Category: Coffee & Conversation
Author: heartbodyandsoul
Every Saturday morning at 10:30, we host a free Coffee & Conversation with an ever-changing schedule of topics and facilitators. It’s a great way to expand your mind into topics you may not have spent much time thinking about before and to meet new people as well. We provide the coffee (and tea) and usually a few munchies and The Tribe provides the conversation. If you are able to contribute a little to our Good Karma Coffee Donation Fund for the charity of the month while you’re here, all the better.
So check out the topics coming up in 2019 and come on down!
January 19: Combining Art & Nature w/ Dinise Mustain (who creates the most AH-mazing art with plants she grows then presses!)
January 26: Author Melisssa Tipton will be talking about the topic of her new book, Living Reiki: Heal Yourself & Transform Your Life followed by a book-signing from 11:30-12:30!
February 2: The Sexuality Spectrum w/ Raven Bren (who will also be leading an open discussion group on Alternative Relationships later that same day from 1-4 pm)
February 9: A Conversational Potpourri. These are some of our favorites. One Saturday a month, we don’t set any particular topic — we just let folks gather and see what discussion bubbles up!
Category: Coffee & Conversation, New News
Author: heartbodyandsoul
If you love the energy of crystals and want to explore more — or you have no idea what all the hoopla about the energy of crystals is about and would like to find out — you’ll want to mark your calendar for July 22 & 23rd. Lynn Wobig, the resident Crystal Healer at HBS, will be leading a Coffee & Convo on Saturday morning, July 22, talking about the power and purposes of crystal grids as a lead-in to the next day’s chance to come experience them for yourself!
We will have 10 crystal grids laid out in the Studio, each surrounding a yoga mat and large enough for a person to lay down inside. The crystals for each grid will be chosen to boost a particular kind of energy — e.g. Strength, or Joy, or Creativity. Each hour, we will usher in 10 people who will get to rotate through each of the grids, spending 5 minutes soaking up the energy of each grid before moving on to the next one. As those who’ve had a chance to do this before will tell you, the energy from these grids can blow you away.
Space IS limited though, so advance registration is strongly encouraged. If you get lucky and happen to show up for a round that isn’t already full, we’re happy to accept walk-ins, but if you want to make SURE you get to experience the power of these grids — and why wouldn’t you?? — you’ll want to call ahead and reserve your space. The Coffee & Convo is free and the Crystal Grid Experience is just $15.
Hope to see you all there!
Category: Blog, Coffee & Conversation, New News
Author: heartbodyandsoul
Better Living Through Bucket ListsWe started out resolved. Really we did. Much like the will-powered New Year’s Resolutions we were going to talk about at our final Coffee & Conversation of the year. But let’s face it – even the title showed our ambivalence: New Year’s Resolutions – Yay or Yuck?? Sure enough, we wound up ditching the conversation topic about as quickly as we ditch our New Year’s Resolutions.
Instead, we chose to spend the last day of 2016 talking about Bucket Lists – what do you want to do or experience before you kick the bucket. The stuff you’re passionate about, the stuff you daydream about. The FUN stuff. The meaningful stuff. The stuff you’ll look back upon when you’re on your deathbed with a smile and fist pump of satisfaction.
Let’s face it, sticking to a diet or losing X number of pounds by D-day – not even close to bucket-list worthy. Nobody on their deathbed sighs with satisfaction over their fastidious calorie-counting. But a life filled with vibrant energy and health? THAT’s bucket-list worthy. So here’s an idea: ditch the diet goals and put Vibrant Health on your bucket list instead, along with all the other things you want to check off in this lifetime:
Screw the resolutions. They only mock our inability to stick to them, leaving us feeling like failures because we only made it to the gym once this week instead of the resolved three times a week. Who needs that?? So what if we really, REALLY enjoyed the rum balls at the office Christmas party?? We also went sledding with the kids until we were all breathless with laughter and pink with the cold against our cheeks. We treated ourselves to a deliciously relaxing gentle yoga class. We took a walk through the park over the lunch hour and laughed out loud watching the squirrels chatter and chase each other, created a delicious dinner of locally grown produce we had a blast picking out at the Farmer’s Market AND shared the recipe with our tribe of awesome friends. Or we have really talented friends who enjoy creating delicious dinners that we enjoy sharing. (Some of us, as we have previously pointed out, are really good at NOT cooking and we claim that.)
