Making Home a Soft Place to Fall

by Joanne Newell

For many families in the northern hemisphere, it’s back-to-school time.

I just love the sense of optimism that’s part and parcel of a new school year – the smell of new books and freshly sharpened pencils, the change in routine, and, if your children are schooled away from home, their excitement at seeing old friends and getting to know a new classroom teacher.

But if your children do attend school outside home, it’s important to remember that they need to feel completely ‘at home’ when they return home from school each day (especially in those first few potentially stressful days of being in a new class). When they open the front door and dash in in a whirl of bags, books, and sporting equipment, they’re craving a ‘soft place to fall’, a respite from the outer world they’ve been inhabiting for most of the day.

Even if your kids absolutely love school, they still crave the feeling of security that home brings – and I believe that it’s our job to create that loving environment. If we set that up for them as children, they’ll know that they can create that nurturing environment for themselves as they grow. Creating a rhythm in their schooldays helps make life a little more predictable and secure. Read more »

Meet BiG Thinkers: Sarma Melngailis, Kris Carr and Anthony Anderson

Alright, Green-Gogetters.

It’s important to me to give a bit of attention to the people who helped make BiG happen. It was really a treat to get the chance to hook up with these green scene stars on the phone for a one on one call about what will make the world a better place and inspire us all to take a bit more responsibility for the way things are.

Green Urban Goddess Sarma Melngailis is about a lot more than mouth-watery desserts and classy restaurant. It was fascinating to get a sense of all the work that goes on behind the scene. We see malomars and chocolate mint cookies, but there’s so much more to it. Listening to her talk about her uncompromising commitment to organic, raw ingredients inspired me is a reminder that we vote with out dollars!

It takes guts to make hippie a hip thing to do, and the thing I loved most about this call was when she shared a bit about the fact that she goes out of her way to choose staff who are not vegetarian or raw to ensure that she creates a comfortable experience for anyone who comes into her restaurant.

Sarma’s got style and there’s no denying it. You can catch her interview when you sign up for BiG and learn more about how you, too, can be a lucky duck when you check out her online store and score yourself some of her treats and eats!

Next time you’re sitting there feeling sorry for yourself about not having enough money or time or having too much to do, then pull out tonight’s interview with Kris Carr and listen to it again and again and again!

The fact that she’s taken one of the heaviest words out there and turned it into a “crazy sexy” thing means she’s tapped into her superpowers in a BiG way! THAT is the power of thought, the power of attitude and gratitude and living in joy, and that’s exactly why we asked Kris to be a part of our Believe in Green project.

Lucky for us, she said yes! You’ll love this inspiring interview with Kris and after listening you’ll want another dose of her positivity and you can dose up here.

The only man on our BiG thinkers panel was Anthony Anderson, also known as “the raw model.”

And now that you’ve seen his picture, I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not why I invited him, you frisky critter!! I invited him because he loves getting his fingers in the dirt and has some amazing advice and inspiration for BiG thinkers like you. He’s passionate about permaculture and by the end of this call, you will be too!

I was so impressed with the content he shared in this call and had more positive feedback about this call than any other. He was in a fantastic space for this call and I hope you’ll sign up for Believe in Green so you can soak up some of his wisdom and wonderfulness. (Even though this event has ended, you can still access the calls for free!)

Meet BiG Thinkers Robyn Openshaw, Majora Carter and Angela Stokes-Monarch

I want to just take a few moments to acknowledge the different participants we had on the Believe in Green event.  Green Smoothie Girl, Robyn Openshaw. We picked her to help us kick off this event, because she knows how to keep it real. Some of our guests are known for their extremist points of view, but depending on where you’re coming from, these ideas can be a bit overwhelming.

Robyn knows how to speak to anyone and help create a comfortable gradient with objectives that feel realistic. She also is the single mom of 4 children (3 of which are teenagers) and so she knows how to shop on a budget, multitask, run a business and still make time for healthy living. You can sign up to access her interview here:

I am delighted to present Majora Carter.

Major was so busy we had to reschedule this interview about 4 times!  That’s probably part of the reason that when the interview started, she thought I was just another annoying journalist.   Jimmy the web wonder worker actually forgot to edit the part where Majora told me to look online for the answers to the questions I was asking!!

*gasp!* She thought it was a print interview.

