BY DAVID C. MONTECILLO


I have a friend who just opened a wellness center in the Alabang area. Her name is Joanne and is one of the more attuned people I know to healing, meditation and fitness. Aside from bio energy therapies that she offers in her center, she created a unique dance regimen called the “Chi Dance.” It makes use of movement, music and the natural life force energy called “chi” in Chinese medicine.

When she opened her wellness center in Alabang, some friends asked why she did such a risky thing. She is in close proximity to some well-known gyms with big floor areas that can offer Yoga classes for fifty at a time and have a huge membership base. She was asked how different is her establishment from theirs.

Joanne’s answer was simple but very deep in the meaning behind it. She said that all these gyms offer a place to “work out,” her center offers a place to “work in.” “Work out” in her definition pertains to focusing on the external aspect of the person; in other words, it’s all physical. “Working in” pertains to working on the internal aspect of the person. It means going deeper than just the external mindset of looking good. Work-in means to work on one’s emotional-mental-spiritual muscle.

In Joanne’s methods, the body is a reflection of one’s thoughts, mindsets and emotional history. To bring balance back to the body is a combination of dance movement, Yoga, meditation and chi-energy-medicine-therapies. It doesn’t stop at getting the slim body and having people around you admire your sexy shape. That’s part of a bigger whole of mind-body-spirit. Joanne’s concept of mind-body is hardly anything you would hear from the average exercise instructor.

Another difference she brings into the concept of “working-in” is that in working out, one has to follow an instructor and forms a long time relationship with the trainer. The client often refers to the instructor for advice and often delegates the pace of the regimen to the trainer. In “working-in” Joanne introduces the client to the trainer within. In the beginning, Joanne guides you through movement, meditation and healing. Once her clients have more clarity in their thinking and feeling process, she guides them to listening to their inner trainer let them move from the space they are in.

There may be other establishments around the area that train the body, but Joanne’s Vox Dei Fitness and Wellness Center helps train the rest that really matters. For more information about Joanne, go to www.sattvahwellness.com. Vox Dei Center is at unit 102 Kennedy Center, Madrigal Business Park, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. (02) 775-3632.