Growth. Sometimes not so easy.

I'm sorry for taking so absurdly long to write. Not gonna lie! It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks! Yeehaw!

To start, I had to let go of something that I'd been holding on to for years. A hope, a desire, perhaps a need for security (and by perhaps I mean oh most definitely!). I spent a long time battling with myself mentally to gain the courage to finally do it, but I did it. I let go of something that was gripping my heart tight, holding me back from carrying on in my life and becoming the person I truly want to be. It hurt in the moment, but immediately afterward I felt light and a huge relief. It wasn't intoxicating my life anymore.

To make my life more interesting, the next day I realized that certain negative experiences that had happened to me in the last couple of years were exponentially more serious than I had thought. At the time of the negative experiences, I hadn't understood fully what had been going on so I brushed it off, but I never got over any of the experiences and had felt wounded from them. Once it had been made aware to me what had actually happened and the reason to why I was reacting to certain situations now was so freeing. It made it possible for me to heal and know what I was healing from, instead of consistently wondering whether I was crazy/responsible or not. It's incredible what forgiveness for others can do for your own heart. Thanks to my family and wonderful friends, I was able to do just that. I won't ever forget any of it, but I'm now in a position where I can think about it and no negative emotion or energy shows up.

It is so imperative for us to let go of any dark or negative emotions that have built-up in our systems. Some of these might be newer from more recent happenings or they might be dormant from experiences you had when you were a kid. Either way, it is critical to be aware of them and to follow through with the healing process.

Seriously, if you have any more questions or insights about this please ask me. I'm more than happy to explain further and help as much as I can. Taking yourself on is a mighty task, but essential for true happiness.

It was an interesting and difficult week, but holy toledo THE LESSONS!!! I was on a gnarly learning curve let me tell you!

This is a two part blog. This is the first one and since it is a tad heavier than part two, which is just straight up awesome and super exciting (!!), I shall end it here.

Here's a song that I listen to when I want my mind to clear and to feel centered again.

Peace and love my amazing people. Linds.

A Few Breaths of Nostalgia

Just feeling the need to express my longing for the warm Bali sun and the most amazing sand/shell beaches. I continue to mentally take myself back there to remember that state of bliss and natural beauty. With the sun kissing at my back, the breeze feathering through my hair, the sand tickling my skin as I sift it through my fingers, near complete isolation on a beautiful beach in Indonesia, and with my best friend by my side. Could it get any better? Here are some photos that I cherish and want to share with you of a very special time. I truly believe everyone needs to travel and experience true life as it should be: in the moment.

 Bali Bliss

 Koh Tao, Thailand

 Ubud, Bali

My lovely bestie :)

 

This photo continues to be my inspiration, Bali

Halong Bay, 'Nam

 Sometimes I forget that we have such beauty here as well. My other place of bliss...Tofino. Photo Cred..Braden

I feel like I should also share that instead of Leap of Life Creations, I've changed our name to Leap of Life Inspirations. Our mission is to inspire youth to step into themselves and take action on their dreams, so 'inspirations' seemed to be a better term :). Plus I fricken love that word...INSPIRE.

I love this artist. Something nice to listen to while looking back at Bali and the incredible adventures I've had :).

Thanks everyone :). Happy Monday!

Collabs and Your Verse

I so often find that we live in a society of competition. We always have to one-up each other. When it comes to sports I totally appreciate it and it's kind of the whole point. However, I see it so often within friends, family-members and businesses. Naturally we all have that competitive edge, which is great and totally necessary for certain aspects. But why do we continuously compare ourselves to others? Why can't we be happy with what we have and who we are? I think we all need to remind ourselves that we all have an AMAZING purpose that's our very own and nobody elses.

Last night I FINALLY watched "Dead Poet's Society". The professor, John Keating, takes a quote from Walt Whitman where he questions life and it's existence (I think...I'm no poet!!) and Keating answers: "That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?".  I absolutely love that quote and it really resonated with me and Leap of Life. It made me question what I want to accomplish and the potential I have for positive change. I'm excited! Anyways, I wanted to share that with you and maybe ask you what your verse will be or what do you want it to be (as corny as that sounds)? Food for thought!

