“Do you talk to someone?” Sometimes a question stops you in your tracks. The Lifestyle Medicine retreat hired me to see all the attendees on medications for blood pressure or diabetes. In this retreat they would learn about healthy lifestyle changes. They would experience a healthy diet with food cooked for them, a morning exercise …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
Release & Renewal: January 2023
Are you feeling stuck? Get ready to release 2022… and step into 2023 with renewed energy. We’ve got something new planned. New processes to tune into the Wisdom areas to create an embodied prayer. New stories and ceremony to enter into sacred space and time together. “If you don’t know where you are going, any …Read More
Small Kindnesses ~ Danusha Laméris
Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from …Read More
The Sacred Dance for Life ~ Hafiz
The Sacred Dance for Life by Hafiz I sometimes forget that I was created for joy My mind is too busy My heart is too heavy Heavy for me to remember that I have been called to dance the sacred dance for life I was created to smile to love to be lifted up and …Read More
Graphic Novel: March by John Lewis
“We wanted to change America. Make it something different, something better.” The genre of the graphic novel is not usually associated with historical non-fiction. Most people are familiar with comic strips in the newspaper and comic book periodicals. The graphic novel delivers a stand-alone longer narrative in a form similar to the comic strip with …Read More
Hearse Song ~ Special Halloween Podcast
This spooky Halloween season, I got a chance to perform at Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida, with the cast of “Haunting Tales,” formerly called “Ghosts in the Garden.” Last Friday, the morning was beautiful, but the afternoon brought torrential rains. Will people still come? The organizers talked about cancelling the show. Ninety minutes before the …Read More
River Rising: Fake News and Clickbait
“What do you think of this?” she passed me her phone. The text message showed a smart link to an Internet article with the picture of an official making an announcement. “I don’t know,” I said, “Did you read it?” “Yes,” she said. Her voice anxious. “What did it say?” “I only read the message. …Read More
Hurricane Ian ~ I’m OK
“I’m safe. House ok. No flooding in my area. No power. No internet. Cell phone service spotty.” After waking up to a post-apocalyptic scene that I could only imagine from the reports on the radio, I walked a quarter mile down the block to find a place where I could get enough cell phone signal …Read More
A Psalm of Life ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was …Read More
Little Dandelion ~ Soul Growth with Astral Shaman
Story + Meditation = Healing. I met Astral Shaman in a meditation and healing workshop more than a decade ago. I immediately fell in love with his Scottish lilt–the way words sound like song, warm and welcoming, literally music to my ears. As a child, I lost my own Jamaican accent after starting first grade …Read More