Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, has been doing a series of articles this year on different book clubs from around the country. The articles show up periodically in the Focus and Books section of Saturday’s paper and have profiled clubs from Moncton to Victoria.

As the series has unfolded, one of the most interesting aspects of it has been that every book club profiled has been so different from every other one. What they have in common is that the members love books and reading, after that the commonalities stop.

The latest article features a club in Ontario that meets just three times a year, rather than the more common once-a-month. This group of retirees has created a club schedule that fits into their busy lives.

Another club that we were fascinated to read about was a mother-daughter club, also in Ontario. Founder Karen von Jagow came home from her adult book club a few years ago to find herself peppered with questions from her then-11-year-old daughter. Von Jagow realized that her daughter had observed how important her mother’s club was to her and was, in her own way, expressing a desire to be involved with a group in a similar way.

The idea for a mother-daughter club was born and they’ve been meeting now for three years. One beautiful thing the mothers have noticed is that their girls have transformed from being a bit shy about talking about the books to being more confident about hosting, leading a discussion and creating provocative questions for the group to discuss. The added bonus of keeping conversational doors open between parent and child during the teenage years is one we’re sure these mothers are happy about too!

Do you belong to a book group?
If not, would you like to create one?
Who would you invite to join you on the reading journey?

namaste,

Zoey

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

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

We are pleased to share this article by one of our Shakti Sage Life Coaches, Shannon Rosnau, seen here with a kidlet!

Mystic Mama’s Infusion of Inspiration and delight for Conscious Parents….

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
-Melody Beattie

‘Tis the season to give thanks; however, as we all know, a special day is really unnecessary. Every hour of every day is the perfect time to express gratitude.

This month, I would like to reflect upon “thankfulness” and explore ways we, as parents, can foster “attitudes of gratitude” within our families.

So much more than a social nicety, thankfulness is an incredibly powerful

Each word spoken is recorded in our saliva – a vibratory
reflection of the essence of the message. Being nearly
99% water, saliva holds a “memory” of all that passes
through our body/mind/spirit. A healthy human
produces nearly 600 milliliters of saliva each day –
enough to fill a 12 oz. bottle.

Talk about swallowing our own words!

As conscious parents, I know we all recognize the genuine power of gratitude. Many of us keep personal gratitude journals and count our blessings on a daily basis. However, it can be a challenge to incorporate thankfulness into our busy, everyday family lives. Gratitude is admittedly hard to muster when our toddler is having a meltdown in the grocery line or our At times like this it is easy to sink into self pity and ask, “why me?”

When we are thankful

This week, practice making gratitude a natural part of your family life. Write thank you notes to one another. Create a family gratitude jar or journal. Hug your child and tell them, “I am soo thankful for you.” Start a thankfulness ritual that feels perfect for your family. Model thankfulness and talk about all the things you are grateful for. I would love to hear your ideas

Yours in gratitude.

Namaste,
Shannon Rosnau
Mystic mama, Shakti Sage Life Coach, Advocate of love

I hope you enjoyed this article by Shannon. It is a great reminder of the power of families and how important it is to keep the love & gratitude flowing!

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

I am sure many of you are deep into the September routine by now. School is in full swing, soccer will start soon, if it hasn’t already. I hope that you had a great summer and more time with your family, hopefully.

For many of us moms, the beginning of the school year can be a very hectic and possibly stressful time. Which is why we were thrilled to discover this great reminder article from Parenting.com at CNN.com, called “How to Save Your Marriage from Your Kids”.

Please remember to take time to nurture yourself and your relationship this fall as life in your household revs up. What could you and your spouse/partner do that you haven’t done in a while? What activities would fill up your cup and also nurture your relationship?

Send the kids to a movie and spend Saturday relaxing with each other?
Make a date to have a long, restful dinner on a patio before winter sets in? (Sans kids, of course.)
Go on a hike or a bike ride together?
Take turns giving each other foot massages after the kids have gone to bed?