Back to the subject of competition. I think for the most part it's excrement :). We all want to be happy right? How is that possible when we're consistently in competition mode and nothing is ever good enough? I'm talking mostly personal and business-wise. It's kind of common sense that if more people/companies/organizations come together and collaborate. WAY more will get done and a message will be created.

That's really the whole point to Leap of Life. We believe collaboration is key to success and happiness and the more people/companies we bring together, the closer we are to our mission. We are already collaborating with Social City Networking (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-City-Networking-INC/122259574486548), a community and socially conscious company who connects and celebrates amazing and conscious companies in Vancouver.
I'm also looking so forward to July where I'll be meeting the incredible group of people that are the backbone to Light and Soul Creations (http://www.lightandsoul.ca/). Based out of Calgary, they are a group of artists that are committed to living a progressive lifestyle that breaks out of the conventional and limiting scene through art and their incredible creations. Their mantra is "Challenge reality, manifest progression." How awesome is THAT!? So stoked to meet them folks.
If you go to their site you can watch their amazing new video outlining their new "animalistic" line! Dooooo it!!! I wanted to post it, but I can't figure out how to get it on here. Blast!

In the meantime...an awesome and nostalgic summer swoon. He's here in August!

A Uniting Recovery

Today marks the one week anniversary of the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots.  It's clear the riots were not really about the hockey game and that they weren't really Vancouverites causing the damage. Most of us want to move on and we'd rather forget about it completely. However, I feel the need to say my bit so please bare with me.

I was one of the 150,000 civilians downtown watching the hockey game. Fortunately, I was in an apartment with friends on Homer and Robson, a block away from the Fan Zone. We got caught in the riots trying to figure out a way to get out of there, although curiosity did take over in some circumstances. We ended up witnessing an attempted break-in to Louis Vuitton, beatings, and were tear gassed. I'm not going to lie, I froze. I didn't know what to do. I felt like I was in a movie of some kind and couldn't comprehend anything that was going on. As we watched the Boston Bruins bus with the hockey players inside drive down Burrard Street with a full on SWAT team behind them, I felt sorry that they didn't win the cup in their own city, and that they had to witness this embarrassment in ours.

ANYWAYS, my point of writing this blog isn't actually about the night of the riots. It's about what happened after. The city came together and fought back against the hate/anger crimes by writing messages of love and sympathies to the city. I wish I'd gone down in time to take some of my own photos before they changed the wood walls, but I didn't get the chance. Here's one taken from CBC.

It's incredible that after such a devastating event, we can unite and claim back our love for this city. Vancouver is truly an amazing place and I feel so lucky to live here. Thank you Vancouverites for fighting back with love (and giving in footage of the anarchists) for our city.

"You, whose day it is, get out your rainbow colors and make it BEAUTIFUL."

Here's a video that a friend and recording artist, Bonn Will Smith, put together. It's AMAZING!! Check it.

One Love

With life comes constant development and progression, both professionally and personally and so much of that is influenced by those around you. In my last blog, I shared my sense of self-loss and confusion with who I am and what my purpose is. I've spent the last week working on my heart and letting go of certain attachments from the past that I still have. It has not been the easiest couple of weeks, and I still don't feel like I've completely come back to myself. However, the fact that I'm totally aware of it means that I can consciously make the change within myself and my life. Huzzah!

I want to share some incredible people I've met recently. Two are twin sisters who founded an incredible and socially conscious networking company (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-City-Networking-INC/122259574486548) called 'Social City Networking'. Both have their own amazing story and great ambitions, which brought the three of us together. Last night, Sara hosted a potluck and invited some extremely inspirational people. It was a night full of heart-connections, great food, and AMAZING music.

The musicians involved Randy Ponzio (http://www.facebook.com/ponzio1), Phareke Frazer (http://www.facebook.com/hedonicentertainment?sk=app_2405167945), and Silas (Babaluku Uganda) who works part-time in Uganda working with the people to restore hope and heal their hearts through music (http://www.facebook.com/hedonicentertainment?sk=app_2405167945#!/profile.php?id=100001128615303).

