“To succeed, you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality.” ~ Anita Roddick

I love this quote and use it for all elements of my life and business. Anita Roddick certainly exemplified living a passionate life and demonstrated this through her philanthropic work! I have found in both my coaching and with the artisan suppliers for Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique, that most people joyfully engage in what they are passionate about, if they have figured out what this is! What some folks seem to struggle with is figuring out their passions.

I think the word ‘passion’ even scares people, due to some of the sexual connotations, however, the definition is simply ‘a powerful emotion, like enthusiasm, love or joy’. Of course there can be strong passionate negative emotions too and one can also learn alot about themselves from looking at these states as well.

Passion is very powerful and can truly “fire up” your life and/or business.

To gain clarity on your passions and how these can be integrated into your life or business planning ask yourself the following questions and then design accordingly so your life unfolds in alignment with the answers:

1. What makes me cry?
2. What makes me laugh?
3. What do I love?
4. If I could do and be anything in the world, what would that be?
5. If I didn’t have to work, what would I do?
6. What gives me the most energy?
7. What makes my heart ’sing’?

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippy baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures). www.hippygrandma.com

Zoey’s Top Ten Tips for Green Sailing

Having just returned from a 10 day sailing trip to Desolation Sound, BC, where re-provisioning is tricky due to lack of marine stores, I had plenty of practical opportunity to add to my ‘green sailing tip list’. These tips have been gleaned throughout 23 years of sailing in BC waters (most recently aboard our 35 ft Hunter sailboat ‘Orion’) with my husband and daughters.

Here are my top ten tips for green & practical sailing from the first mate and chief cook & bottle washer’s perspective:

1. Sail as much as possible as sailing by nature is ‘green’ as wind is the power source!
2. Use the ocean for composting fruit & vegetable peelings and coffee grounds.
3. Prior to leaving home, pack dry goods in Tupperware containers and zip loc bags to avoid having to dispose of cardboard containers and to save on space.
4. Add an ice block to the freezer/fridge to avoid an excess draw on the batteries.
5. Freeze bottled water at home and use this first as an ice source and then as fresh water once unthawed.
6. Bring solar powered lamps for reading at night.
7. Consider having solar panels and/or wind turbine installed.
8. Use white vinegar as a natural deoderizer for the head and all purpose cleaning agent.
9. Conserve water by washing dishes once/day.
10. Don’t forget the following essentials for the galley which add zest to non-perishable dishes and meals: cinnamon, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, onions, balsamic vinegar and for a special treat towards the end of the trip: Pillsbury biscuits, croissants, cookie dough and finally a box of brownie mix.

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-tique and a happy sailor

Are you a heart-centered and “soulfilled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures) .www.hippygrandma.com

Hippy Grandma’s Intuition: “Women, Intuition and Self-Care”

by Zoey Ryan ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-tique and life coach for women

From my perspective, elder women are sages! Being a sage includes: wisdom, intuition and gentleness, amoungst other qualities.

Intuition is an interesting one to ponder. Much has been written about “women’s intuition”, sometimes from the perspective of appreciation and depth, yet occasionally with a slightly minimizing and patronizing tone, discounting the richness and wisdom inherent in “women’s intuition.” One can sub-categorize this intuition as a “mother’s way of knowing”; “a nurse’s way of knowing”; “a healer’s way of knowing” etc.

Personally, I have experienced a little bit of trickiness when tapping into and planning to take action based on my intuition. This is also a “trickiness” that has been expressed by a number of my coaching clients. Since our egos/pain bodies/gremlins (one can use a variety of words to describe this type “energy field”) love attachment, continuity, the status quo, high drama, judgments etc; the trickiness becomes an interesting dialogue with ourselves to figure out if what we are “hearing” is our intuition or our ego. When faced with this dialogue, which can feel abit like a committee meeting with in us, the following phrase can be very helpful; “the body never lies”.

If you are interested, this week, tap into your intuition, your inner way of knowing. Be attentive to those other voices that may come in. Using your body as an indicator of intuition, where in your body does you intuition reside?

