clarify your perspective and help you rise above the clouds, do this practice once a day this whole week, so you can remember to do it anytime you need in 2017.

I believe in Miracles and I believe in You!

May this new moon and new year be a time in which we believe more and more in each other.

With love,

Rochelle

Two of the miracles I experienced this year:

1) Ten years ago I showed up on the island of Kauai for the first time. I only had enough money for a rental car or a place to stay. After my first night, I went to a local coffee shop in Hanalei and met a sweet and kind man. I shared that I was on my last stop of a one year trip to practice listening to my intuition during which I spent many months in India, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. He then asked where I was staying and I said, "In the car!" He then offered that his vacation home that he normally rents out was sitting empty as a place to stay. Ten years later, I felt so grateful to have been able to lead two weeks of retreats in this very same house infused with the sweetness that I felt after taking the courageous leap to trust my intuition back then and since then, doing daily Qoya, practicing Angelic Breath Healing with Madeline Giles, eating healthy food, and being initiated by the powerful magic of the island of Kauai.

My prayer is that all of us can have more moments of experiential embodiment in which we can feel truth in our bones and place that truth as north on our compass as we navigate all our journeys, inner and outer. There are moments when it is difficult to trust, so celebrating the sweetness along the way can make us that much stronger and restore our faith.

How many times has trusting yourself gone right? Even if it doesn't work out and your expectations aren't met, could making decisions based on the authentic resonance within be success just on its own? For some of us, yes.

This is the house where the Hawaii Qoya Retreats are happening this year.

2) Another miracle: I had been writing content for my book for years when I went on my 3rd pilgrimage to Peru with the intention to get clarity on the structure of the book. I had an amazing journey but was a little disheartened when writing in my journal on the plane ride home as no big epiphanies or clarity emerged as to the structure of the book. Then, all of a sudden, I looked at the ring on my hand (top left) and I saw it! I saw the vision of how the book could be organized into the sacred geometry of the chakana symbol, also called the southern cross, another map of the medicine wheel.

The ring was a gift from my friend Laura Cantor after she had taken her pilgrimage to Peru. Then I worked with sacred geometry artist Daniel Frank (@cosmoctopus) to use the chakana as the foundation of inspiration and create a symbol that takes the energetic transmission of Qoya and translates it visually into a yantra (top right). Then, I finished the book! (bottom left) and went to Tucson, Arizona for the weekend to go to the gem show, go on some hikes, and celebrate the book launch "Week of Qoya Love" and guess what? (bottom right) The number for our hotel room was a chakana!!! There was even a chakana painted on the bottom of the pool! Such an amazing synchronicity. 

The perfect place to celebrate and honor the journey that in some ways is complete with the book being done and in many ways is just beginning. Big gratitude for all the love, support, inspiration, kindness and generosity of those who have danced alongside me and this project over the last 4 1/2 years! In celebration of this miracle, all books (print, audio, e-book and packages) are half price through January 5th on Lifestyle of Reverence!

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