To celebrate the beginning of Spring,....we're inviting everyone to get FRESH with us!
With every purchase today, Tiny Devotions is giving away organic, handmade Mint lip blam made lovingly by Batty's Bath! We are so excited to share our excitement for new beginnings - here's to a fresh outlook on life love, and fashion. ;)
We meditated all of January and came out out of silence to make this video (Yes, we know we're about a month late on the rest of the world).
We need your help in sharing it and spreading the meditating love all over the internet/universe.
So we've decided to share the love with a Shit Meditators Say Giveway.
How to enter - Either:
1. Leave a comment on the Shit Meditators Say video (feel free to share it with your friends and yogis)
2. Tweet a link of this video - make sure you include @tinydevotions so we can enter you in the giveaway
2 meditators will WIN a "one of a kind" buddha or Ganesha gemstone and silver wrist mala!
Winner announced when we get to 10,000 views! Spread the love (and the laughs)
Spiritual does not mean nice.
~Kelly Cutrone.
GASP. Did she just say that spiritual does not mean nice?
I came to the realization a few days ago that Miss Kelly Cutrone is the ultimate Tiny Devotions girl.
And it wasn't when she emailed and said she would wear her black onyx mala beads to Fashion Week. Yes, she actually wrote that.
So why?
She is smart, driven, powerful, funny, caring and put simply - going for it. She lives life to the fullest.
If you have watched the Hills or perhaps Kell on Earth (which I have not..yet) you may have the image of Kelly Cutrone as mean or maybe even a Bitch (GASP AGAIN) PR girl.
What I may tell you next may shock you. Kelly Cutrone is EXTREMELY SPIRITUAL. She is an Amma Devotee (the Mother or hugging saint) and is also a Guru and spiritual leader to many inspiring people to find their own beliefs and create their own vision.
If you've read her book - If you have to Cry, Go Outside - you may know this already. But to those that don't - we highly recommend you look further.
Being Spiritual means being connected to your truth and your authenticity (and the universe). The magic is that this can be whatever you want it to be.
If its meditating on top of a mountain in Tibet - then go do that. But, if its being a CEO or starting your own business or running for President - then do that too. (And everything in between).
What I've found is that many people label "spiritual people" as pushovers, lazy, "not driven", weird and think that if you are spiritual you cannot be successful in the material world.
STOP. This is a lie.
We believe spiritual people are the opposite. They are powerful beyond explanation, they have the possibility to change the world, to change the status quo, to ignite inspiration, love and light.
You are permitted to be as successful as you choose to. And when you are - you can use that success (whether monetary or otherwise) to help promote and empower any causes that you feel you must benefit.
Being spiritual means being conscious, doing everything with meaning. Everything. Not taking anything for granted and reaching for your highest potential and creating the most impact.
Spiritual people can rock the boat. They can say "no", they can stand up for themselves, they can be tough (and loving at the same time). So, To Kelly Cutrone - thank you for truth explosions and for guiding us and inspiring us.
Clarisa's Story:
Even as a young girl, I felt this stubborn belief that love could heal everything, fix everything and conquer everything. I strongly resonated with messages of Jesus’ conditional love for everyone when my mom took me to church at a young age. Then I began paying attention and realized that with the messages of unconditional love also came message of damnation and hell. That did not feel good. And they surely did not resonate with my inner spirit that danced and jumped for joy whenever I felt love for everyone: humans, animals, and nature.
By the time I was a teenager my quest for, “true love”, led me to look for it in my romantic relationships. Codependency became a major problem. Through every relationship I felt that feeling of disappointment I had felt as a young girl listening to the pastor stomp on my dreams of finding true unconditional love.
As I grew into my twenties my discontent worsened and I so did my dysfunctional behaviors around my codependency.
After the worse and hardest break up of my life I said, “Enough.” I did the only thing I knew how to do at the time; I started going to church again. If I could somehow find a “real” Love inside the walls and rules of church, I could breath a sigh of relief?
But a year later at the age of 26, I was disappointed once again. I was no longer suffering from codependency but was terribly discouraged that religion did not have the answer to my search for “true love”. I decided to leave all my religions beliefs behind, and look for true love elsewhere. By this point in my life I was desperate. I was in a very dark place and was clinging to the idea of love being real by a thread.
Then miraculously, as the Buddhist proverb promises, “When the student is ready the master appears. “ I heard of a book, “A New Earth”, by Eckhart Tolle.
I had found what I had been searching for all those years. I let myself fall down the rabbit hole of new thought teachings. Eckhart T. led me to Marianne W. and she led me like countless others to, “A Course in Miracles.” I also learned about meditation and have been sitting down and shutting up ever since.
What I know about Love now is, that it was never something out there for me to find, it was inside me all along. (Love for me became synonymous with God, Spirit, or the Universe.)
I enjoy every moment I spend with Love in meditation, asking for guidance, and listening for answers. I found true love outside the walls of church, outside the rules of religion, and outside the arms of another. I returned to Love when I chose to look inside. Today the young girl, the teenager and the young woman inside me sleep peacefully knowing we are now in Love all the time. The search is over.
If you want to share your story with our community - email it to us (500 words maximum) at info@lovetinydevotions.com and include "blog story" in subject. Please include photo and links to your own blog/website.
Naaz's Story.
There are many turning points in our lives. My most recent one was the passing of my beautiful 16-year-old kitty, a precious gift given to me when I was 13. At 29 years old, holding her as her spirit left her body, and my insides crumbled for the umpteenth time, I had to question Life, and where I was. I was having so much trouble manifesting what I wanted.