Vibrant health? Check.
No failures here.
Heart, Body, & Soul has a free coffee & conversation gathering every Saturday morning from 10:30-11:30 am. We provide the coffee, herbal tea, yummy munchies, and the topic. YOU provide the conversation. Up this first month of the new year for those of you interested in dropping by to join us, include Energy Fields & Chakras (Jan 7), Vision Quests (Jan 14), Reiki (Jan 21), and Tarot (Jan 28).
Category: Blog, Coffee & Conversation
Author: heartbodyandsoul
By Raven Bren
When I was pretty young, maybe six or so, my mother and I had a
type of verbal ritual. I’d be hanging around the house, bugging her,
whining about nothing to do. She’d stop whatever she was doing and
turn to me and say, “I’m not your ringmaster, go find your own
circus.”
I always understood I was being sent out to play. As I got
older, there were times I’d complain of being bored and she’d start
the saying and I’d finish with, “Okay, I’m going to go find my own
circus”.
I would suggest not much has changed despite becoming an adult.
When tired with work or bored with all the have to’s, most of us turn
on the TV, scroll FB, review our to-do lists and just whine that life is
not so much fun.
Whenever happened to being sent out to play?
When I think of play, numerous words, pictures, and feelings fall into
my consciousness automatically, many from very different
perspectives.
I think of youth and childhood, exploration, curiosity.
I think of action and movement.
I think of laughter ringing.
I think of activities that challenge my brain but have some kind of
sweet payoff.
I think of spontaneous overload of creativity that must be expressed.
I think of wonder and awe of something not yet experienced.
I think of heightened emotional states and juicy feelings of
excitement.
I think of endorphins surging.
I think of companionship and friends, of safe places, and trust.
I think of that good kind of exhaustion that brings sleep with a sweet
smile.
I know emphatically that my life and the lives of most of my friends
do not include enough play. We are busy with work. For most of us
work is not-play. Most of us work at jobs for pay and we work hard
and put in long hours and why? Beyond the basic necessities of life, I
believe secretly it is so we can have more to “play with”. If not, why
not just scale back our necessities.
For most of us play involves some level of outlay of our hard-earned
income or at least the investment of some. That is, unless you create
cool games from rocks and dirt, which is how Mancala came about as
the first game developed by humans. Unfortunately, now if we want
to play a cleaner version of Mancala, we have to buy it. See, an outlay
of $$ to some degree.
So I think there are two good excuses right there for not so much
play. “I don’t have the time AND I don’t have the money for play!”
So, my personal philosophy is that we have all the time we need; it’s
just a matter of carving it out. We can literally make time through
rearranging our priorities.
This often requires saying NO to some things to be able to say YES to
others. Sometimes it means being just a wee bit selfish, to allow
others to make their own choices and take care of themselves so we
can have some play-time for ourselves. It means being really
intentional about it. Make a play date for yourself. I know this feels as
though it eliminates the cool factor of spontaneity, but it is really
about creating a habit. Then, spontaneous play, once it feels safe
being in your life, can visit more frequently down the road.
To do this, we need to create a different mindset about it being okay
to have fun and make the time for it to return to our reality, without
guilt and without feeling like we took something away from
something or someone else to have it. With this more carefree
mindset, spontaneous play will feel more comfortable being a part of
our everyday lives. It will feel more natural and the need to carve out
time for it will diminish.
But, but, but… what about the money? Regardless of what play
means, it usually costs money. Travel, equipment, games, whatever it
involves, there is always some investment of money.
Again, my philosophy of “there is always more than enough” kicks in.