Here's a little clip of the awesomeness that occurred:

Eland Bronstein was also there from The GiveProject (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vancouver-Riot-Pics-Post-Your-Photos/121837081234162?ref=ts&sk=wall#!/passthegive), which in short is about giving spontaneously and selflessly, from random acts of kindness to conversations that change people's lives. Professional dancers, professional DJ's, and free-thinkers came together and created an amazing vibe. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it. Thank you everyone for being there and sharing with me an absolutely incredible night.

Before I sign off, I want to share this amazing short clip from a documentary called Playing for Change.  This peace-through-music project brought together vocalists and musicians around the world through film, bringing to the surface how much of a global community we really are. This is one of the best idea's I've ever heard and it absolutely blows my mind! ENJOY! Peace and love my friends.

From the Heart

I believe that having trust in yourself is the key to your own happiness. If that trust is lost, so is your direction in life. It's true that you can have others guide you, but do you really want that? Do you want to be a follower? And do what others tell you even if it's not what you really believe?

I'm really going to be myself all the time. That's a commitment I make to you as the readers of my blog, to Leap of Life Creations, and most importantly, to myself. It's a lot harder to do (or be) than you think too.

So, I'll be completely honest, these past few weeks I've felt fairly lost. My direction with myself personally has been very confusing and not totally on track. I noticed the confused feeling before Sasquatch. I sort of forgot about it while at Sasquatch, since it's its own world where happiness and music flows, and when I came home it hit me full force. I felt totally disoriented with who I am, what my purpose is, and where my place is in the world. I was pretty disheartened, but wasn't sure with what or why.

I reached out to some very incredible people who understand me completely and what I'm trying to accomplish. I shared with them what is going on for my heart and that I feel overwhelmed and exhausted and not sure what I'm doing. They made me realize that I'm still on the right path and that I'm merely in transition from one phase of self-development to the next. I'm just experiencing the rough patch in between that can be difficult to adapt to. Another wise piece of advice given to me was not to take on so many projects. I tend to say "yes" to everything that crosses my path and I do genuinely want to do it all. However, if I do it all then I won't do it nearly as great as one project, right? So my next goal is to simplify my life. Why make life complicated? Simplicity is true bliss.

I wanted to share this experience with you because even though you have taken or will take that leap of life, there are still times of confusion and loss where you don't know what you're doing. You just have to completely believe in yourself and your passion. If it takes some soul-searching and some much needed time by the beach with your thoughts to regenerate (that's what I need to do!) then do it. Take care of yourself and know that you're on the right path.

Thanks for listening :).

Here's a video that I regularly watch over and over again. No matter what Mickey Smith lives his passion and you can feel it through this short film.

Sasquatch Festival Music and Love Vibes

Wow. What an experience! The Sasquatch Music Festival absolutely blew my mind. So much fun with great people and watched amazing music being played. I'm trying to find words to really articulate the emotions I felt there. I was completely in my element: neon, tribal paint, Live in the MO singlets, headbands, AMAZING music, tie dye, camping. Need I say more? What's awesome is that we sold out of our Live in the Mo shirts on the first day (I say thanks to my amazing "Live in the MO" models) and more are soon to come!
The campground itself was full of characters: kids with lassos, graffiti'd winnebagos, party busses, Justin Bieber flags, and weirdos with awesome Full Moon party buckets and an ol' pink flamingo flag. What a life! Welcome to Sasquatch.

My favourite shows? Ohooooo where do I start. My favourite day was Monday. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were so incredible I couldn't contain myself. I literally cried at this show it was so good. I've never seen a performer with more passion (I have a GIANT crush on Macklemore not gonna lie). Below is a video from my camera (not HD and not totally on target all the time, but let's face it, Fed wanted to enjoy the show as much as the rest of us...thanks for taking it Fed!)

