ONLINE COURSE
Practices for Embodying Joy
A Live, Four-part Series
with Dr. Daniel Foor
Welcoming happiness calls for tremendous courage and vulnerability – and it’s anything but naive.
Course overview
Choosing to cultivate joy and happiness is truly brave work, especially in our current times. There’s nothing naive or reality denying about it. An enduring practice of centering joy can bring us into greater alignment with life purpose, encourage healthy relationships, and lead to more lasting and effective service. This four-part series presents accessible teachings and practices for embodying joy. It’s designed for those seeking encouragement for their personal happiness, for professionals and practitioners of healing arts, and for anyone who wishes to explore the potency and deep roots of joy.
Teachings and practices will draw from both the world’s wisdom traditions and aspects of psychology and mental health practice. The approach will be culturally inclusive with an acute awareness that the course is happening amidst a backdrop of systemic injustice and ecological catastrophe. Cynics, pessimists, and emotionally guarded intellectuals will also find the space welcoming. Each lesson will include multiple opportunities for guided practice and Q&A, and we’ll aim to share in a kind and relaxed learning environment.
Investment
About our self-select pricing model:
- Supporter rate invites folks with comfortable financial means to contribute more. Your generosity covers the cost for us to offer reduced rates.
- Standard rate is the actual cost for us to offer this program and sustain what we do. If you are able to enroll at this rate, we encourage you to do so.
- Community rate invites folks with leaner financial means to enjoy Ancestral Medicine programs at a reduced cost. *Limited availability.
- Scholarships are for people experiencing sustained hardship or from economically under-resourced communities. *Limited availability.
All levels include monthly payment options, as well!
Curriculum
What's Included
What's Included:
- Four live lessons, each approximately 90 minutes
- Two guided, experiential practices with each lesson
- Access to our private Community Forum to connect with fellow course participants, practitioners, and Ancestral Medicine staff
- Responsive and helpful support from Ancestral Medicine staff
- Lifetime access to course resources
Lesson One
Lesson One: Befriending Fear and Vulnerability
- Learn ways to identify and soften internal blocks to spontaneous joy and happiness
- Consider your personal capacity to tolerate emotional risk and vulnerability
- Reflect on personal and family-level messages you’ve inherited around thriving
- Practice gently honoring and make friends with ways you may guard against joy
Lesson Two
Lesson Two: Nurturing the Seeds of Goodness
- Explore teachings on gratitude, emotional range, and the power of attention
- Reflect on family and cultural conditioning at odds with unapologetic happiness
- Learn to distinguish joy that depends on outer conditions and joy from deeper sources
- Practice noticing and intentionally amplifying goodness already present in your life
Lesson Three
Lesson Three: Sacred Roots of Joy and Pleasure
- Learn ways that states of joy can catalyze major psychological and spiritual change
- Explore the deeper spiritual or metaphysical wisdom and origins of joy and bliss
- Reflect on ways that your current identity welcomes or turns away the gift of joy
- Practice experiencing the joy in your life as unconditional and a gift from the greater
Lesson Four
Lesson Four: Service and Sympathetic Joy
- Consider the relationship of joy to service and the work of alleviating suffering
- Explore ways to increase your range and capacity to experience very different states
- Identify personally inspiring ancestors or living teachers who embody joy and purpose
- Practice extending your empathy and happiness for others in challenging directions
About the Instructor
Daniel Foor, PhD
Dr. Foor is a licensed psychotherapist, doctor of psychology, and the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing. He is an initiate in the Òrìṣà tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has learned from teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and the older ways of his English and German ancestors. Daniel is passionate about training aspiring leaders and change makers in the intersections of cultural healing, animist ethics, and applied ritual arts. He currently lives with his wife and two daughters near Granada, Spain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Frequently Asked Questions
Course material may stir complicated emotions for some participants. Support outside of the lessons may be helpful as the course is not a replacement for personal therapy or spiritual care.
Enrollment includes access to our Community Forum – an online discussion group of students past and present, including supportive members from Ancestral Medicine’s Practitioner Network and Ancestral Medicine staff. Sharing experiences, reflecting on practices, and making connections in this private online community can provide one form of support.
Please also consider reaching out to someone in the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network for one-on-one support and guidance. Most are available for private individualized sessions, and many are willing to provide low-cost sessions to support financial accessibility needs.
To the very best of our ability, yes. All Ancestral Medicine offerings seek to embody an anti-racist, feminist, LGBTQ-celebrating, decolonizing and Earth-honoring ethic. They are also class-aware and internationally conscious. We offer a heartfelt, non-dogmatic approach that seeks to honor each participant’s unique life experiences and ancestral storylines. Resources included with each lesson favor ancestrally and geographically diverse voices, and the online Community Forum includes BIPOC and LGBTQ-only discussion spaces.
All of our lesson videos have closed captioning, as well as a full transcript and additional downloadable audio-only versions. If you have needs not met here, please feel free to reach out to us with suggestions at info@ancestralmedicine.org.
We’d be happy to help with additional questions. Reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org and someone from our team will be in touch, usually within one or two business days.