Always, it is about choice. Do we choose to work a few extra hours so
we can have more expendable income? Can we choose to forego some
purchase so we can spend a silly amount of money doing a zip line
and a catamaran cruise for an anniversary? My husband and I once
gave up a week’s groceries to do just that very thing and I fed us on
whatever was left in the pantry. Not easy, but it was worth it.
There are times when our play is something we already have. It
means a little more effort to look around at what we have available
now with no additional outlay of that hard-earned cash. It requires
more creativity. Sometimes the fun is IN the creativity of making fun
where none may be obvious.
For example, my husband plays online Scrabble with a number of his
friends. We have a beautiful Scrabble game that has been sitting in
the top of the closet for years. We pulled it out one weeknight and
stayed up to an ungodly hour playing. We laughed, created our own
rules, and lost valuable sleep over it. It was fun. And the energy from
the memories of it far outweighed any lost sleep.
My point is, sometimes we have to choose one thing over another to
have enough to do this or that, which needs to be fun now such as our
anniversary fun. Other times, when there is no extra and fewer
choices, we have to look around, get our creative juice flowing and
make some fun.
As children, we had a creative ability to make fun with nothing more
around us than the entire world we saw. Playground equipment
became monsters to be slain and sand and pebbles were gourmet
meals. We had games grown from our fertile imaginations, creating
elaborate stories we could then spend hours playing roles in, until we
were called to dinner. And then we grew up and got lost in all the
musts and shoulds that consume our waking hours. And the only
wonder we tend to share is that of why we are so tired. We loose our
sense of play.
I suggest a return to a simpler time, if only for a bit of time, away
from our adult-ness and back to when we dreaded being called in for
supper.
Adult coloring is all the rage and I am an enthusiastic participant. The
interesting thing is, that I wasn’t able to begin enjoying it until I let
myself stop caring about it being good enough and simply allowed
myself to play with it. As children we would color, show it off for five
seconds, and then forget out it. The secret was in the joy of the doing
and the appreciation, not in the product.
Life is not about getting it right. Life can truly be about enjoyment.
And although we probably won’t enjoy every moment of it, creating
time… intentional time… to play, can remind us of the joy that is our
birthright. Play doesn’t take energy, it gives energy.
So my challenge to you, dear friends, is to create for yourself some
playtime. Carve out a couple of hours a week; get your creative juices
flowing. Be your own ringmaster and create your own circus.
Raven Bren is a Crone, a writer, a grandmother, mother and wife with stories to share from her many years of life experience and too many hours in the sun pondering the meaning of life. She has recently moved back to her beloved Columbia after spending the last twelve years out on the west coast. Now retired to the boondocks, she has even more time for sharing thoughts in her areas of interest: the cosmos, why are we here, relationships, physics and consciousness, manifesting the life we desire, and how to keep deer from eating the lilacs. With wit and wisdom, rough edges and all, Raven invites you into her world… bring coffee.
Category: Coffee & Conversation
Author: heartbodyandsoul
by Raven Bren
I am cranky. My brain won’t stop bouncing. I itch from the inside. No “solution” I come up with feels motivating. I am not sleeping. It’s been this way for days now and it’s becoming frustrating. Is something trying to get out? Am I shedding a skin now too tight?
What I know about myself speaks to this. My ego is a great distractor. “Don’t change”, she says, “it’s too scary”. Distract, distract, with all the doing-ness. Get this done and you’ll feel better. But is this true? I do want to feel better and doing feels good. Accomplishment is my reward. But there is so much I can’t seem to focus on one thing long enough to move. Overload, overload. The mirrors of my world feel shattered and splintering, overlapping images, all out of focus.
Turning away from the mirrors, refocusing. Re-new focus from foci. Singular from plural. I turn away from the plurality out there to the singularity that is self.
