Being the Change is Challenging!
September 1st marked the beginning of the last of Journey of the Yogini's Be the Change: 30 Day Body, Mind, and Soul Challenge.
It's bitter sweet.
I have been waking up every morning excited to see the daily emails filled with inspiration from all our OMazing Coaches this year and also check our online forum to see all the posts from challengers connecting and encouraging one another.
Watching everyone connect, even though it's on a virtual level, is pretty powerful.
I never really know how it's going to go until we get started.
So far, very good!
It's really not easy to do what they are doing.
A lot of yoga and fitness studio's offer challenges of their own, which get people motivated to get on their mats or get fit again once the challenge begins.
And although that's great, what if for once your practice wasn't about you at all?
I really wanted to create some more than just another way for you to do something good for you.
A way for people to start to understand that what we do for ourselves really affects everyone around us.
I wanted people to feel the difference of doing something for yourself versus doing something for yourself that will ultimately affect our global community too.
So challengers all have committed to their daily practice ~ Yoga or movement of any kind really, but also raise awareness and funds for our partner charity ~ IWEN Canada.
This added piece is what makes the challenge different.
I started this challenge after reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
I highly recommend this book if you are interested in learning who is really serving the women of the world and how you can help.
This year's challenge is really exactly what I had planned all along and supporting exactly what I wanted to support.
IWEN Canada is a grass roots org out of BC. Their mission is to raise awareness of the importance of and increase access to education for (primarily) marginalized females, by funding education programs in Nepal, Canada, and other countries.
We are raising awareness and funds to help support the build of a Women's Training and Innovation Center in rural Nepal.
I visited the area of Nepal where they are building with our last Yoga, Action, Adventure group.
Currently there are eight women making beautiful scarves and learning the basics of how to run a business.
IWEN wants to build a center so that we can empower and educate more women in this area.
I have never felt more compelled to support a cause. I have met these women personally.
We have been in their homes and they kicked our butts in Holy.
Those women really know how to play!
At first they were very shy and kept their distance, but as the weeks went on the women started to blossom.
Their personalities came through even with the language barriers.
I have never really met such vibrant and alive women.
They brought us lunch every single day. Hand made it in their homes and sometime walked for miles to serve it to us.
{I have to be honest that it was so amazingly good. They fed us like mother's would too... wayyy too much! But the sometimes hours of walking in the hot sun made it hard on our bellies and we eventually had to turn to PB and banana sandwiches, which made them laugh at us!}
Something that you wouldn't really imagine, that they would be vibrant, alive, loving, and fun since they have been marginalized and oppressed for most of their lives.
As ex-bonded slaves, they are now all driven to create change and educate not only themselves but their daughters and end the cycles of poverty and oppression.
They are doing this through their own business ~ UNAKO. Unako means 'SHE' in their dialect and is a Signature Scarf project with Tharu women in Dang, Nepal, to give these women an opportunity to become self-reliant financially. Moreover, profit realized on scarf sales is completely invested in educational programs helping desperately marginalized girls and youth in Nepal.
I think the Yoga, Action, Adventure group might have literally bought them out of stock while we were there. They got so excited too because we even asked for custom orders!
A highlight of my life, really a moment I will never forget and will always bring tears to my eyes, and really signifies what I want others to feel through this challenge, is when I designed a scarf with them.
They were so excited, but also super nervous, to do something they have never done {Sound familiar?}
We went through the materials and I picked one out that really represented Journey of the Yogini, and with the help of our awesome guide and interpreter, Nura, we collaborated on a wrap scarf.
{Pictured above ~ Nura and our group trying to buy scarves in the tiny tiny work space they are in now}
We have seen the design before and you might have even bought one from Lululemon or others, but for them, especially since they are just learning a trade and have no idea what one looks like, this was new and challenging.
They not only created the scarf but did it in one day!
When I went to pick it up I cried. They were so happy to have done a good job, see me wear it, and when Nura told them what I did and how I would sell it the looks in their eyes to mine is really the most poignant moment I have ever really had. It was one of deep gratitude and love from the Soul.
