Author: Ananda Leeke

Thriving Mindfully Coach + Author + Artist + Human Design Doula

Happy Internet Geek Tuesday! Using My Digital Footprint to Support Andy Shalal’s DC Mayor Campaign

Posted by on in Andy4DC, Internet Geek TuesdayLeave a comment

111152135

Happy Internet Geek Tuesday!

This year, I am celebrating my 10th anniversary as a blogger and social media leader. In honor of my 10th anniversary, I am using my digital footprint to support campaigns, causes, and organizations focused on making my community and city better, creativity, education, health, people of color, social justice, affordable and accessible technology, and women.

Photo Credit: www.andy4dc.com
Photo Credit: http://www.andy4dc.com

For the next several months, I am using my blog and social media sites to share information about Andy Shalal’s campaign for Mayor of the District of Columbia (DC) . I support Andy’s campaign because he is committed to making DC an affordable city that works for all of its residents, businesses, community organizations, government agencies, schools, colleges, and universities.

Photo Credit: www.andy4dc.com
Photo Credit: http://www.andy4dc.com

As a long-time entrepreneur, founder of Busboys and Poets and Eatonville restaurants, activist, and artist, his fresh approach to leadership will:

* Make affordable housing truly affordable for all income levels.
* Fund more programs for adult literacy and job readiness.
* Reduce poverty by creating good jobs with a living wage and paid sick leave.
* Help small businesses prosper.
* Put the public voice back into the public education.
* Improve government services like the Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs.
* Provide more assistance to returning citizens.
* Reform the tax code.
* Reduce wasteful government spending.

Click here to learn more about Andy’s campaign. Be sure to follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy Yoga Monday: Yoga, Me & 2014

Posted by on in Yoga, Yoga MondaysLeave a comment

image

Happy Yoga Monday!

Today, while I was reading the latest issue of Yoga Journal, I started thinking about a phrase that appears on the magazine cover: “Tap Into Yoga’s Power.” This phrase took me back to 1995, the year I started practicing yoga. Memories of my first yoga teacher, Gloria teaching me how to breathe mindfully through each yoga asana especially child’s pose, pigeon, downward facing dog, and forward fold, made me smile. Other memories flooded my mind and reminded me of how powerful yoga has been in helping me manage anger, change, conflict, death, disappointment, fear, grief,  sadness, stress, and writer’s block over the past 20 years.

20 years of yoga in my life … can you believe it? It went so fast and yet made a powerful difference in my life. This year, I plan to use this blog to share reflections about my 20 year yoga journey and where it is taking me in 2014 …. Bhakti Yoga, Integral Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Yin Yoga, writing yoga poetry about turning 50 and a new novel featuring a cast of yoga students and teachers who live, love, and practice yoga in DC, and making yoga art. So get ready for some OM fun!

How is yoga guiding, inspiring, and supporting you in 2014?

Happy Creativity Thursday: Creating 2014 Vision Boards

Posted by on in Creativity, Creativity Coaching, Creativity Thursday2 Comments

image

Happy Creativity Thursday! Happy Day #2 of 2014!

During a recent creativity coaching client session, I shared how much I enjoyed making vision boards, cutting images from magazines,  and the impact vision boards have had on accomplishing my goals and manifesting my dreams over the past 20 years. The vision board making process has allowed me to select images, words, phrases, and quotes that affirm and support my goals and dreams.
This year, I journaled about my vision board themes and came up with a 2014 life theme. It took the form of a six-word memoir: Faith+Rest+Thrive+Passion+Zen=Fierceology. Fierceology is the belief and practice of Fierce Living. Fierce Living is the choice and commitment to be too bold for boundaries in all areas of my life and creative expression.

Have you made or are you making vision boards for 2014?

Happy Internet Geek Tuesday: My 2013 Blog in review

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Happy Internet Geek Tuesday!

Check out my blog’s 2013 in review.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Happy Yoga Monday: Reflections on My 2013 Yoga Practice

Posted by on in Yoga, Yoga MondaysLeave a comment

image

Happy Yoga Monday!

Today marks the last Yoga Monday of 2013. In honor of this auspicious occassion, I thought I would share how my Yoga Monday blogging practice impacted my life on and off my yoga mat this year. Blogging about yoga each week helped me stay grounded like a tree rooted in the earth (see my Christmas tree pose photo above) to my home yoga practice and goal of taking more workshops and classes.
image

I was able to take several vinyasa and restorative yoga classes at Embrace Yoga Studio that opened up my heart to my creativity in the spring and helped me digest changes in my life at the end of the year.
image

Through my weekly yin yoga class taught by Danielle Polen at Tranquil Space, I was able to face my fears about finishing my Digital Sisterhood book, become clear about the next phase of my career as a digital communications professional, and begin the process of atonement and forgiveness with several people. I also became a member of a supportive yoga community at Tranquil Space and received lots of positive energy and encouragement, hugs, and kind words while writing my Digital Sisterhood book.

This summer, I took a yoga and wine workshop just for fun, a yoga and writing workshop to overcome a funky case of writer’s block, and a winter solstice yin yoga workshop to celebrate the end of a very full year.
image

Blogging each week inspired me to read Yoga Journal each month and check out other yoga magazines. This year, I became a huge fan of Origin and Mantra. The articles encouraged me to open my heart to a bigger yoga life that included reading yoga-inspired poetry, creating a yoga station on Pandora.com via my iPad, and attending concerts featuring some of my favorite yoga mantra chanters, musicians, and vocalists like Snatam Kaur, Krishna Das, and Deva Premal and Mitren.
image

When I started dreaming about taking Kundalini yoga classes at the Yoga House during the summer months, I allowed procrastination to stop me from signing up. So I wrote a blog about Kundalini yoga and publicly announced my intention to take classes. My public announcement created accountability. And now I am happy to say my love affair with Kundalini yoga is in full swing. It is following me into 2014.