We caught a glimpse of Foster the People, which way too packed to even get in to the front. Rodrigo y Gabriela performed on the big stage so we took a breather and listened to them during a much needed rainstorm and we ended up dancing to some ridiculously awesome guitar riffs. We moved to the dance tent to see Skrillex who blew me away. I know his music fairly well, but I've never heard any artist drop a beat as hard as Skrillex. Can't help but move with it! To finish off the insane weekend, we made our way to the front of Major Lazer, who put on the most entertaining shows I've ever seen. We witnessed some Rated R dancing (seriously) between Switch and his dancer and even observed the ladder dagger first-hand (see below). Meanwhile Diplo's swinging off some equipment in the background. SO entertaining and GREAT music. I'm having a lot of trouble putting this into words how amazing it was. Ending the weekend with bumping into Skrillex and Major Lazer wasn't too bad. We high five'd them, no bid D.

The other days were incredible as well. Friday we went in later and only saw Death from Above 1979 and the Foo Fighters (they played a couple of songs with Bob Mould). I've never been to a set as long as the Foo Fighters...over 2 hours! Then we danced a little bit to DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid. So fun!

Saturday we kicked it off with a chill Dan Mangan show. We then headed to the main stage and saw Wolf Parade (apparently their last show) and Pink Martini. This was in between napping on the hill so that we could be in full force for the night! After watching the beginning of Iron and Wine, we booked it over for Matt and Kim, which was an amazing show! Kim jumped off the stage and ran into the crowd. What a gem that girl is! Then we caught a bit of Robyn and her awesome moonwalking moves and listened to her very poor English ("We gonna have a Sasquatch Pahty!"...so classic) and then made our way over for Sleigh Bells, which was INCREDIBLE. Alexis Krauss is one foxy lady and damn is she ever a rockstar! We ended the night with Bassnectar and his epic Glowpocalypse (where everyone is prepared with glow sticks and when he drops the beat everyone throws them in the air) and let me just say I'll never look at the movie "Dumbo" the same. He was AMAZING.

Here's a link to the "Pink Elephants" song and the reason why I mentioned "Dumbo". Absolutely insane (in a very good way).

 Sunday we had a goal to go see Beach House, but the line-up at the gates was irregularly long with literally thousands of people waiting to get in that we thought some people were going to suffocate. After an hour of extreme discomfort of being in the middle of way too many people crushing to get into the festival grounds, we finally made it in time to see City and Colour. We were then able to fit in Cold War Kids, Flogging Molly, and Gayngs before the Flaming Lips came on. In typical Wayne Coyne fashion, he rolled out in a big plastic ball onto the crowd. After making his way back to the stage, instead of actually performing he started talking about extremely random things like how important our hands are. Great. Everyone then sang a very nice "Happy Birthday Sasquatch" song and he threw cake out into the crowd. We then decided it was time to leave since Wayne Coyne was still discussing the gift of the hand and headed over to the wonderful Yeasayer.

This show was AWESOME. Chris Keating's smoking hot voice and Yeasayer's different vibe got everyone moving and it was a great warm-up to MSTRKRFT, which after Yeasayer we moved to in the dance tent (we did catch a bit of Modest Mouse, but had to much energy from Yeasayer that we needed to dance more!). We managed to sneak up to the front where some serious mosh pitting was occurring and I had to duck here and there while bodies were surfing their way across the crowd. GREAT times!! I'd heard that MSTRKFT's show wasn't that great, but they definitely proved otherwise. After MSTRKRFT pumped us up some more we moved to the next show: Ratatat. I didn't realize that Ratatat consists of two guys, two drums, two guitars, and a DJ set. It was awesome to see some dubstep that integrated musical instruments with the table. Gosh these guys are so cool. They had extremely trippy images for those on the "heighteners" like budgies, people (it doesn't sound weird but it was), etc. Hilarious! Here's a Yeasayer video just for the heck of it!

 

It was a long, yet unbelievable five days. I'm so lucky to have finally gone this year and it took me back to my SE Asia traveling days. Thank you Sasquatch and to the INCREDIBLE people I met and experienced it with. Count down begins for next year!!!

Leap of Life Creations has it's FIRST official Creation!

Yahooooooooooo!!! I am so PLEASED to announce that the shirts are here and my my do they look fine. I'm so excited to hear feedback from all you folks. Here's a video of me picking up the shirts :). The video (like all of them so far) is completely unedited so don't mind if there are any awkward moments (they tend to happen to me occasionally). This just happened a few hours ago and I wanted to get this out as soon as possible because I'm SO EXCITED!

