If you like to shop fair trade and also have that extra boho flair that brought you to Global Groove Life’s website then you probably already have an unique home design theme going on. Cheers to that - good for you!

Circular seating continues to build interest in your space and provides seating options that alter from the norm (always a good thing with the bohemian crowd).

Functional And Fun

Need additional seating? Roll in some balance balls from the office or studio instead of having your guest “pull up a chair.” This is way easier to do than carrying chairs around to move them - and it works especially well if you have multiple areas of the house that are used for socializing with people.

Red Flower of Life Cover

Gone are the days of uncomfortable office chairs. If you work from home or are otherwise spending a lot of time sitting at a table or desk then you should really try sitting on a yoga ball. They’re quite comfortable and you can easily find wheeled bases that keep them more stable beneath you if straight up sitting on a ball sounds like a bit of a challenge.

Here are three of our top reasons why we recommend using a balance ball as your new favorite chair:

1. You’ll experience a new level of comfort while sitting on a balance ball! 


Say goodbye to uncomfortable wooden chairs and other unforgiving materials and hello to a flexible, responsive seat. The slight bounce that the ball provides allows you to make constant micro-adjustments instead of stagnating in the same position for hours at a time.

Although sitting in one single position may seem like it would be more comfortable, studies have proven that staying sedentary hour after hour (for example while working, watching TV, or scrolling through the internet) can lead to potentially lethal complications! Sitting on a yoga ball is a simple way to keep your body and life force energy moving.

2. It’s good for you!

We know, we know - we sound like your mother responding to child you when you asked her why you need to eat your vegetables! We’re not trying to dredge up old memories … but just like your mama we see the importance of looking out for your health and wellbeing!

Balancing on a yoga ball strengthens your core muscles. You know, the ones in your stomach, sides, and back that keep you moving around with ease (or not depending on the state of your core). Maintaining a strong core is very important to your overall balance and range of motion. So we’re big fans of anything that can be done to keep this part of the body toned.

3. A new perspective!

You probably know by now how passionate we are GGL are about gaining new perspectives - on everything from style to life. If you are desk-bound for a large part of the day then you could probably benefit from the change of perspective that replacing your desk chair with a balance ball will bring you.

Cobalt Geometric Cover

Changing your point of view can really transform your whole mindset and therefore your entire day! You can funnel your newfound energy and enthusiasm into more productivity and efficiency.

Style It

Naturally as a bohemian (i.e. individual with a strong sense of self and personal expression) you’ll want to explore the unique style opportunities that come along with using yoga balls as seating. Global Groove Life has so many options to transform your balance ball from blah to chic.

Plum Geometric Ball Cover

Want to use your ball as an accent piece? Choose a brightly colored or a boldly patterned yoga ball cover. Here are a few of our favorites below.

Orange Rhapsody cover

Tribal Sand Cover

Alternately, you may want to be able to use the balance ball as a chair in multiple rooms and as a workout tool in your studio. In that case you couldchoose a few different covers - or - go for a more neutral tone.

Black Flower of Life Cover

Olive Geometric Cover

We’re sure that you’ll find your perfect groove however you choose to use and decorate your balance balls. Send in photos of how you’re using your yoga ball in your space - we’d love to see it!

Amara Evans is a vibrational healer, collective consciousness-raiser, writer, and devotee of the Goddess. She loves to connect with her global community through writing and speaking about important topics like the environment, spirituality, and fair trade.

As the wheel of the year continues to roll on, we in the northern hemisphere are nesting and preparing for the darker months. Time to go within, connect with ancestors, and prepare for the coming of a new year. All of these things are much easier to do in a safe and sacred container. In this article Global Groove Life shares how you can incorporate ancient wisdom and herbal healing into your life via the use of incense to create a space of sacredness for yourself and your loved ones.

Sanctuary of Scents

Creating your dream home is totally possible! It’s important to keep in mind your style preferences and how you want to feel in your space. Energetics are just as important as visual aesthetics!

You can maintain your home sanctuary with traditional techniques - like burning incense to keep things just the way you like them. Stay true to your values and enjoy a more peaceful ambiance with all natural herbal incense. Global Groove Life (GGL) has a curated collection of hand crafted Tibetan and Nepalese incense for you to choose from to help you create a clean, conscious vibe in your home or office.

Home For The Holy Days

The months of October and September are noted as being special times of the year around the world. These are times when there is less separation between worlds than usual and when spirit communication is easier to perceive. Many groups celebrate holy days during this time of the year.

All Hallow’s Eve, for example, is the night when the dead can supposedly return to walk the Earth once more. Dia de los Meurtos is a celebration honoring those who have passed on and their return to this world. Samhain is a Pagan Sabbat (holy day) marking the end of the harvest and entrance into the dark time of year. It is a time to honor those who came before us and is recognized as the day when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest.

Across cultures these days are honored with a combination of group celebration and personal ritual. Purification and cleansing are important parts of both collective ceremony and individual practice. Smudging with the smoke of sacred herbs is a powerful way to purify yourself and your space. Sage is commonly used as a smudge or incense for cleansing and protection.

Space For The Sacred

Many cultures have a custom of ritual purification. Smoke from sacred herbs like sage and resins like frankincense cleanses impurities and removes negative energy - both from people and from spaces like your meditation room.

Including incense on your altar is a wonderful aesthetic addition and is also very practical. The incense can be used to purify the space and as a devotional offering to your ancestors and any deities you honor. In several traditions, smoke is believed to carry prayers up to the Divine!

Certain scents are particularly well known and celebrated for their spiritual purity and uplifting abilities. Frankincense releases powerful positive energy and creates space for spiritual growth, wisdom, and meditation. Another popular incense for your spiritual altar is sandalwood. Sandalwood has a rich scent that invites spiritual awareness, development of psychic abilities, and deep meditation.