What did you gain and learn from your yoga practice in 2013?

Thanks for joining me on my Yoga Monday journey this year. See you in 2014!

Happy Creativity Thursday: My Passion for Creativity Coaching

Posted by on in Creativity Coaching, Creativity coaching clients, Creativity ThursdayLeave a comment

image

Happy Creativ Thursday!

Today, I spent the afternoon with one of my first creativity coaching clients, Sharon Malachi, owner of DC Dog Grooming, LLC, at Teaism, a tea cafe located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in Washington, DC. I started working with Sharon on her creative plans and goals to promote her business in 2010. Through our work together, she developed creative storytelling skills that she used with her blog, social media sites, and television interviews. Helping her grow as a creative business woman has been exciting,  personally fulfilling, and inspiring. That’s why I decided to use my 2014 Creativity Thursday blog posts as a platform for sharing my creativity coaching expertise. So get ready!

Happy Yoga Monday: My Winter Solstice Weekend

Posted by on in Yoga MondaysLeave a comment
Photo Credit: http://hdwallpapersfan.blogspot.com/2013/04/winter-solstice-pictures.html
Photo Credit: http://hdwallpapersfan.blogspot.com/2013/04/winter-solstice-pictures.html

Happy Yoga Monday!

The Winter Solstice is the first day of winter which happens when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees or the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. It is the shortest day of the year. It is also one of my favorite times a year because it reminds me to SLOW DOWN for rest and relaxation, and TURN INWARD for reflection with more yoga, meditation, mantra chanting, journaling, walks in nature, collage making, and reading.

Photo Credit: www.tranquilspace.com
Photo Credit: http://www.tranquilspace.com

In preparation for this year’s Winter Solstice, I planned a weekend of yoga and meditation that started with a wonderful yin yoga and yoga nidra workshop taught by my yoga teacher, Danielle Polen at Tranquil Space on December 20. Danielle’s class was exactly what I needed to open my heart to the Winter Solstice season.
Photo Credit: www.wisdom-books.com/ProductPic.asp?PID=16675
Photo Credit: http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductPic.asp?PID=16675

On Saturday afternoon, I attended the monthly Buddhist meditation circle for my People of Color Sangha. It felt really good to sit for 30 minutes in silence with my Buddhist sisters and brothers. After the sit, we listened to a dharma talk on the emotions that occur during the holiday season given by our meditation teacher, La Sarmiento. We also shared our thoughts with each other in a mindful discussion.

Photo Credit: www.embracedc.com
Photo Credit: http://www.embracedc.com

On Sunday morning, I listened to a Winter Solstice sermon on stillness given by Reverend Rob Hardies at my church, All Souls Unitarian. Rob’s sermon reminded me how important it is to take time out to be quiet. Later that day, I treated myself to a restorative yoga class at Embrace Yoga Studio.

How did you celebrate the Winter Solstice?

Happy Creativity Thursday: Celebrating Kesha Bruce’s “The Guardians” Exhibition in DC

Posted by on in African American Art, Creativity ThursdayLeave a comment

1390663_10152415307346679_807845811_n
Happy Creativity Thursday!

Last weekend, I hosted the Digital Sisterhood Month field trip to see artist Kesha Bruce’s “The Guardians” exhibition at Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC. Kesha’s work is rooted in her personal mythology. The paintings in “The Guardians” series evoke ancestral energy. They make me think of the many women and men who came before me. The people who sacrificed so that I would be able to enjoy my life. They remind me to show gratitude to my ancestors. They also inspire me to create some ancestral art work in 2014. So get ready for some surprises!

Kesha was recently named 2013 Digital Sister of the Year – Creativista. While I was at the exhibition, I reconnected with Adrienne Fikes, 2013 Digital Sister of the Year – Enchantista. We had a great time chatting about Kesha’s work. What a great day I had!

Have you attended any gallery shows or museum exhibitions this holiday season?

Happy Internet Geek Tuesday: Using My Digital Influence to Fundraise for ZuriWorks

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org

Happy Internet Geek Tuesday!

Tomorrow marks my 49th birthday. This year, I am using my digital influence to raise money for ZuriWorks for Women’s Health, a nonprofit organization that offers beauty, arts and health programs to enhance the quality of life for women of color impacted by cancer. ZuriWorks also works to educate women of color about their health and to improve their survivorship rates.

Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org

I learned about the organization from my digital sister Xina Eiland, President of X+PR, when she began working with its founder, Andrene Taylor on several events earlier this year. I became an instant fan after watching Andrene’s moving video about her cancer journey and the amazing support ZuriWorks has been able to provide to women of color living with cancer. These women reminded me of my two grandmothers, Dorothy Johnson Gartin and Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke, who lived with breast cancer. I wish they had access to ZuriWorks’ programs.

That’s why I am using the next two weeks (from December 17 to December 31) to invite my family, friends, and digital community to make a donation to ZuriWorks in honor of my birthday and the holiday season. Click here to make a donation. Any amount counts ($5, $10, $15, $20, $25 or more). Thank you in advance for your generosity!