I'm really into flowers right now too so I'm going to add this little beauty of an effloresce.

And the Sasquatch adventure starts tomorrow!! Check out this tunage by the amazingly chill group: Gayngs. It's going to be a good'er!

Thanks for all of your support. I love you people!

Video Update!

Hi my amazing friends!!

I posted the picture above just for the reason of how beautiful the flowers are! Goodness we live in a magical city :).

Here's a little video update I did today. So exciting! Warming up for some serious Sasquatching in two days time!

Have an amazing week and weekend! All you Sasquatch go'ers...I hope to meet you on the Gorge side.

Peace and love!

PS. HOLY TOLEDO WE'RE IN THE STANLEY CUP FINALS. YESSSSSS! What a GREAT week.

Oh How I Love Creations

Oh hi! Hello!

Ohooooo looks like the shirts are going to turn out allllllllright.

With the sale of each shirt 20% is donated to either a socially conscious initiative in Vancouver or a West Coast conservation organization (looking for suggestions!). We're focusing on smaller and more grass-roots projects so that we will have a great impact and will be able to keep in contact and witness and take part in the growth within the initiatives. Huzzah! That's what it's all about.

All I can say right now is...I feel so lucky and blessed to be surrounded by such an incredible crowd and I'm so STOKED for the rest of these bad boys to come out. Best day. Ever.

Time to play my happy dance song!!!

Ask and You Will Manifest

Holy toledo it's been almost a week since I wrote my last blog. My bad...life is getting a wee bit more awesome every day and I find myself happily distracted by what each day is bringing me!

Something I've noticed in the past month since I've started on this saweet adventure is that when I've simply "asked" for something (aka. put it out there in the universe), it's manifested. One very simple and completely irrelevant example to Leap of Life Creations is my story of Frisco, the most awesome puddle jumper car EVER. Frisco has always had so many little awesome characteristics, some being the high-beams came on every time I turned the left-hand signal on, the windshield wipers wouldn't work after I went past 60km/hour, and one winter I had to keep my back door shut creatively using a pink skipping rope because the door froze and refused to close. I loved this car dearly. In the beginning of March I asked Frisco to hang in there (I could tell his life was coming to an end) until April 17th, which was my last day of work in West Vancouver (driving from Kitsilano). I didn't expect anything from it, just simply asked and sort of forgot about it. April 17th rolled around and all I can say is that Frisco drove through crazy traffic all through the city and got me to work and finally the transmission blew in the parking lot of my work. Coincidence? NOPE! I simply asked him to stick around, and he did. What a trooper.

 Photo Cred: Lindsay C.

I'm getting to a point with this story. This past month I've asked to meet amazing people who share a similar perspective, I've asked for help in certain circumstances, and have asked for other things too. I've never expected anything, just a simple request. I can't believe how much has manifested in front of me! I've connected with the most AMAZING and influential people, I've received help and support from people who have never met me and didn't know who I am, they did it simply because they believe in what I'm doing, and so much more has happened.

 This van is just down the street from my place. So great!

What I can say is, if you are in a time right now where you don't know what's going on for you or you're direction is unclear, just ask for whatever it is you need to manifest. Put it out there and don't expect anything back, just ask. Who knows what will happen? It's such a simple thing to do :).

Why not?

Since I talked about Frisco in this blog I can't not put this song on here, they're kind of a package deal.

Fabric Finding Adventures

 Hi!

Last week I devoted to finding the best fabric companies and suppliers to work with. It proved to be more difficult finding businesses that focus primarily on the health of the planet. Here's a little video update! Turned out I had a bit of the flu so I'm not my peppy self, so bear with me. Yeehaw!

I've spent this week pretty busy working on my plans with Leap of Life Creations. The shirts are on their way in, scarves and headbands are getting sewn, and I'm writing away!

I've also been working on my business cards. I want them to be slightly different and to have adventure written all over them (more figuratively speaking than literally). So I decided to cut up photos from various trips I've been on and stick them on recycled art paper. I realized drawing isn't my forte (I'm working on it) so I'm okay with cutting up old attempts of paintings and drawings. Anyways, here's what some of them look like! What do you think? Are they made to impress or am I losing it?

