Creating a joyful community

by Miko Hafez | Sep 20, 2023 | ARTICLES, Profiles

Creating a joyful community

Miko Hafez interviews the owner of The Plant Store in Seattle, WA

PROFILES

The Pandemic was hard. I moved to Seattle from NY during the pandemic in 2021 and at that time it was still hard to meet people and make friends. One day, I came across @seattleplantstore and discovered that they were hosting a “Plant Swap Event.” At this event, I met many plant parents and I didn’t realize how much I was craving connection until I talked to them. I made new friends that day, and honestly I didn’t expect that. The event organizer Miles was working hard to create a joyful and welcoming event and I interviewed him about his plant swap event.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your business?
I am from Ohio and I’ve been in Seattle for 10 years, and started a plant shop about 5 years ago. I’ve always been interested in house plants since I was a little boy and I ended up going to school to study plant science and learn about horticulture and plant production in controlled environments.

I got into plant production and then worked at the Amazon at the Spheres. I also worked in cannabis production and about 5 years ago, I decided to start my plant shop. I really love plants and wanted to focus on sharing the love of that. I wanted to create a shop not only selling plants but also supporting people’s hobbies. That’s why we are doing workshops like making Terrariums and Kokedama.

What is a plant swap event?
A plant swap is where people come together and exchange plants. For example, I like to grow small plants into big plants and that’s sort of my joy. Once they get too big, I can cut this back and maybe give away cuttings, or I can just give the plant away. A plant swap is a great way to get a plant without paying money. It’s also a great way to get a plant that you might be nervous about spending money on because it’s tricky to care for. It is also a great opportunity to connect people and learn about new plants.

Why did you decide to host a plant swap event?
First of all, it is very popular. People really enjoy plant swap events. The last event we hosted in the bar next door. The bar just opened just over a year ago, we were able to collaborate with them to bring people in so their businesses as well, which is really nice for the community. it’s also a marketing opportunity for us. More and more people know that we’re here.We’re right outside of Seattle and it’s a good opportunity for people to learn about us and what we offer as well. The next one that’s coming up we have two vendors that are going to join us. It will be a very exciting and fun event.

Learn more about Miles and upcoming events at The Plant Store in Seattle

SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: AMADOR, YOGA AND ART FESTIVAL

by iana velez | Sep 9, 2023 | ARTICLES, Festivals, Profiles

SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: AMADOR, YOGA AND ART FESTIVAL

September 30, 2023
Atlanta, GA

FESTIVALS

Looking for something to do this Sept? We are thrilled yoga festivals are back and can’t wait to check out all the amazing events taking place around the world. This week we had a chance to connect with Malik Khalid, Founder of AMADOR, Yoga and Art Festival taking place in Atlanta, GA who we are thrilled to partner with! You will be able to get complimentary copies of our magazine at this festival!

What inspired you to create a festival?
My experience in the yoga community at large has been very isolating, often I’m the only black person in the room if not the only male. I wanted to curate a space where Black and Brown teachers were showcased to display a new face of what yoga can look like and who gets to practice it.

What makes your festival unique?

The AMADOR Yoga & Art Festival is an innovative experience linking yoga, community and art all together as an extension of each other. Art is the manifestation of mindfulness and yoga is the source that ties it together.

What offering/presenter or class are you most excited about for this year’s event?
We’re excited about Trap Yoga with Eazy Spliffarchi, an authentic teacher that brings communities together through Hip-Hop, Trap Music and mobility. Considering the genre turned 50 this year I think this offering will be one of the most electric of them all.

BUY TICKETS HERE

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: Come to Life Yoga

by iana velez | Sep 2, 2023 | ARTICLES, Profiles

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: Come to Life Yoga

PROFILES

To celebrate the release of our print issue themed LOVE, we reached out to our amazing community to share with us a few thoughts on love. This week we celebrate Come to Life Yoga located in Fort Myers, FLA and founder Kimberly: “Kimberly has been practicing Yoga since 2009. She is an E-RYT 200/ RYT 500 yoga teacher and a certified sound healer. She has a passion for teaching as yoga saved her life. She shares her story frequently. She found yoga is a great way to improve endurance in other physical activities. Before or after any workout, yoga will help your body relax while stretching, strengthening, and lengthening the muscles. Kimberly chose to become a teacher and open Come To Life Yoga in Fort Myers, Florida in 2014 so others can enjoy the amazing benefits and overall health through yoga. She takes pride in small group sessions and individual sessions to make sure the students get full knowledge of the yoga benefits and how to maintain overall health. The Hatha/Vinyasa yoga combination she teaches is for all levels and beginners. She also teaches power, heated vinyasa, Yoga Nidra, restorative yoga, yin yoga , adaptive yoga, chair yoga and sound bowl classes. She has a registered yoga school with the Yoga Alliance and teaches a 200 hour yoga teacher training and an YACEP sound healing course. She also focuses on helping other local small businesses by doing events together, yoga retreats and teaches at other yoga studios while she travels.” Pick up your free copy of Yoga Love Magazine at Come to Life Yoga today!