My intention had been to simply empower them. To give them a new skill and style to work with that I knew would sell her and to my community to give them even more financial success and independence.
What I really did was what I wanted to do, but it was also a moment that changed my life too.
Like the Grinch, my heart grew about three sizes that day ~ love and gratitude shown without words, gifts, or even hugs. It's pretty powerful stuff.
It became even more special when Nura told me that they didn't really believe that people would buy them or wear the scarves because they have no internet to see pictures or the website. So us being there buying and wearing them was really important for them to see what they were doing was working!
We think we are doing something for others, but really by supporting others we change ourselves.
There is no way around it.
And when we start to change ourselves the others around us benefit.
Give what you get, get what you give.
It's not easy, again, it's why we call it a challenge.
Our challenge while Nepal wasn't to do Yoga daily but we had our fair share. No hot water, aircon in +45 degrees (at night!), sometimes clean water to drink or sanitary food. Creepy crawlers biting us at night, dirty bathrooms, and very uncomfortable beds. I showered from a tap over my toilet for a week.
You know first world luxuries we are so used to we went without.
You really find out how much you can go without when it's stripped from you and you don't have a choice.
It was really very insightful I think for a lot of the participants.
But everyday we would go to our community and be reminded of how it was all worth it.
Again our intention was to support them in the building of this school, but really they gifted us with so much more.
But I really believe and have seen it with my own two eyes, felt it in my heart, and know it in my Soul, that if you help others your life will change forever ~ for the better.
The participants in this challenge have so far raised or personally donated over $2,000 for this Innovation Center.
I feel so proud and honored to have met the women they are supporting, but also to know the participants who are raising.
We really can't create change with community, collaboration, and support and everyone is showing that they really are becoming the change they wish to see in the world.
If you would like to support the Women's Innovation Center too, all donations over $10+ will receive an instant tax receipt since IWEN is a registered Canadian charity. Make donations here if you wish.
So much love and gratitude to this year's BTCC Coaches and participants, and to IWEN and Creating Possibilities for all they do every single day to support these women.
blessings on the path.
Xx
www.megancampbell.ca
It's bitter sweet.
I have been waking up every morning excited to see the daily emails filled with inspiration from all our OMazing Coaches this year and also check our online forum to see all the posts from challengers connecting and encouraging one another.
Watching everyone connect, even though it's on a virtual level, is pretty powerful.
I never really know how it's going to go until we get started.
So far, very good!
It's really not easy to do what they are doing.
A lot of yoga and fitness studio's offer challenges of their own, which get people motivated to get on their mats or get fit again once the challenge begins.
And although that's great, what if for once your practice wasn't about you at all?
I really wanted to create some more than just another way for you to do something good for you.
A way for people to start to understand that what we do for ourselves really affects everyone around us.
I wanted people to feel the difference of doing something for yourself versus doing something for yourself that will ultimately affect our global community too.
So challengers all have committed to their daily practice ~ Yoga or movement of any kind really, but also raise awareness and funds for our partner charity ~ IWEN Canada.
This added piece is what makes the challenge different.
I started this challenge after reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
I highly recommend this book if you are interested in learning who is really serving the women of the world and how you can help.
This year's challenge is really exactly what I had planned all along and supporting exactly what I wanted to support.
IWEN Canada is a grass roots org out of BC. Their mission is to raise awareness of the importance of and increase access to education for (primarily) marginalized females, by funding education programs in Nepal, Canada, and other countries.
We are raising awareness and funds to help support the build of a Women's Training and Innovation Center in rural Nepal.
I visited the area of Nepal where they are building with our last Yoga, Action, Adventure group.
Currently there are eight women making beautiful scarves and learning the basics of how to run a business.
IWEN wants to build a center so that we can empower and educate more women in this area.
I have never felt more compelled to support a cause. I have met these women personally.
We have been in their homes and they kicked our butts in Holy.
Those women really know how to play!
At first they were very shy and kept their distance, but as the weeks went on the women started to blossom.
Their personalities came through even with the language barriers.
I have never really met such vibrant and alive women.