Peace and good vibes to you my friends.

Take a listen to these guys. They're going to be at Sasquatch (yup the countdown has begun) and they're AMAZING. Makes me happy and content :).

How Your Story Can Create Change

Lately, I've thought a lot about traveling and how much good it's done for me. Being a drifter has given me a global perspective, cultural understanding, shown me true poverty and wealth and how close they can be to each other. I've seen so many different landscapes and been in places where devastation, genocide, protests, hope, beauty, nature, isolation, creation, and where everything and nothing has happened.


Traveling has given me so many stories and has lead me to discover who I really am. The stories traveling has shared with me have made me realize my own story. One that's inspired me to truly follow my heart and connect with people who have the same vision. There are so many different ways to find out who you are, discovering what you really want to accomplish in your lifetime, and what your story is. It's just a matter of being present with yourself all the time.

Why is your story so important? Because stories are what connect peers and bring people together. They create great conversations between people and have the ability to create a broader vision of what kind of change needs to happen.

So what IS your story? What change do you want to see?

These two videos come from my trip to Rwanda with the amazing organization, OA Projects (www.oaprojects.org). Film Cred to Duncan and Gavin. This trip changed my whole life direction and I just wanted to share :).

Leap of Life Stands Up.

Yesterday I watched Seth Godin’s “On the Tribes We Lead” for the second time on the TED talks website (www.ted.com). This time I realized how relevant it is to Leap of Life Creations’ vision and mission.

He explains how the Internet has enabled society to create “tribes” of all sorts. A tribe consists of a social group of people and exists to lead and connect people and ideas.

Blake Mycoskie started the company TOMS Shoes. It is not just a shoe business; it brings together a tribe of people who believe in the idea of “One-for-One”. One pair of shoes bought gives someone less fortunate the exact same pair of shoes. Amazing! Now, Blake has started a major movement and a tribe of true believers that will tell his story for him (since he can’t be in a million places at once to share it) and the Internet has made that possible for him. 

Leap of Life Apparel and Creations is not just a clothing and accessories company, we are a tribe of people who realize the power of our youth and are true believers of social and environmental change. We are a group of Gen Y’s who believe in living in the moment, we make big decisions through our hearts, and we take the leap of life that takes us somewhere unfamiliar, but we know it will take us to a state of happiness unknown to many. We’re looking to create a movement that will shake up the conventional lifestyle and we’re going to have fun doing it. You in?

If not, then I’d like to challenge you and ask: What do you stand for?

Peace and looooooooooove.

PS. I just found out that Blake Mycoskie is on the Railroad Revival Tour with Mumford and Sons,  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and the Old Crow Medicine Show. It's their last day of the tour today! Check it out. How EPIC would that be?!?! 

You, Me, and the Creation of Change.

I attended an event last night called “Apathy is Dead – Fresh Media ReMixology 5: Digital Democracy”, where social media and politics were discussed by a panel of amazing and active youth (http://freshmedia.me/).

This was the major question: How do we use digital technology and social media (eg. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to create progressive change?

Politics is perceived by youth as something we just don’t want to deal with. I am fully one of those who have NEVER been interested in any kind of political conversation of any kind. The question is: What will it take to start caring?

It’s a Social Sciences theory that every four generations there is one hero generation. At some point of this hero generation’s young adult life, a huge crisis strikes. Examples of this in other hero generations are The Revolutionary War, The Civil War, and the last one being WW2.

Generation Y’s (born between 1982 and 2003) just so happen to fall under the Hero Generation. We’ve grown up in a society where limited thinking and working under a conservative eye is the norm. At what point do we youth realize that we are self-empowered to the point of no limitation? When will we see that we are the ones to create massive change?

Nothing will happen unless collaboration occurs and we become a collective. We cannot afford to dream and then not take action. The power of GenY is that we have the ability to re-imagine and re-create society just by showing up and participating. We are the largest, most diverse, and most connected generation ever to exist and we are in one of the most critical planetary situations in history.  It is our time and our voice that will make a difference.