Intuition tends to be soft, gentle, neutral, flowing and centered in your body.

Ego/pain body/gremlin messages tend to feel strident, kind of whiny, negative and scattered.

Play around with this during the week!

Self-care Enchantments:

1. Think of a time that you experienced very strong intuition about something, and acted on it.

2. Think of a time that your ego, or pain body or gremlin was loud and insistent. For more information on “pain body’s” read any of Eckhart Tolle’s work like “The Power of Now”, or “A New Earth”.

3. Consider how intuition and ego feel different for you and learn how to tell the difference.

Peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey

Are you a heart-centered and “soulfilled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures) . www.hippygrandma.com

A deep bow and sending deep respect and honor to the Council of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers who hold such wisdom and knowledge in their ancestry, stories and memories…

From their site: www.grandmotherscouncil.com

“On October 11, 2004, 13 Indigenous Grandmothers from all over the world—the Alaskan Tundra, North, South and Central America, Africa, and Asia—arrived at Tibet House’s Menla Mountain Retreat amidst 340 acres of forests, fields and streams in upstate New York. Within a few days of convening, the grandmothers agreed to form a global alliance; to work together to serve both their common goals and their specific local concerns.

The first council gathering was a time of hope and inspiration. The grandmothers are both women of prayer and women of action. Their traditional ways link them with the forces of the earth. Their solidarity with one another creates a web to rebalance the injustices wrought from an imbalanced world; a world disconnected from the fundamental laws of nature and the original teachings based on a respect for all of life.”

Learn more: www.grandmotherscouncil.com

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations,

Zoey

founding hippy at hippy grandma eco-boutique

7th ANNUAL LIVING EARTH CIRCLE GRANDMOTHER COUNCIL EVENT

From Lisa Pavati from living earth circl ( livingearthcircle.org )

Ashland Premier Film Screening ‘For The Next 7 Generations’
Honoring of Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim
Saturday June 5th 2:30-6:30pm

Film, Live Music, Honoring Ceremony for Agnes with Lisa Pavati and Living
Earth Circle, Presentations by Agnes Baker Pilgrim chairwoman of The
International 13 Grandmother’s Council, Earthdance International, David
West, Lomakatsi, and more

Live Music by Grammy nominee Gentle Thunder, Kat & Windsong, Harmony Sue
Haynie, & more special guests

Benefit for International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers
Admission: $10-100 sliding scale

****Please SHARE this email and INVITE your friends to come this historic
event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127468733932723&ref=ts

Ashland Premier Film Screening ‘For The Next 7 Generations’
Honoring of Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim
Saturday June 5th 2:30-6:30pm

Film, Live Music, Honoring Ceremony for Agnes with Lisa Pavati and Living
Earth Circle, Presentations by Agnes Baker Pilgrim chairwoman of The
International 13 Grandmother’s Council, Earthdance International, David
West, Lomakatsi, and more

Live Music by Grammy nominee Gentle Thunder, Kat & Windsong, Harmony Sue
Haynie, & more special guests

Benefit for International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers
Admission: $10-100 sliding scale

****Please SHARE this email and INVITE your friends to come this historic
event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127468733932723&ref=ts

ONE SHOWING ONLY Event Schedule:
GrandmotherCouncil.org, SustainableWellnessGuide.com

A delicious dinner will be available after the event from Cultureworks’
organic cafe, with Live music by Kat and Windsong and Harmony Sue Haynie.

VOLUNTEERS GREATLY APPRECIATED
To Support & Volunteer: Please contact Lisa Pavati, LEC Grandmother
Council Project founder: Lisa@AshlandWellnessGuide.com”>facebook.com/event.php?eid=127468733932723&ref=ts

ONE SHOWING ONLY Event Schedule:
GrandmotherCouncil.org, SustainableWellnessGuide.com

A delicious dinner will be available after the event from Cultureworks’
organic cafe, with Live music by Kat and Windsong and Harmony Sue Haynie.