They brought us lunch every single day. Hand made it in their homes and sometime walked for miles to serve it to us.
{I have to be honest that it was so amazingly good. They fed us like mother's would too... wayyy too much! But the sometimes hours of walking in the hot sun made it hard on our bellies and we eventually had to turn to PB and banana sandwiches, which made them laugh at us!}
Something that you wouldn't really imagine, that they would be vibrant, alive, loving, and fun since they have been marginalized and oppressed for most of their lives.
As ex-bonded slaves, they are now all driven to create change and educate not only themselves but their daughters and end the cycles of poverty and oppression.
They are doing this through their own business ~ UNAKO. Unako means 'SHE' in their dialect and is a Signature Scarf project with Tharu women in Dang, Nepal, to give these women an opportunity to become self-reliant financially. Moreover, profit realized on scarf sales is completely invested in educational programs helping desperately marginalized girls and youth in Nepal.
I think the Yoga, Action, Adventure group might have literally bought them out of stock while we were there. They got so excited too because we even asked for custom orders!
A highlight of my life, really a moment I will never forget and will always bring tears to my eyes, and really signifies what I want others to feel through this challenge, is when I designed a scarf with them.
They were so excited, but also super nervous, to do something they have never done {Sound familiar?}
We went through the materials and I picked one out that really represented Journey of the Yogini, and with the help of our awesome guide and interpreter, Nura, we collaborated on a wrap scarf.
{Pictured above ~ Nura and our group trying to buy scarves in the tiny tiny work space they are in now}
We have seen the design before and you might have even bought one from Lululemon or others, but for them, especially since they are just learning a trade and have no idea what one looks like, this was new and challenging.
They not only created the scarf but did it in one day!
When I went to pick it up I cried. They were so happy to have done a good job, see me wear it, and when Nura told them what I did and how I would sell it the looks in their eyes to mine is really the most poignant moment I have ever really had. It was one of deep gratitude and love from the Soul.
My intention had been to simply empower them. To give them a new skill and style to work with that I knew would sell her and to my community to give them even more financial success and independence.
What I really did was what I wanted to do, but it was also a moment that changed my life too.
Like the Grinch, my heart grew about three sizes that day ~ love and gratitude shown without words, gifts, or even hugs. It's pretty powerful stuff.
It became even more special when Nura told me that they didn't really believe that people would buy them or wear the scarves because they have no internet to see pictures or the website. So us being there buying and wearing them was really important for them to see what they were doing was working!
We think we are doing something for others, but really by supporting others we change ourselves.
There is no way around it.
And when we start to change ourselves the others around us benefit.
Give what you get, get what you give.
It's not easy, again, it's why we call it a challenge.
Our challenge while Nepal wasn't to do Yoga daily but we had our fair share. No hot water, aircon in +45 degrees (at night!), sometimes clean water to drink or sanitary food. Creepy crawlers biting us at night, dirty bathrooms, and very uncomfortable beds. I showered from a tap over my toilet for a week.
You know first world luxuries we are so used to we went without.
You really find out how much you can go without when it's stripped from you and you don't have a choice.
It was really very insightful I think for a lot of the participants.
But everyday we would go to our community and be reminded of how it was all worth it.
Again our intention was to support them in the building of this school, but really they gifted us with so much more.
But I really believe and have seen it with my own two eyes, felt it in my heart, and know it in my Soul, that if you help others your life will change forever ~ for the better.
The participants in this challenge have so far raised or personally donated over $2,000 for this Innovation Center.
I feel so proud and honored to have met the women they are supporting, but also to know the participants who are raising.
We really can't create change with community, collaboration, and support and everyone is showing that they really are becoming the change they wish to see in the world.
If you would like to support the Women's Innovation Center too, all donations over $10+ will receive an instant tax receipt since IWEN is a registered Canadian charity. Make donations here if you wish.
So much love and gratitude to this year's BTCC Coaches and participants, and to IWEN and Creating Possibilities for all they do every single day to support these women.
blessings on the path.
Xx
www.megancampbell.ca
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