So I move back to the basics of self care. Shower, dress, eat, go outside… just move… in any direction that is movement. Far out there on the fringes of my consciousness are all the things that need doing but my heart is asking me to come back to the center… the singularity of self care. Of baby steps when put in alignment with the harmony that is the universe, bring me back into the dance. The heart beat that continues even when I no longer care to hear it. The breath that moves when muscle cannot. The structures of bone that hold like standing stones of the monument that is self. Back to the elements of this body is the beginning of motivation out into the larger world of creation. The self reflects outward and colors the entire creation.
So it’s about choice … again … always. To care for the gift that is self. To step out of my mind and into my body, give in to the cravings for deliberate, slow, conscious care. Four steps. I need only choose these first four steps. There is no need to know where they will lead.
Sometimes, some days, reducing it down to what is essential is enough to crack that bitch wide open. But there are no promises.
Raven Bren is a Crone, a writer, a grandmother, mother and wife with stories to share from her many years of life experience and too many hours in the sun pondering the meaning of life. She has recently moved back to her beloved Columbia after spending the last twelve years out on the west coast. Now retired to the boondocks, she has even more time for sharing thoughts in her areas of interest: the cosmos, why are we here, relationships, physics and consciousness, manifesting the life we desire, and how to keep deer from eating the lilacs. With wit and wisdom, rough edges and all, Raven invites you into her world… bring coffee.
Category: Coffee & Conversation, New News
Author: heartbodyandsoul
February is a month of celebrations: First comes Mardi Gras (and be sure to drop by the shop to participate in the fun stuff we have planned Sat, 2/6 in honor of the occasion!) and then comes Valentine’s Day. We actually have two Valentine’s Day displays: the more traditional romantic one — filled with lovely Rose Quartz, Emerald, & Aventurine, candles charged for Attraction / Love / Soul Mate, astrology books for lovers and those seeking to learn what lessons the planet of love holds for them given her placement in their own astrological chart. Books on Energies of Love and the Science of Attraction. All fun stuff. (And yes, we have lots of great gift possibilities for the special someone in your life!)
And then we have the ‘anti-Valentine’s Day’ table. Smaller. Off to the side. Standing a little more by itself. Kind of like many of us when it comes to Valentine’s Day — or even big crowd celebrations in general. This one calls it like it is with books like “I’ve Seen Your Future and He’s Not In it” and “Emotional Bullshit.” Slightly kinder but equally realistic books on healing broken hearts, moving on after divorce and coming to terms with the fact that co-dependence and love aren’t the same thing. This table holds candles that go “Poof!” or threaten to send out the Flying Monkeys — or at least offer a lovely flame to that wishful thinking.
The thing is … life is both of these displays. For all of us. Nobody escapes a broken heart. We will all cry and we will all laugh. We will all love and we will all mourn. The wheel turns. For those of you in a place to dance in the streets this Mardi Gras, may the joy of celebration fill your soul. For those of you filled with the love of and for that someone special this Valentine’s Day, savor it to its fullest. And for those not in a place of celebration this year, who find themselves drawn to that Anti-Valentine’s Day table, consider taking a page from that fabulously wise poet, Mr. David Whyte:
Blessings on all your heads.
Category: Coffee & Conversation
Author: heartbodyandsoul
Emelie Thibodeaux
“I vow to hold you gently in my heart all my life. I vow to be a clear mirror always reflecting your beauty. I vow to keep my heart open through all doubt, fear, anger, and pain. I vow to open to the truth of each moment. I vow to cherish and honor your trust for the precious gift that it is. I vow to be as spacious as the sky, and give each of us the space to grow. I vow to love, honor, and cherish you always. With all my heart, with a clear mind, and with each breath, I commit to you.”
These are the vows made by Diane Mariechild (author of OPEN MIND, Women’s Daily Inspiration for Becoming Mindful) with her partner at their commitment ceremony years ago. As I read them over and over, it came to me that they could be appropriate vows for commitment to Self.