VOLUNTEERS GREATLY APPRECIATED
To Support & Volunteer: Please contact Lisa Pavati, LEC Grandmother
Council Project founder: Lisa@AshlandWellnessGuide.com

“What is your greatest struggle”?

Ahhhh, I love this question.

I seem to have a different struggle every day, sometimes it is personal, sometimes business, sometimes family. What I know is that I used to push my struggles away and now I embrace them as my daily spiritual practice.

I used to engage in thinking that went like “once I do such and such, then my life will be good or complete or then I will “get there” and “be done”. This type of thinking still shows up as “once I am a grandma, then…; or once I retire then…; once the girls are married then….”

What I have come to realize is that this isn’t actually the way life unfolds. I think it was Gilda Radner who said “there is always something”. So, yes, there is always something, there is always a struggle and isn’t that wonderful! I never have to go looking for more personal growth projects, they just show up :) For me it is also about acknowledging what I call “the mucky mess of life”, the full catastrophe living as Jon Kabat Zinn calls it. My experience is that it is through this lovely “slime” that wonderful things emerge.

It feels very one dimensional to live a life that pushes away chaos. I love the word “chaordic”. For me it brings “chaos into harmony and order”!

namaste,

Zoey ~ founding hippy of hippy grandma eco-boutique

Are you a “heart centered, soul-filled & green shopper”? Have a look through our on-line eco-boutique. Our suppliers are grandmas on pensions, women solo-preneurs and women’s fair trade co-ops.
Your purchases help care for Mother Earth and vulnerable pregnant moms and babies! www.hippygrandma.com

This isn’t actually my family but I love this picture of the three generations and the beautiful grandma!

My two sets of grandparents were very very different! On my dad’s side, my grandpa was very strict and very stern, of stoic Swedish stock. They were farmers on the Canadian Prairies. I remember feeling a bit scared of my grandpa. They were quite religious and didn’t drink or smoke or read much other than the Bible. My grandma died when I was quite young, she was softer and made wonderful cookies.

My grandparents on my mom’s side were the polar opposites. They were both German and spoke only German until my mom was seven. My grandma had dyed jet black hair and wore bright red lipstick and sold make up door to door. She made amazing hazelnut cakes, poppy seed loaves and always had coconut candies in the freezer. My grandpa drove a moving truck and smoked a pipe.

Both of my sets of grandparents and my parents lived on farms during the depression. I don’t think I will ever imagine the hardship of this and the struggles of having huge families and very little food, clothing, warmth or shelter.

I am very grateful to my parents and grandparents!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations,

Zoey - founding hippy ceo of hippy grandma

Are you a heart centered and soul-filled & green shopper? Have a look through our on-line eco-boutique. Our suppliers are grandmas on pensions, women solo-preneurs and women’s fair trade co-ops.
Your purchases help care for Mother Earth and vulnerable pregnant moms and babies! www.hippygrandma.com

I recently read “Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother Daughter Story” by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor. This book is “a wise and engrossing book about feminine thresholds, spiritual growth, and the relationship between mothers and daughters” and I loved it!

The sections by the mom, Sue explore many facets of aging and deepening spirituality, while Ann’s chapters are lighter, exuberant and achingly truthful.

Being the mom of three daughters and personally going through many of the mid-life questioning and questing that Sue is doing, I am savoring this book as one would savor a big, round ripe pomegranate! I am finding a deepening and an enriching of my spirituality emerging with the reading. It also gives me distinct pleasure to be reading this book in an area of the western world that has welcomed Eastern spirituality and religious freedoms. Vancouver, with it’s partner city San Francisco, spawned the hippie movement, which provided a gateway for the emerging Eastern spirituality and the furthering of a differentiation between religion and spirituality

First, here are some definitions from Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org ):

“Religion: A religion is a set of tenets and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, or religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience. The term “religion” refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction.”