Share with us what you love about what you do:
When I opened in 2014, it was to share love with others through the practice of yoga. You will see signs everywhere in the studio about love as reminders. It is because of the love and support of yogis that Come To Life Yoga and Sound Healing still exists after a pandemic and two major hurricanes that damaged the studio. I tell students to remember to love who they are first so they can love others. We find in yoga that it is a union of love. I have learned that unity and community provides us love.

Share with us what you have learned about LOVE:
Love is everything and everyone. If you love everything and everyone it brings you peace and fulfillment.

What inspired you to support Yoga Love Magazine?
When I found Yoga Love Magazine and was told the issue was about love, I knew I had to join it and help them reach others too. I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful cause.

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: Yoga in the Adirondacks

by iana velez | Sep 1, 2023 | ARTICLES, Profiles

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: Yoga in the Adirondacks

PROFILES

To celebrate the release of our print issue themed LOVE, we reached out to our amazing community to share with us a few thoughts on love. This week we celebrate Yoga in the Adirondacks which sits in the Adirondack State Park of New York, and founder Rhodella Hughes. Pick up your free copy of Yoga Love Magazine at Yoga in the Adirondacks today!

Share with us what you love about what you do:
I love teaching yoga and feel extremely blessed for the opportunity in the practice. I love creating a “safe space” to embrace the practice of yoga. Our yoga shala, The Divine Acres, home to Yoga in the Adirondacks (YitA), where yoga embraces nature. We are located in upstate NY, in Bakers Mills of the Adirondack Park. Our gardens are a labor of love that source our farm to table meals at our seasonal retreats. I love working with my husband, Patrick who manages The Divine Acres farm. In addition to our miniature donkeys, sheep (most of them born here on the farm) ducks, chickens and turkeys; we have a farmstand after our morning yoga practices. I love our story and our mission. Yoga in the Adirondacks is a journey in the current moment, changing in harmony with our focus to enhance our community in the highest and greatest of good.

Our vision is to bring positive living to light in our community and ourselves using healthy living, yoga, essential oils and more. We offer the opportunity to find the courage to seek within ourselves the seed of change for any new beginnings using our individual tool boxes. Yoga can bring us growth, peace, and gratitude within ourselves, connecting with our beautiful and majestic Adirondack Mountains and all they have to offer.

I love always being a student. I am currently in study for Yoga Therapy. I have initiated a 3rd grade yoga and mindfulness program in our public school and I am very excited to be delivering my first workshop at our school staff day on Yoga & Mindfulness for Educators. I love that yoga continues to grow and I love to be the witness of how the practice is beneficial for our overall health. A big piece of my heart is the love for our children, the youth, the future of our tomorrow. YitA will be offering an after school yoga program for our students. The things I love to say when I teach yoga “our palms, the extension of our own heart”, “our neck, the bridge between our heart and mind”, “softness in the strength”, “find your breath”, “find your feet.”

I love educating and sharing essential oils and bringing them through practice along with chakra singing bowls for supporting the balance of our vibrational frequencies. I love teaching Yoga Nidra, Veterans Yoga and AromaYoga.

Share with us what you have learned about LOVE:
When we align ourselves with love the lessons speak for themselves. A lesson in LOVE is about our alignment with a full, open, strong and clear heart. A lesson of compassion, understanding, kindness and peace with the calm in a human journey knowing that love is stronger than fear. Love is Divine. Divine is here to shine. The authentic you shines love.

What inspired you to support Yoga Love Magazine?
My initial inspiration to support Yoga Love Magazine was through the connection of trust. I was delighted to be a part of something bigger than myself. So grateful to be a studio partner and look forward to continuing

SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: WILD WEST YOGA FEST

by iana velez | Aug 19, 2023 | ARTICLES, Festivals, Profiles

SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: WILD WEST YOGA FEST

Oct 14th, 2023
Forestburg, TX

FESTIVALS

Looking for something to do this Oct? We are thrilled yoga festivals are back and can’t wait to check out all the amazing events taking place around the world. This week we had a chance to connect with Lori Klinger, owner of The Ponderosa Guest Ranch (home of the fest) and the creator and visionary behind the Wild West Yoga Fest taking place in Forestburg, Texas who we are thrilled to partner with! You will be able to get complimentary copies of our magazine at this festival!

