The First Step on the Yellow Brick Road: Powerful Joyful Wisdom Conversations

When I first started the Joyful Wisdom Community, it was just a way to keep in touch with friends after I left the San Francisco area in 2011. It was entirely based on one-to-one conversations.

Every week, I would have extremely deep, transformative conversations with each of my Joyful Wisdom Buddies, using three major methodologies: 1) The Chrysalis Wisdom Council, 2) Talking Stick, Talking Mirror, and 3) The Clear Choice Conversation.

We took turns choosing the topic of conversation, so that for one conversation, it would serve my needs, and for the next conversation, it would serve my buddy’s needs. There were always problems, projects, and quandaries to be resolved, and the conversations worked.

And the funny thing about it was that when using these three methods, both people were always served equally, or nearly equally. The depth of communication kept these conversations from being therapy for one person, no matter whose turn it was.

Initially, the Joyful Wisdom Community was simply a group of people and a curriculum for having these amazing conversations. In other words, the Joyful Wisdom Community was–and still is–a way that you can surround yourself with people who you trust who can and will provide you with help figuring out what you feel, need, choose, think, and intend, as well as assisting you in developing plans, goals, your life mission, solutions to problems, and new perspectives about your life.

As I revise this page in 2016, I can report that most of my Joyful Wisdom relationships are still in place after five years, and that a couple of them still operate as Joyful Wisdom Buddy relationships.

I had hoped that other people would also develop clusters of JW Buddies around them, but this has not happened. But I can tell  you that the effort that I made to build these deep, ongoing relationships using this system paid off in spades.

We’ve changed our format to emphasize groups, but the value of our relationships continues to feed all of us. The relationships that we develop–with a buddy or a group–are reciprocal conversations, and they cost nothing. In 2016, in recognition of my key role in creating these groups and these relationships, I’m asking for a small donation, but that was not my original intent.

In the original format, on one day, I would talk with Dave about something that’s bothering him using one of these methods, and the next time, we’d discuss my issue. Same with Delta, Ashara, and Paschal. The goal was for each of us to have several Joyful Wisdom Buddies of their own.

But my understanding of the methods appeared to make my direct involvement crucial to the relationships forming. So we moved over to entirely operating in groups.

In spite of the fact that this process did not grow virally, as I had hoped, the power of the relationships, the power of the conversations, and the personal transformation that it brings to each of us are all very amazing to me. My community feels rich and supportive. I’m surrounded with and supported by relationships that many people hope for and long for. I too once hoped for and longed for real community, but I didn’t know how to find it. And I witnessed so many sincere attempts by many people…

Today, I could not ask for better coaching to heal my wounds, to address my challenges, or to release stress from my life. This is working for me, and I’m totally jazzed about what I’m getting from this process.

The problem with growing this movement is not the power of the our  curriculum, but the skepticism and woundedness of the people we would like to attract. What the following three paragraphs promise is absolutely true, as it has always been. I’m still working hard to bring the promise of what we do to as many people as possible

We have a means by which we can help you to build or join a Joyful Wisdom Circle for yourself and how to personally enjoy the same Joyful Wisdom Conversations that we enjoy regularly.

But even better, we can help you bring this change to people that you care about, the people that they care about, and even to the people that those other people care about—and on and on and on.

Creating this movement as a widening circle of wisdom, trust, and community is my primary goal. Anyone who wants to help me do this would be welcomed and completely appreciated.

————————————————————————————————————————

Next: The Second Step on the Yellow Brick Road: Connecting on the Deepest Levels