“Spiritual: Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and faith, a transcendent reality, or one or more deities. Spiritual matters are thus those matters regarding humankind’s ultimate nature and purpose, not only as material biological organisms, but as beings with a unique relationship to that which is perceived to be beyond both time and the material world. Spirituality also implies the mind-body dichotomy, which indicates a separation between the body and soul.

As such, the spiritual is traditionally contrasted with the material, the temporal and the worldly. A perceived sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to a metaphysical reality greater than oneself, which may include an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence, or such states as satori or nirvana. Equally importantly, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Spirituality is the personal, subjective dimension of religion, particularly that which pertains to liberation or salvation.”

So, while spirituality may be connected to religion for some, it can also be the subjective sense of “a power greater than oneself, a sense of expansiveness, connection and awe” that is experienced outside the realm of organized religion. It is this sense of expansiveness and connection that guides hippy grandma to keep the hippy love flowing for generations so our children and our grandchildren and on and on, may also catch some star dust!

“The true harvest of my life is intangible – a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched” – Henry David Thoreau

Enjoy your day.

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations,

Zoey – founding hippy & ceo (chief enthusiasm officer) at hippy grandma & life & biz coach for women

Are you a heart centered and soul filled shopper? Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share Hippy Grandma widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters.
www.hippygrandma.com

February is all about “the heart”! We have Valentines Day and Heart month with the Heart & Stroke Foundation, not to mention our ‘far out & fab fan contest’ for February!

As some of you know, I had a heart “attack” in September. My heart attack occurred after receiving a serious health diagnosis for my husband and after meditating on opening the heart and “walking right into the sharp point of the pain”. There could be numerous discussions about the timing of all of this, however, today, I want to tell you more about the type of heart attack I had, as many women I talk to have never heard about this kind.

A “heart attack” or myocardial infarction (MI) by definition, occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart muscle is cut off because of an “occlusion or obstruction”. Most of us know about coronary artery disease and about “fatty plaques” that can block or occlude blood vessels in the heart and lead to a heart attack. This is the only type of a heart attack I knew about, even after being in “health care” for over 20 years in a “previous life”.

The type of heart attack I had; occurs predominantly in women, is likely under-reported, is not very common (thankfully) and seems to be associated with hormone levels. I want to tell you about it so you will have personal awareness and be attentive to your body, even if you are healthy and do not have heart disease! I had what is called a “spontaneous coronary artery dissection” (SCAD) and what happens is that a few layers of the artery wall pull away or self dissect, creating a “flap” which then pulls away from the artery wall and stops the blood flow. Upon investigation, my arteries were completely clear of “plaques” and I do not have “heart disease” in the way most people think of it. The symptoms of both types of heart attack are the same though.

Here are the symptoms I experienced; for about 2 days prior, I felt a tightness in my chest, which felt like I was developing bronchitis; I felt abit light headed, during the “heart attack”, I felt like a 50- 200 lb dog was sitting on my chest and I had difficulty breathing, this sensation would ease for a while and then it would resume. I had the “heavy dog sitting on my chest” sensation, three times or so and it lasted about 20 minutes each time. I had very little pain! My reference for physical pain is childbirth and relatively speaking, I had virtually no pain, just a slight discomfort in the right (not left) side of my neck, shoulder and arm. I felt pretty calm and relaxed until I googled “symptoms of a heart attack for women” and found I had about 8 out of 10. At this point, I decided I should go to the hospital, still thinking I was being very silly and melodramatic. Very sensibly, I did not drive myself to emerg, I had my daughter drive me. When I arrived in emerg and told them I was having chest tightness & heaviness and difficulty breathing, I was whisked right in. My blood pressure was “sky high”.

My story has a very happy ending; I am healthy, happy and alive. I did not need a stent or bypass. I received incredible medical care and attention. In my recuperation, I was exhausted for about a month and then my energy started to return, although I could resume my walking program almost right away (with my Dr’s OK). I had “critical illness” insurance, so could relax and not worry about finances. I have since talked to another woman who had a very similar experience and apparently there is a North American research study going on about SCAD, let me know if you want more info.