What inspired you to create a festival?
I have been hosting yoga retreats and workshops, music events, and dinners here at the ranch since we opened in 2018. The festival is a combination of all that we do on steroids! 🙂 I love bringing communities together and Texas is so incredibly spread out, I thought what a wonderful way to unite yoga communities in and around the Dallas/Ft Worth area and beyond. A festival is also an easy, fun and less intimidating way to dip your toe into yoga and the world of all things health and wellness. While this has been a grassroots effort that is mostly word of mouth, the festival has steadily doubled in size each year. This is year three and it just keeps on getting bigger and better!

What makes your festival unique?
It has a hippies and cowboys kinda feel. The 160 acre ranch setting with longhorns, horses, and fan favorite “Donkey” roaming freely makes it a “Texas safari” of sorts. It is a true backroads sanctuary just an hour outta the metroplex that gives festival goers a real feel of relaxation and immersion in nature. It’s a one day festival, but has lasting blissful effects especially for those escaping the daily grind of city life. It is next level high vibes!!! And by pure coincidence the total solar eclipse lands on the day of the festival. We will be having a little lunchtime watch party. Almost too good to be true!

What offering/presenter or class are you most excited about for this year’s event?
That’s a tough one. Our lineup is chocked full of incredible teachers with varied styles from start to finish, but I am so incredibly humbled and stoked that MY teacher Amy Ippolitti will be joining us this year. There are so many things to get excited about…In addition to top notch asana classes, we have aerial yoga, acro yoga, ice plunges led by a Wim Hof instructor, hooping, a sound bath, a festival wide drumming circle, live reggae music, and a vendor village with tarot, reiki, henna tats, farm fresh items and all sorts of goods for purchase. We also have speakers up top to stimulate your minds while you enjoy some downtime, or lunch from a variety of food truck options. It is literally the BEST.DAY.EVER.

IG: @wildwestyogafest
FB: Wild West Yoga Fest
Learn More

ALOHA SPIRIT

by Chanty Cohen | Aug 10, 2023 | ARTICLES, Profiles

ALOHA SPIRIT

By: Abhaijot Kaur
Photo: Federica Dallorso

PROFILES

The archipelago of the Hawaiian Islands is more than just warm weather, beaches, volcanoes, valleys and Polynesian culture. It is the spirit of love, or Aloha. Before my feet hit the āina (Hawaiian for land) I could feel deep within my heart this was the place I needed to be. I had never been to Hawaii before, and I thought, “Why is this land calling me?” and day by day, the feeling would come through strongly. My partner and I decided to pack our bags and head to Hawaii.

When I arrived on the āina, I instantly knew why my soul called me here at this time. It is because the islands are set on a foundation of Aloha. My soul must have known I needed to be here as the world was collectively going through a time of massive transition. We all know the word Aloha. On the surface, you may think of Aloha as a salutation as it is a typical greeting in Hawaii, but it is much more than that. Aloha is a philosophy that directs a code of conduct and way of life. The concept came from the need for Hawaiians to live in peace and work together, as Hawaii is very distant from most places on the earth. Coming together in harmony and kindness in all relations be it the land, people or animals was a priority, so the Hawaiians adopted this Aloha spirit. Aloha spirit is uniting rather than divisive, and a code of conduct that is so relevant for humanity right now as it transcends race and differences and embraces togetherness and equality.

Akahai: kindness, expressed with tenderness
Lōkahi: unity, expressed with harmony
Olu‘olu: agreeable, expressed with pleasantness
Ha‘aha‘a: humility, expressed with modesty
Ahonui: patience, expressed with perseverance.

Aloha creates a unified atmosphere of Love, Peace, and Compassion. It is a simple prescription of how to live a life where your heart is so full, it is overflowing with the ability to influence others around you with the presence of your highest spirit on behalf of all. I am so grateful to be here living Aloha on this sacred, loving archipelago. In return, I embody that spirit of life everywhere I go.

Here are some of my favorite ways of creating Aloha spirit every day and anywhere:

Smile at the people you pass on the street and greet them with a hello. A smile is an act of kindness.
Share something if you have a surplus. Sharing is an act of unity.
Need help with something? Ask for it. Sometimes we are terrified to ask for help, but we need to remember we are not alone. Asking for help is an act of humility.
Pay a compliment. Compliments are acts of pleasantry.
Sit in observation through meditation, or stand in observation when in line running errands. Observation is an act of patience.

The beauty of Aloha spirit is you can take this philosophy with you wherever you are. After all, I think we can all agree that humanity can use more love, or Aloha spirit.

Visit Abhaijot at her eco luxury permaculture farm: wai-mana.com