I was a yoga teacher who preached uniting with your heart, opening to the universe’s plans, and I felt I wasn’t living my own truth. After asking myself what it was that I truly wanted, my heart told me immediately.
"I want to heal.”
A few days later I quit my jobs and made healing my full time project. What was I healing from? Let’s backtrack a bit.
I was a very unhealthy child in every sense of the word. I would watch, as my mom would endure much physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse at the hands of my father. I would experience it happen to me. I was physically ill most of my life. At the age of 13 my mom and I made a decision to leave my father. It was struggle after struggle for many years. When I was 19, I was diagnosed with cancer. Stage 2b Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After 6 months of chemo, a relapse shortly after my last treatment. Out of fear for the next course of treatment, I decided I wanted to try naturopathic therapy. Fast-forward 5 years later. At 25, another relapse, stage 4b Hodgkin's. This time the cancer was wrapped around my spine and my heart and left me unable to walk. Had I waited a week longer for the results of the MRI, I would have been paralyzed. After emergency spinal surgery, chemo, a stem cell transplant and aggressive physio, I was alive, but felt like I literally had the life force kicked out of me.
Whether I knew it or not, this was the biggest turning point in my life. My experience taught me that if I continued on the path I was on, I would likely die. I could make the decision to do what was familiar. Or I could make the decision to change the outcome of my life. I wanted to experience life; true love, children, a career I loved. I wanted to let go of the sickness that was my life once and for all. I wanted to be healed.
It took me 4 more years to realize that healing didn’t mean not being sick. Healing didn’t mean having a degree, being a yoga teacher and inspiring others. It didn’t mean searching for the perfect relationship or having someone else’s approval. Healing meant going inside myself. Healing meant understanding that I was hurting and my body, my heart, my soul were crying for help. It meant being gentle with myself, allowing myself to express my feelings, even if they weren’t pretty. It meant loving this body, this mind and this heart and all they were asking for.
If you want to share your story with our community - email it to us (500 words maximum) at info@lovetinydevotions.com and include "blog story" in subject. Please include photo and links to your own blog/website.
We often sign our emails: "Thank you for being part of our community"
It dawned on me yesterday that some people may have no idea what we are talking about - what community? Where is it? Are there meetings? Do I have to sign up?
If you have yet to experience this - allow me elaborate.
Our Tiny Devotions community is an international group of ridiculously inspiring Change Makers, Catalysts, Do Gooders and Rockstars.
You don't even need to own a set of our mala beads to be part of this community. Maybe you've read one of our blogs, liked a facebook post, retweeted one of our tweets, entered a giveaway, emailed us a question...
Our community is supportive, inspiring and active. We show up, we create things, we set goals and dreams and make things happen!
People in our community send us thank you e-mails and they also send us e-mails asking us to hold their intentions in their prayers. And we do.
That is just how we roll.
We have received many emails of people who tell us stories of their encounters of fellow Tiny Devotions community members on their travels around the world or even in their grocery stores.
We are most proud that in these moments. Magic happens. I'm talking about the good stuff: friendships are made, laughter, connection, hope, inspiration.
Our mala beads have become an identifier - of everything that we believe in. And that has not happened by accident - you have done that. Yup, You.
So thank you for reading our blog and thank you for being part of our community and changing the world.
When people ask me "Where are you from"; I'm never sure what exactly they're asking.
"Where am I from ethnically? Where did I grow up? Where was I born?"
For many, this is a very simple question but for me; this is what sums me up.
I am 100% Vietnamese, born in Indonesia (on a refugee camp) and raised in a small town in Ontario, Canada. Sounds complicated right? But with this one statement, it sums up who I am, and what my beliefs are. This was my journey for my path in life.
Growing up in a western society with very culturally traditional parents, it was very hard finding who I am as a person. I would always fight with my parents due to their strict rules and guidelines and as parents always say, regardless of where you are from, "you will understand when you get older or have your own set of children"....blah blah blah was all I heard at the time. Now that I'm in my mid twenties, I can really relate and understand what they've done for me, my brother and my whole extended family.
Both my parents escaped Vietnam illegally to find refuge and peace in a different country. They jumped on a rickety boat, not knowing their destiny. They floated on the Pacific Ocean for 3 days until they finally hit land; or Indonesia. Once they were settled and came to terms with their new environment, they had me. After being turned down to become citizens of a lot of great countries, Canada was really our only hope.
I was 5 months old when I came here. People would like to assume that I was born and raised here but I am very proud of my story. Without my parents courage and determination, I would not have the opportunities that I have today and I sure would NEVER be exposed to the things I've experienced in my lifetime.
The whole reasoning for this blog is what my mom said to me on the phone last night. "Life begins when your outside of your comfort zone" Both my parents gave up their jobs, their friends, their FAMILY behind to go somewhere they didn't know exists. They came to Canada and made something of themselves and has learned to adapt with a different society. This was and still is my parents journey in their life.
It wasn't until I was old enough to understand the depth of their story that I fully understood where I came from and what I need to be proud of. I've learned that I just be in the moment, embrace everything as it comes and thank the universe for what is given to me; as anyone else should.
I'm so very grateful for what they've done for me and with their journey (with me in hand), I am now at peace with who I am. I am proud and I am immensely inspired by my family each and every day of my life.
If you want to share your story with our community - email it to us (500 words maximum) at info@lovetinydevotions.com and include "blog story" in subject. Please include photo and links to your own blog/website.
The lovely Hien (our incredible office manager) shares her goal of journalling (even if it's just one sentence a day). Hien's passions include finding ridiculously inspiring quotes, travelling (especially excited about her trip to Vietnam in 2012 and perfecting her nail art skills. She's also a newbie yogini and was overjoyed to do her first handstand in her first yoga class!