Here is my big “surprise”; I really didn’t experience significant pain, it was more discomfort, heaviness and chest tightness!

Here is my learning: trust my body’s wisdom, listen to the messages of my heart, do not minimize intuitive concerns, know what a “healthy body” and organs feel like, understand the mind/body connection (I was feeling pretty stressed about my husband), know the symptoms of a heart attack, understand that a heart attack doesn’t always contain a lot of “pain” as I was used to thinking of pain, ask for help and don’t drive if I think I am having another heart attack! This experience also re-validated the importance of self-care, a healthy lifestyle, loving relationships and the importance of living each moment fully present and in the now.

Please share this information with your women friends!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations,

Zoey – founding hippy & ceo at hippy grandma

Are you a heart centered and soul filled shopper? Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share Hippy Grandma widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters.
www.hippygrandma.com

Christmas Morning 2009 in Hippy Heaven, Yelapa, Mexico

Hotel Lagunita, Yelapa

By Zoey Ryan

The gentle waves muffle the Mexican “rancho polka music” which has started again after a brief respite. The music plays all night on Christmas Eve and for me is a strange blend of irritating and slightly hypnotizing. Earplugs simply take the edge off. Earplugs plus pillows, with my head sandwiched, seem the most effective method of muffling, which I successfully utilized at 4:17 am.

I sip my coffee, wishing it were organic Chiapas blend but enjoying what we brought from home. The roosters interject an occasional crow, although their additions are less frequent since sunrise.

I hear a water taxi leaving, a dog barking. The tiny hummingbird hovers at the brilliant red flower spindle. I hear the slap slap of flip flops on the stone stairs. I would have said ‘thongs’ a few years back but my daughters have trained me otherwise.

The temperature rises and a black and yellow striped butterfly glides in front of the tiled patio. The musky wet smell of the jungle intermingles with wood smoke, sea water smells, manure, diesel, fragrant flowers and a waft of laundry detergent. The air is wet and each breath seems to bath individual bronchioli.

I saw a furry little mouse this morning, hiding behind the dish soap (bright orange “Salvo- mi Salva Detergente Liquido Concentrado para Platos”). I startled it and so fast I wasn’t sure I had actually seen it, the tiny thing squeezed under the brown and gold Osterizer blender we use to make fresh fruit smoothies (our favorite is a papaya, banana, coconut, yogurt blend). Or, maybe, what I saw was a gecko.

The mama grey whale and her calf are quiet this morning. Perhaps they too are exhausted after the marathon night of music.

The ‘gang of teenagers’, my phrase to describe the flock of wild canaries who swoop and chatter in the morning, following the sun along the trees, scream by. They are quite unruly.

I notice a new flower has opened, yellow with saffron orange streaks and a fragrance that is mildly spicy. A lime plops to the ground. A velvety brown bird comes for a visit, perching on the iron railing at eye level. I hear chacalacas in the distance. Their sound is identical to their name. I am waiting for the pair of military macaws to cross high overhead in their daily fly by. It is said that there is a tree up river where many macaws roost and if you get there by 5 am you can see them. I’m not up that early here.

My mosquito bite itches, even with a thick pink coating of calamine lotion, glop, glop. The smell of the lotion transports me to my childhood on the Prairies and hot, lazy summer days playing in the fields and flushing out gopher holes. I wonder if I will get Dengue fever and am mildly concerned. Would it be gopher karma?

The church bells rang early this morning, calling the community to mass. I counted 16 bells, with a pause and then another bell. I may have miscounted.

The ants are busy this morning, scavenging the crumbs from the banana bread we ate out on the patio yesterday. A bright orange butterfly floats by and another magical Yelapa Christmas Day begins.

Our family in Yelapa (minus one)!

I hope you enjoyed my “Yelapa day” as much as we enjoyed our holiday. I’m back now, excited about 2010 and doing some great values based business planning.

peace & namaste,

Zoey – founding hippy & ceo at hippy grandma

Are you a heart centered and soul filled shopper? Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share Hippy Grandma widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters.
www.hippygrandma.com