Read them again, with Self in mind. Might we not hold ourselves gently in our own hearts, as we do our loved ones? Reflect our beauty to ourselves (not the outer layer, but that which we hold inside)? How would we be different if we could keep our hearts open through all doubt, fear, anger and pain, and be open to the truth of each moment?
And trust. What if we could learn to trust ourselves in all ways, especially knowing that we are always there for ourselves, taking good care at all times, treating ourselves as a beloved friend? What if we could give ourselves space — space to stand in our power, space to fall down and trust that we will pick ourselves up again, space to be who we are right now and to grow into who we will be … space to just be our human selves, without judgment? How powerful would that be?
If we promise to another in commitment ceremonies to love, honor, and cherish that beloved, why can’t we make those same vows to ourselves? Could taking these vows to honor ourselves even change the world in which we live? If we gave these blessings to ourselves, each of us could be stronger, happier, and live more mindfully with peace in our hearts. Surely that would flow over into the rest of the world!
As we begin another year, let’s think about making Ms. Mariechild’s vows as our own and see if committing to ourselves makes a change in us and maybe even the world.
Category: Blog, Coffee & Conversation
Author: heartbodyandsoul
We woke this week to news of yet another mass shooting — this time at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. Instant and palpable outrage. Quickly followed by a feeling of futility and helplessness in the face of such senseless hate and destruction. Whether it’s religious extremism abroad or homegrown hatred, what can we — what can any of us — possibly do to stem the tide of this craziness??
Whether you call it prayer or the power of intention, the fact is that thoughts are powerful vibrations. What we think about, focus on, obsess over — digs in and deepens its presence in our lives, for good or for ill. So, if we are marinating ourselves and our society in the energy of our thoughts … perhaps it would behoove us to give some thought to what exactly IS our marinade of choice?
Hmm. Flip on any TV, radio, or podcast and what will you hear? A host of pundits, political candidates, and talk show hosts, on all sides of the political spectrum, filling our ears and airwaves with finger-pointing, fear, anger, judgment and ideas of ‘us vs them’ — if not outright hate. Think about that. If thoughts are strong enough vibrations to literally change the shape of water crystals and the form of light — as some scientists now propound — what does that daily barrage do to the world and societies in which we live? And more importantly, what can we do to counter it? ‘Cause, let’s face it — most of us are not Gandhi, Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King, Jr. We are not likely to lead mass movements that change the course of history.
Or are we?
We seldom give much thought to the impact of a single word, a hug, a listening ear free of judgment — though all of us have been changed by those very things in our own life … or by the lack of them. Truth is, we may wield more power than we know. After all, the ripples that spread all the way across a wide lake begin with a small, single splash.
So here’s a thought. How about we start a counter action, inundating the world with thoughts of peaceful coexistence–where problems engender a search for solutions instead of somebody to blame and differences of opinion lead to thoughtful discussion, rather than senseless death? We’re not talking about some grand gesture — though if you’re called to that, more power to you. The rest of us can start small and at home. Here are just a few ideas:
Sound a little too PollyAnna? (Okay, I just gotta ask — who IS PollyAnna anyway and how did she get this bad rap of being such a clueless sap?? Inquiring minds want to know.) Anyway, here’s the thing:
A number of years ago, I ran into an acquaintance who’d been fired in a restructuring. When I learned what had happened, I kept trying to offer support just as many of us do in that situation — by means of ‘Those !#&*@$ bastards! What could they possibly have been thinking??‘ But instead of joining in the bash-fest, he stopped me, saying that while he’d enjoyed the work, there was this whole other thing he’d always been interested in and now he was getting the chance to explore that and how cool was that? And, ok — I admit it. I thought he was being completely PollyAnna-ish (with apologies to P.A., whereever she may be) about the whole thing. And yet — a decade later, I still remember that conversation. And every time I hear of someone being forced into a job change they hadn’t sought, I wonder if maybe things will turn out for them like they did for Dan — bringing them home to themselves in a way they never would have experienced if the Universe hadn’t taken a hand and dumped them out of their comfort zone. One short conversation, a decade ago that I’m sure he’s never given a second thought to … and yet it still impacts my thoughts today.
