“May the legacy of love live on through all of you.” I am deeply grateful to the beautiful audience of 32 friends and “once upon a time” strangers that supported me in my first 90-minute solo performance yesterday (August 25, 2017). Ten years ago, I was a timid voice exploring public speaking through a local …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
The four universal healing salves
In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? Where we …Read More
Love is not an emotion
“When an emotion is healthy, it arises only when it’s needed, it shifts and changes in response to its environment, and it recedes willingly once it has addressed an issue. When love is healthy, it does none of those things…. Love is not an emotion; it doesn’t behave the way emotions do. Real love is …Read More
David Whyte: The TrueLove
The poet and philosopher, David Whyte, captures the unseen territory in our lives with the inspiring landscapes of his words. “There is a faith in loving fiercely…” The above words open David Whyte’s poem, TRUELOVE. and immediately captivate me because of my own poem, Loving Fiercely. I can’t remember if I had read his poem before …Read More
C. S. Lewis: The Four Loves
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up …Read More
Dr. Joel Ying on TV! Interview on Storytelling
Behind the Headlines: Storytelling Storytelling Performance gets more mainstream. Check out my interview by Amy Oshier on Behind the Headlines: Naples Daily News – part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Originally aired at 10 a.m. Sunday on ABC-7. (The show starts after the commercial on the video link below or go directly to the Naples …Read More
Kevin Kling: Lost and Found
“Now when you’re born into loss, you grow from it. But when you experience loss later in life, you grow toward it.” Kevin Kling is a well-known, infectiously funny, and deeply touching storyteller, poet, and playwright. He has the distinction of having being born with a disability and also acquiring one later in life. He …Read More
Elizabeth Gilbert – On Creativity
In a prior blog, I talked about flow states. One of the states where we feel like we are “in the flow” is when creativity “flows through us.” In her TED talk below, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the book Eat, Pray, Love) discusses the myths of creativity, and how changing our mindset can improve access to our …Read More
David Ladinsky: The Sun Never Says
Even After All this time The sun never says to the earth, “You owe Me.” Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the Whole Sky. —from “The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the great Sufi Master” by David Ladinksy Hafiz-inspired Poetry David Ladinsky explains his beautiful work, “inspired” by Hafiz, not as direct translation …Read More
Symptoms and Syndromes
Marcia kept getting a rash all over her body – red, raised, itchy. The welts or hives would fade away, and then quickly come back. The itching and redness would resolve with Benadryl, but when it wore off, the welts would come back. She changed to a mild soap that was hypoallergenic. She changed her …Read More