Moving back to the caring-about-politics topic. The federal election in Canada is coming up May 2^nd. In the last election it was the least amount of people who voted in history (I didn’t care at ALL about voting). After discovering how much of a difference it really can make I am ready to put my ballot in and be part of a collective movement that focuses on re-creating accountability of the government to society and going after what we truly desire.

Zach Gray from the band, The Zolas, is a huge supporter of the Gen Why Media Project and he performed, along with Hannah Epperson and Adrian Glynn, last night as well. Here’s a video of an acoustic version of "You're Too Cool" by The Zolas to check out.

Leap of Life Loves the West Coast

I’m just going to clarify on some questions I had about my previous blog. Leap of Life Apparel is most definitely starting as a retail business, however, the clothing part is not the focus. Our main focus is spreading consciousness on self-empowerment and that have the ability to do whatever it is we desire, all it takes is ACTION. 

A percentage (not yet determined, since I’m still working on figuring out costs) will be donated to organizations that focus on the conservation of the West Coast. I grew up on the West Coast and I heart the West Coast very much, and I want to support environmental sustainability as best I can. On some of the garments I will share some of my photography that I have taken over that past few years and photos that mean a lot to me. I am only using responsible companies with great ethics as suppliers and artists who are just as passionate about creating positive change in our society and environment as I am.

One of these artists that I strongly support is local musician Dan Mangan. I went to an event of his called Smorgasbord last week in Vancouver and it was amazing to see the turnout. All of the proceeds went to three small Vancouver homeless initiatives. I have to say that Dan Mangan is proving to be quite a presence in our city. He’s such a talented musician and is using his great music as a channel to raise awareness of the homeless situation in Vancouver. 

Our mayor Gregor Robertson was also there and presented the youth initiative awards and played the tuba alongside Mr. Mangan. I had no idea he was so charismatic; definitely opened my eyes to what an amazing person he is as well. Other artists also performed including The Crackling, Aiden Knight, Charlie Demers (comedian) and Mike McGee (spoken word). I had no idea I loved spoken word the way I do until I heard Mike McGee share his stories. I strongly suggest you check him out!

Intro to Leap of Life

Leap of Life Apparel is more of a project rather than a company. It is a visionary collaboration with multiple inspirations from different genres of society with a goal of bringing together retail, music, sports, and social media. Leap of Life aims to inspire Gen Y’s to go after their real passions and dreams and DO what they REALLY want to do. Why not?

It all started for me when I took a volunteer trip to Kigali, Rwanda with OA Projects, (www.oaprojects.org) where I met amazing children who had nothing, yet from their perspectives, everything. When we arrived with our soccer balls and TOMS shoes (www.toms.com), we were received with all smiles and were each given nicknames from the kids (mine was “Twiga”, meaning giraffe in Kinyarwandan). For a week we changed their lives and I was able to see how easily happiness could be spread.

A year ago I returned from a four-month backpacking trip through South East Asia where I discovered true beauty and bliss within myself and in the world. It changed how I perceive everything and I came home with a mission. 

What mission? I had absolutely no idea, all I knew was it involved inspiring serious change in our society and doing it any way possible. I also knew that my career wasn’t going to be anything normal or conventional, that I was to create my own career. I was excited to let the creativity begin!

I then spent the next year living the extreme conventional life and getting sucked into a major corporation. Progressive right?

One night I went to an event with my mum held by The Gen Why Media Project (www.genwhymediaproject.com). It was a Gen Y/Boomers event where several topics were discussed/debated by both Gen Y’s and Boomers. There was one discussion where a locally reknowned female film director stated a strong message that we take a “leap of life” and go after our dreams and do what our hearts are telling us. What she said really resonated with me and I left thinking THIS is what I need to do. I need to quit my job and just DO it.

Leap of Life Apparel was born. It’s obviously still in the beginning stages, but I’m going after what I’ve always wanted to do and following my heart.

Now I want to ask you. What’s your passion? What is it you want to go after? 

This song's always given me motivation. Kick back and listen. 

Love, Binz (my nickname)