Speaking of yoga, I was in a yoga class recently and the teacher said something memorable that I’ve been reflecting on for a couple of days.

“Our bodies can’t build strength until they’ve been relieved of tension or stress.”

This particular yoga teacher has an exquisitely gentle way of practicing that she teaches in all her classes. Her classes are so gentle, in fact, that I sometimes find myself feeling guilty for not “exercising harder” on the two or three days a week that I go to her classes. But it felt so good being in her class, often spending most of the class lying on my back doing spinal lifts and twists and hearing her say, “Slowly, slooowwwllly.”

So this past weekend when she mentioned that our bodies can’t build strength until they’ve been relieved of tension or stress, it all clicked into place for me.

As successful North American women I suspect that we can sometimes become entirely focused on building strength in so many areas of our lives; bigger businesses, more efficiency in our lives so that we can get more done, etc. But if we feel drained by all that doing perhaps that’s our body’s way of asking us to stop pressing forward sometimes and take care to relax, relieve and let stress fall away.

My yoga teacher reminded me, once again, that there has to be balance in everything we do. As women who give so much, we need to remember that the giving of strength does require the balance of releasing stress and tension.

1. Can you think of three things that help you to feel relieved of tension and stress?
2. Could you book some time this week to engage in one of those activities?

peace & namaste,

Zoey – founding hippy at hippy grandma

Zoey Ryan
life, business & leadership coach for women
inspiration * clarity * wisdom * enchantment
www.shaktisage.com
604-323-3700

“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”

Are you a heart-centered and “soulful 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 Hippy Grandma widely and wildly with your soul sisters. www.hippygrandma.com

For the past 7 years, I have been following some wonderful marketing gurus like Seth Godin and Michael Port.  What I love about these two is that they are “renegades”, blast open conventional thinking about marketing and are tech savvy, understanding the dynamic of social networking to tap into niche marketing success.  I also love the book “Attracting Your Perfect Customer: the power of strategic synchronicity” by Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez (Stringer).  I have been further educated by my friend, Pamela Chatry “A Personal Business Manager” about the power of customer driven processes and plans.

Hippy Grandma , an “on-line eco-boutique selling fair trade and earth frendly treasures” is all about niche marketing and shared success!  Our niche market is “the woman over 50 online” who feels she is a “hippie at heart” who will make purchases from her heart on the basis of the “eco, fair trade and green quotient” of that product.  This woman may consider herself a “cultural creative”, practices yoga & meditation, loves reading, is interested in the difference between religion and spirituality and may feel compelled to participate in social action especially around issues to do with women and children.

We also tap into a secondary niche market, one of the “quirky collector ones” and that is the market of vintage chenille bedspread collectors and lovers!  We sell exquisite baby jackets made out of vintage chenille, similar to that being modeled above by Sophia!

I would love your help in identifying further characteristics of our “perfect customer”.  Please add your feedback and comments below.

namaste,

Zoey, a happy hippy and hippy grandma founder

photo by Meg & Jess of Co.lektiv Images – Photography for jewelry, fashion and luscious products.