Vivian Winterhoff - Joy in Movement

10/07/2025

Hello world! You may have noticed that I have been on a social media break since I last posted (November 2024). I am not planning on being back online for some time.

In terms of public offerings, I currently enjoy teaching Essentrics at Marimo Dance Studio and hold (usually) monthly free forest bathing style community walks.

If you would like more information on either of these activities, I suggest you send me an email (which is in my introduction section on this page). Marimo Dance Studio also has a website with info on classes offered there on it.

I would love to connect with you in person!

With love,
Vivian

19/11/2024

Touch is what first got me into Somatics. Not only is it a sense via which we make sense of our world, but we are geared for touch. We need physical touch between human beings in our lives.

This will sound judgmental, but I sincerely believe this to be true: A life without caring touch is an impoverished life. Human life cannot thrive without touch.

I am currently taking a course called Neuroaffective Touch. The course leader, Dr Adeline LaPpierre, talks about the hands as the extension of the heart.

💗 The question I have for myself and for you is: “How are your hands being an extension of your heart?” 🙌🤝👐

It’s a Somatic meditation we can carry with us, if we choose to, even while typing on a keyboard, while preparing food, while cleaning the house, while gardening, while resting a hand in one’s lap or on one’s own body (maybe while falling asleep?). Feeling our connection between the heart and the hands, from the chest, the ribs, through the shoulders, the arms right into our fingertips...

So, how are your hands being an extension of your heart?

Perhaps this can be your moving meditation this week. 😉

15/11/2024

I am teaching a free sample 15-minute Essentrics class at 4pm on Sunday November 17th .

I am also looking forward to trying out others' classes and maybe even doing an physical therapy evaluation by !

Join us for movement, wellness, and meeting great people!

13/10/2024

This is why I love Essentrics!

29/06/2024

Bahaha! Also, if you are the person to walk ahead of everyone on a forest bathing walk, you know 😂🕷️🕸️

Spiders: Unsuccessfully trapping hikers since, like, forever.

We’ve all walked through a spider web at some point. You escaped and are here now, so that backs up the statement. If you’re currently stuck on the web and reading this, hey, at least you’re still able to scroll on social.

If you get out of that predicament, avoid future sticky situations by using a stick while walking. Hold it in front of you as you roleplay as Gandalf walking in the woods, sorry, to clear any stray webs across the path. (You shall now pass!!!!)

You can also take the day off from leading and let someone else take charge. We know, you’re an Aries, but you can do it. If they are fairly tall, bonus. You can also sleep in and let the early risers clear the trail for you. You can rescue them after you begin your hike at 10 a.m. Finally, if you avoid the trap, aren’t you special? Make the most of the flailing dance routine that follows. More passion! More energy! Umm. Less passion! Less energy!

P.S. The average spider can spin or repair a web in about 30 to 60 minutes. Something to keep in mind if the trail is one-way. You will possibly meet the spider again. Awkward.

Image: Screenshot of post with text, “Spiders: Unsuccessfully trapping hikers since, like, forever.”

29/06/2024

Love this message from the Mindful Moments calendar !

This is 100% the common thread and the beauty of all that I share through Joy in Movement!

Oh, and can you spot the typo? 😁

29/06/2024

Good morning!
Essentrics is happening at 8.30am!
Come stretch, tone, move your body = feel *great*!

28/06/2024

Tonight, on Friday June 28th, I host my fifth and final (in-person) Somatic Rest Circle session at Dust Off Yoga in Littleton, NH for this season.

This session is going to bring the whole series together:

Seeding rest, rooting down into self and your needs, feeling into boundaries, and finally branching out – exploring relationship with “other”.

We will experience another of my favorite and - to me - intensely profound practices which is “the weight of consciousness - exploring boundaries through understanding what is you and what is not you”.

This practice has helped me understand in my body, in a deeply felt way, what is mine and what is not mine, to let go of energy that weighs me down, and to let others be.

It has helped me understand that I can exist alongside someone else who might be in a very different mood than I or hold very different views to me. It has helped me understand that this “other” can be the way they choose to be, but that it does not have to weigh on me.

This means my interactions and relationship with the world around me can be more easeful, less fraught with tension, and it is easier for me to say "no", even if it's simply an internal, quiet "no", when I do not want to engage with something or someone, or when I don't want the "other" energy to affect me deeply.
📝 If you would like to attend this in-person, live class at 5.30pm, please head over to the Dust Off Yoga studio “book a class” webpage (link in comments), and follow the instructions from there.

ℹ️ More information on the whole series can also be found at the link in the comments.

This is a stand-alone session and you are welcome to join, even if you have not previously joined a session in this 5-part series.

27/06/2024

I am so honored to be hosting classes at DustOff Yoga. Jenn, the studio owner's, approach to yoga and mind-body healing is one that deeply resonates with me: This is not about fitness. She is passionate about being gentle and slow, and trauma-informed practices, which benefit anyone, and which fit so well with my Somatics approach.

Tomorrow, on Friday June 28th, I host my fifth and final (in-person) Somatic Rest Circle session at Dust Off Yoga for this season.

This one is going to bring the whole series together: Seeding rest, rooting down into self and your needs, feeling into boundaries, and finally branching out – exploring relationship with “other”.

We will explore another of my favorite practices which is “the weight of consciousness - exploring boundaries through understanding what is you and what is not you”.

This practice has helped me understand in my body, in a deeply felt way, what is mine and what is not mine, to let go of energy that weighs me down, and to let others be.

It has helped me understand that I can exist alongside someone else who might be in a very different mood than I or hold very different views to me. It has helped me understand that this “other” can be the way they choose to be, and that it does not have to weigh on me.
📝 If you would like to attend this in-person, live class, please head over to the link in the comments, which takes you to the Dust Off Yoga studio “book a class” webpage, and follow the instructions from there.

This is a stand-alone session and you are welcome to join, even if you have not previously joined a session in this 5-part series.

26/06/2024

Another forest bathing walk complete and that on a *gorgeous* summer day!

I am so blessed to get to guide these magical nature immersions and so grateful for those who show up for themselves and for nature. Those who allow themselves to slow down so much, they discover the most wondrous life happening all around us all the time!

We invited the magic of the wind, hummingbird, and dragonflies today - it was just the most wonderful serendipity!

I am so grateful 🙏

📆 Stay tuned for a schedule of monthly walks coming up, starting in July or August.

👉 Head over to the link in the comments to sign up for email updates, and to receive a beautiful grounding meditation that you can practice bare feet to the ground out in nature, if you want to!

26/06/2024

Love me some Bruce Lipton!

Check out the original post for some fascinating information ("new" to our era) insights about how our human body works.

1. Our mind creates our world.

2. As above, so below. Fractal geometry. We are and contain the microcosm of the macrocosm.

3. We create and live in a world of ripples / energy vortices / vibration.

4. Opposites (good/bad, light/dark, Democrat/Republican) are part of the same ripple = continuum. Where are you on the wavelength?

5. Everything is rhythm. "Toutes les choses, c'est du rhythme" (one of my favorite videos in the link in comments) Evolution of science, religion, materialism, metaphysics, spirituality, ...

6. Waves of interaction: Actions cause reactions, which change the original action (cause & effect). "Biology of Belief"

7. Balance of energies is necessary for life (male/female energy, growth/support, left/ right hemispheres of the brain). They are a continuum of the same thing (see 4 and 5).

http://www.brucelipton.com