Anything that we nurture, thrives, including our relationships. Here at Shakti Sage, we love the point that the Parenting article makes, that when we nurture our spousal relationship we model to our children what a healthy marriage looks like. Making the point to focus on our marriages might give our children a fighting chance to have healthy marriages themselves one day.

namaste,

Zoey

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

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

Enjoy this wonderful article by one of our shakti sage life coaches, Shannon, who specializes in working with “mystic mamas”!
~
“Mystic Mama’s” Infusion of Inspiration and Delight for Conscious Parents…

“Young children naturally live in the moment, not by the clock, so subjecting them to time pressure usually leads to discord.” –Scott Noelle

These are wise words….☺

It’s September and along with shorter days and leaves on the ground comes the seemingly inevitable return to the land of “schedules”. Now, many of us love the return to structure; however, it can be especially challenging to remain conscious as parents when we’re rushing to get the kids out the door, hurrying to make it to piano lessons or struggling to get the munchkins in bed on time.

Let’s face it, rushing around and engaging in constant “struggles” can be just plain exhausting. When we’re exhausted it is easy to revert to un-conscious patterns and ways of being.

How can we honour the natural rhythms of our children (and ourselves) while operating in the “artificial” world of schedules? Hmmmm….

Well, one simple thing we can do is stop and breathe. No matter where we are we always have the ability to access this natural stress reliever. It’s amazing how a few deep belly breaths can transform a mood or situation. Ahhhhh…. (We like to do this as a family when our energy gets a bit off. The kids love it. It’s especially nice when coupled with a peace hug! ☺)

Another thing we may do is remember that no matter how hectic, scattered and chaotic things appear, we always have a choice. Always. We can choose to respond or react in any situation. Something that many people find helpful is to recall an affirmation or mantra during particularly frantic times. Simply repeating something like, “this too shall pass” or “I am peace” in our minds can often assist in bringing us back to centre so that we may greet our children with patience and compassion.

Finally, we may choose to work together to build more flexibility and fluidity into our lives. That might mean allowing for more “free” time during the day or changing the way we approach time commitments and obligations.

This week, remain consciously aware of being “in the now” with your children. Breathe together. Look at one another when you talk. Light a candle. Hug. How does it feel to be present together?

May you enjoy every moment!

Namaste,

Shannon
Mystic Mama, Life Coach, Advocate of Love

I hope you enjoyed this inspiring article!

Zoey

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, 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

We’ve noticed several articles and mentions lately of a relatively new phenomenon – that of mothers in a family reaching the age of menopause at exactly the same time their children are reaching puberty. Canada’s Globe and Mail notes that women of the Baby Boomer generation are the first to delay childbearing en masse and that menopausal moms with teenagers entering puberty may become the norm.

At SheZoom.com, Julie Ross, a parenting expert, recommends that the best way to effectively manage this simmering hormonal cauldron of parent and child is to remember take care of ourselves. By ensuring that we are getting enough exercise and building rejuvenating down-time into our days we’ll not only be refueling ourselves so that we are able to stay centered when we’re dealing with a hormonal teenager, but we will be modeling self-care for our daughters and sons. If we believe and act in a way that shows that we value ourselves, we will raise children who value themselves.

And don’t forget to laugh! If your household happens to be caught in a simultaneous-menopause-and-puberty scuffle the good news is that you’re not alone. Women are even creating art and comedy around the subject.

namaste,

Zoey

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

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

“Women, Courage and Being a Shakti Sage”

I heard back from many of you that you are having an edgy time with the word power. Women’s and girl’s empowerment workshops are flourishing, with great results, yet I am hearing back that the notion of “power with” and “coming from one’s place of power” can easily feel difficult or harsh or uncomfortable when doing this in relationships.

So, here is a review of my designed “shakti sage” qualities. Foundational shakti sage qualities are power and wisdom, infused with the following secondary qualities: courage, fire, boldness in one’s uniqueness, balanced by unconditional love, integrity and gentleness. I believe that being powerful requires exhibiting on-going gentle courage in daily life.

This week, I would like to discuss courage further, not the kind of hero courage that is exhibited with dramatic feats but a kind of quiet and sustainable courage. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who coined the phrase, “well behaved women seldom make history”, was in fact speaking about well behaved normal women who in the course of their regular daily, non extraordinary lives, exhibit exceptional gentle courage by refusing to be pulled into the cultural drift of complacency.