I’ve never felt THIS worried that I’d be met with one word answers during an interview. She was a tough nut to crack, but once I managed to speak a few of the words that resonate with her, she actually ended the interview by calling me “sweetheart.” I received a lot of great feedback about this call. Majora was the first person to help create a public park in the South Bronx in over 60 years!!

If she was a tough nut to crack, it’s only because that’s what it takes to make things happen where she lives. The thing you need to know about Majora is that she’s seen a lot. She grew up in places you and I have never really known and she CHOOSES to live there still because she’s committed to making things better. I suggest you sign up to catch this interview and for more information about her, visit her website or catch her super-inspiring TED talk!

The next si-star to grace our BiG stage with her presence was the lovely Angela Stokes-Monarch! What a treat to connect with her again. She’s come along way from being 160 pounds overweight and while in the beginning her motivations were to lose weight and improve her personal health, she’s now inspired by her ability to touch the lives of tens of thousands of other women and men around the world.

I invited her to take the BiG stage because she’s invested a lot of time recently in learning more about sustainable living, and she’s nearly achieved that ideal for herself. When you sign up to catch this interview you’ll get to hear about some of her favorite resources for growing your own food and sustainable living, and you’ll also find out what she wanted to be when she was a little girl and how, in a certain way, that’s exactly what she ended up doing!!

You can sign up to access these calls for FREE at any time, but I suggest you fork our the ten smackeroos that will go to helping the Girls’ Club, too.
Thanks again for your support!

Featured BiG Thinker: Victoria Boutenko is the Queen of Green Smoothies

It’s hard to believe that there are only a few days left of our live Believe in Green event, the process has been an inspiring one. I’d been promising myself to do little blog posts on each of the presenters of the event and even though it’s late, late is better than never, so I’m going to start with the person whose interview kicked off our BiG event: Victoria Boutenko.

I’ve interviewed Victoria a few times, but this was by far my favorite. I was so surprised by some of her answers and her outburst of love and appreciation at the end of the interview is probably something I should record and listen to when I get up every morning. You can listen to the Believe in Green interviews at any time, and while you can sign up and listen to the calls for FREE, we encourage you to drop a wee bit of cash knowing that your $10 donation will go to support the Lower East Side Girls’ Club and their health and nutrition programs.

Here are a few reasons to sign up and listen to Victoria’s call

• She explains how to avoid the gross green smoothie experience of having your food taste like lawnmower pulp.
• Her personal routine is super inspiring.
• She’s got great advice for new comers!
• She gives a few secrets to foraging for wild edible greens that I had never heard before and added dozens of new plants to my wild repertoire.
• She’s got one of the best attitudes a human can possibly have.
• She’s the queen of green smoothies doing great things to make a better world, and listening to her will make YOU want to get up and do great things, too!

You can access Victoria’s interview when you sign up for the Believe in Green event here.

Thanks again for supporting this program!

A Lesson in Love & Humility – by Fiona Hollis

by Fiona Hollis

I wrote this after having processed some huge emotions of grief. When these words flowed through me and I felt the truth of each one, suddenly things seemed clearer, brighter, louder and crisper… Taking responsibility for how you feel is an amazing way to accelerate if you feel stagnant. Pretending everything is OK when it’s not – is a great way to drop anchor!

“I am a perfect half of a complete soul created to enjoy constant bliss, love and creation. It is only errors in my soul that block this eternal experience and existence.

I am not my life.

My life is a perfect manifestation of my true soul desires. With humility and total honesty we can feel the truth that creates us. This is where we are able to take full responsibility for our feelings and experience complete change.

As our personal truths shift, error is released from our soul – allowing more love to flow in – thus altering our life immediately through our soul’s manifestation of life around us.

This increased level of love in your soul then reflects out to everyone and everything around you – immediately allowing others to grow.

Only when you choose to stop the flow of love, will the connection stop. As soon as we choose to judge, project our emotions onto others rather than take responsibility for our own pain – the connection is lost.

At any time we have the opportunity to stop and own how we feel – and be prepared to open our hearts fully in order to experience these painful emotions that need to flow out of you – in order to make room for more love to flow in.

We have the freedom to choose everything that happens, especially the speed of our journey. But it is only when the pain gets sharp enough – that we choose ask for God’s help.

God offers a supersonic, spiritual, superhighway… superior soul surgery… raising us so far and above our rusted realms of possibilities, tears tumble towards our hearts at the magnificence of our creator’s cosmic creation.”

This is taken from my personal blog where I discuss emotional processing and how it changes your law of attraction, thus your life.