Words are indeed powerful. So is taking the time to listen to one another. A lot harder and more time-consuming than judging, condemning, bitching. (Talk about moving out of our comfort zones!) But the stakes are high here, folks. We have a world to turn around.
Maybe it’s time we all got started.
Category: Coffee & Conversation
Author: heartbodyandsoul
One of the coolest things about opening Heart, Body, & Soul has been the diversity of people coming in the door. Young and old and in-between. Students and college professors, skilled laborers and those struggling to find employment. Nurses, doctors, and lawyers. Car washers and mechanics. Artists and musicians, scientists and ministers. Christian, Pagan, Buddhist, Muslim, and none of the above. Energy workers and healers of long experience; and those brand new to even the idea that we live and breathe and move within an energetic body as well as a physical one — and feel better and live better when we learn to take care of both. People who are passionate about oils and herbs and crystals and people who haven’t a glance to spare at that stuff, but happily burrow into a stack of books and emerge only to refill their cup of tea. Folks who are open to trying it all and folks who really prefer not to go there.
Labels and appearances inevitably deceive. We’ve learned to stop guessing at what each new soul walking through the door may be seeking. Instead, we just enjoy the daily reminders of the rich diversity of life and energy, people and paths — and the stunning symphony that results when each of us is simply true to our own authentic self. (A lifetime journey that. Much easier to say than to do, but so VERY worth it.)
Want to know what we’re thankful for today? The music of the crossroads that is Heart, Body, & Soul. Every one of you is part of that song — and together? Friends, you rock the house. Blessed Be!
Category: Coffee & Conversation, New News
Author: heartbodyandsoul
Now that we’ve got our first week behind us (yay!), all the fun classes & workshops are getting started. You know — as much fun as the stuff at Heart, Body, & Soul is (and, trust us, it is FUN!!), it was the idea of offering classes & workshops that just aren’t available anywhere else that had us pulling the trigger on creating Heart, Body, & Soul. So it’s super-exciting to see them starting to roll off the line:
Starting on Thursday, Oct 15 we have back-to-back unique YOGA classes: First you can ‘SHAKE YOUR ASANA” with Josie from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. and get that blood moving again. (Cause hey — by Thursday, we all need an energy boost, right??) And when you’re done and pumped, take a break, have some tea, browse the stacks and play with some of the fun stuff in the shop for a few minutes, then join Adrian for a relaxing, meditative session of YOGA NIDRA from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. The perfect Yogic Combo, for just $10 each. Ahhhhhh…………………..
Friday, Oct 16, we have READINGS available from 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. Meagan Keeler will be here offering walk-in Tarot readings OR (with advance registration), astrological readings. (Those take a BIT more time to prepare, so you need to give her a heads up if you want one.) Just call the shop or e-mail us here at the shop and we’ll get you hooked up.
Saturday, Oct 17, we kick off the day with CHAKRA DANCE! So excited about this one — Adrian is the only licensed Chakra Dance instructor in the state of MO and it is such a cool experience, mixing dance and meditation to open those chakras. (And don’t worry — absolutely no dance experience or talent required. We promise!) 10:30-11:15 a.m. $15.
Sunday, Oct 18, we host our first national presenter, TESS WHITEHURST at 1:00 p.m. talking about Honing Your Intuition with flowers. Yes, it really does work. Really. (She also has a lush new oracle deck — The Magic of Flowers — that made even Cat salivate, and she’s the one who kills every plant she touches.) A mere $25 gets you 90 minutes that could shift your life. Who wouldn’t want THAT?? 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
And, last but certainly not least, you can close out your weekend at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday with WIND-DOWN YOGA with Josie, releasing all that does not serve and getting clear for the week ahead. Just $10.
Of course, if you don’t want to do anything but sit in a comfy chair and read, or sip a cup of yummy tea and color in an adult color book … we gotcha covered there, too. 🙂
See ya soon!