This may show up as refusing to participate in gossip; as refusing to participate in racist, ageist or sexist jokes, this may show up as refusing to be seduced into relating to one another on the basis of looks, clothes, weight, victimhood, social status or heaven forbid what husbands do (if you have them).

It takes courage and skill to see a good friend and acknowledge her for who she is, not her looks, her new haircut, her new car or clothes. It also takes courage and skill to accept that acknowledgement. You might be asking, well, what is wrong with paying a compliment and it is a great question. I would say, nothing is wrong with paying a compliment, but when one’s life foundation is based on the external, rather than the internal and this becomes a life pattern, that becomes a problem.

Play around with this during the week, you wonderful luscious shakti sages.

Self-care Enchantments:

1. Become an observer of your interactions and conversations, how do you participate or not in overt or subtle gossip, “social statusing”, “I’m better than youing”?

2. What would it look like for you to exhibit gentle courage in your life? Add your comments in to the powblog.

3. Which woman/women do you know who have showed amazing gentle courage?

Namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
life & business coach for women
inspiration * clarity * wisdom * enchantment
http://zoeyryan.com
604-323-3700
“Coaching for your heart & soul & the heart and soul of your business”

Inrageous/Outrageous Self-Care Enchantments for This Week

This month, the theme is “mothers”, in honour of Mothers Day and women everywhere, who may or may not be birth mothers of children, but are birth mothers of ideas, creativity, businesses, beautiful homes, love and peace.
So, the enchantments this month are about honouring you as a woman, about honouring mothers, about honouring the Divine Feminine in all of us and about honouring Mother Earth.

I was out for my walk yesterday, thinking and reflecting on my mothers.  I lost my mom to breast cancer when she was 74 and I was 39 and I lost my mother-in-law to lung cancer even earlier.  I treasure my memories of both these dear women and know that with their passing I feel very much that the role of “matriarch” has passed on to me, as the mom of three daughters.  It feels like a significant role.

The mother-daughter dynamic is said to be one of the most powerful in nature and I add that, the mother-daughter relationship (both in the material world and metaphorically) would then be one of the most “pregnant with potential” for personal growth and transformation as well.

The self-care enchantments for this week are about you and your mom!

Self Care Enchantments for the week:

1.    Ponder your relationship with your mom and write down 3 wonderful things about it and share this with your mom.  Even if she has passed on, you can send her a verbal letter and talk to her.  If this is difficult for you, ask yourself what is getting in the way?
2.    Honour yourself as a woman, as a creator, as a spark of the Divine Feminine.
3.    On Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11th, pick an action that feels representative to you of total honouring  and self-care and “give it to yourself”.  You may choose to take the whole day off from any kind of domestic duties, spend the day in nature, make a vision board, or schedule a spa day.  The wonderful part is, you get to choose.

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & soul”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
www.entrepreneurialsuperstars.com
604-323-3700

“Freedom is a bigger game than power.  Power is about what you can control.  Freedom is about what you can unleash” – Harriet Rubin

I love how amazing the human body is!  It is close to my eldest daughter’s birthday (she will be turning 20) and around this time of the year, I remember so clearly, the day our lives changed for ever with her birth!  There is nothing like becoming a mom to turn one’s life topsy turvy forever.  I count the births of our three daughters as three of the most profound and powerful experiences of my life and remember too, that insatiable drive and desire to have a baby before we had the first one.
Now, with the whole menopause thing behind me and with less fluctuation in my hormones, I am starting to feel that same draw for the wonder of a baby, but this time, its’ about becoming a grandma.  Now, I have no desire for my girls to have babies before they are ready but I find my thoughts drawn to being a grandma.  I am talking to grandmas, listening to their stories, loving the pictures and reported anecdotes and I realize, I am a “grandma in training”.  Given what I know about myself and my commitment to keep this world safe and healthy for the next seven generations as well as my “kind of boho-chic, thrift store find” style, I realize the I am a “hippy grandma” in training!

Hmmmm, I am going to ponder what all this means.

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan

coach . catalyst . shakti sage

hippy grandma in training

life & business coach for women

“Coaching for your heart & soul”

www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com

www.hippygrandma.com