What scents create a feeling of comfort and purity for you? Share in the comments and remember to order your favorites from GGL!

Amara Evans is a vibrational healer, collective consciousness-raiser, and devotee of the Goddess. She loves to connect with her global community through writing and speaking about important topics like the environment, spirituality, and fair trade.

Sustainability is a priority to most people in conscious circles so it makes perfect sense to support the expansion of your consciousness with practices and products that also support our planet and all our relations. Global Groove Life (GGL) is happy to share deeper insights with you about the materials we choose to use in our products - in this case our meditation cushions.

A Seat Above

Let’s face it, if you aren’t comfortable then your meditation practice will not be as focused or as beneficial for you. We’re often shown unrealistic images of people meditating in magazines and online. People are portrayed sitting in lotus or half-lotus position on the ground which is not a comfortable position for the body to be in for extended periods of time.

If you’re naturally very limber or have been practicing yoga for years then maybe these positions will work for you but for most folks these poses can feel uncomfortable or challenging. It’s much better for many bodies to sit with the hips elevated above the knees. Enter the zafu - a traditional seat used for meditation and more. The filler inside these cushions is a perfect combination of strong and malleable to support you in sitting for as long as you’d like to.

Organic, Roasted… Buckwheat

Nope, we’re not talking about coffee! The words organic and roasted are describing the buckwheat filler used in our meditation cushions! This buckwheat is grown without the use of pesticides - yay! - because it is a naturally pest-free crop. Not only is the buckwheat used in GGL’s zafus pesticide-free, it’s also synergistic to its environment. It actually enhances the soil it’s grown in!

After it’s harvested the hulls are roasted which cleans them and ensures the integrity of the husk. This allows for your meditation cushion to maintain its shape for much longer than hulls that have been processed by washing versus roasting - which means your zafu will support your meditation practice for a long time.

Sustainable Tree-sources

Global Groove Life is committed to bringing you high quality products that are sustainably sourced. The zafus we sell are no exception to these standards. Both the buckwheat hulls and kapok fiber used as filler for them are pesticide-free.

Kapok fiber is a durable and mold-resistant material, making it perfect for long term use. It’s a more sustainable filler option that cotton. Did you know that 25% of all pesticides used in the world are used on the cotton crop? Kapok is one of the few sustainable rainforest crops in the world.

Kapok trees produce thousands of seed pods each year. The seeds inside these pods are surrounded by the soft yellow fluff that’s been used for centuries as bedding. This silky material is used as part of the filler for Global Groove Life’s zafus to support you in a comfortable and sustainable meditation practice.

GGL’s goals are to provide our customers with well crafted, eco-friendly apparel and items that support you in living a balanced lifestyle, to support the artists who create our goods, and to create a thriving world for everyone! Offering meditation supplies made from materials that are grown without undue harm to the Earth feels good to us - we hope it feels good to you, too!

Amara Evans is a vibrational healer, collective consciousness-raiser, writer, and devotee of the Goddess. She loves to connect with her global community through writing and speaking about important topics like the environment, spirituality, and fair trade.

Moms on the go, we’ve got to hand it to you. It takes a lot of coordination, a lot of patience, a lot of strength, and a whole lot of love to travel with your family in tow! Proper preparation and the right attitude can make your trip a joyful experience for everyone. Here are 4 must-have items we hope will make your journey a little smoother so you can focus on keeping all your ducks in a row.

A Waterproof Toiletry Bag

Not having one of these has ruined many a mother’s day! Imagine arriving in your hotel after a long day - or days - of travel with the family and opening your suitcase full of clothes, shoes, jewelry, and personal items to find that everything inside is saturated with shampoo or worse still with some sort of body oil.

Finding a way to immediately wash all of your clothes in a new place can be time consuming and especially stressful when you’re wondering whether or not you’ll need to get rid of some or all of your gear. Plus who wants to start a new adventure by doing laundry?

Believe us, we understand that if anybody can handle a gooey mess it’s a mom - but why go there when you don’t have to? Some sloppy disasters are avoidable. Using a waterproof toiletry bag like Global Groove Life’s Sac-de-bain will keep any unexpected explosions or leaks contained and protect your belongings from being stained or ruined.

Entertainment for All

Sometimes the thrill of exploring a new place isn’t quite so … well, thrilling for everyone in the family. If the little ones aren’t interested in seeing another museum or site they may love to go play in the park or have a family dance party at the beach. Playing some music they’re familiar with can create a sense of comfort in an unfamiliar place.

GGL has just the solution - the Boozik iPad Portable Bamboo Amplifier! It’s so easy to carry with you and takes little to no time to set up...  it’s cordless and battery-free. This sustainable speaker is made out of bamboo. It sounds great and is lightweight - the perfect combo for travel!

If the family is ready to take a break on a rainy day or if one of the young ones (or one of the adults) is feeling homesick or down use the Boozik bamboo amplifier to watch a favorite movie all together to lift everyone’s spirits.

A Bag Identifier

If you happened to buy black suitcases - which is totally silly but still somehow seems like a good idea sometimes - then you’ll need a way to quickly identify which ones belong to you at the airport, bus or train station. GGL has several unique options of bright key rings to help you!

A favorite is this Pom Pom Keychain - it’s cute, it’s colorful, it’s fluffy! Most importantly, it’s hard to miss! Even if you don’t have a generic looking bag, our pom poms and tassels make it super fast and easy for you to quickly locate your luggage in baggage check even if there are a lot of distractions. Easily identifiable bags don't get stolen as often either. Win - win!

A Carry-All Bag

Let’s face it - you’re going to be carrying more with you as a travel mom than you would if you were going solo or traveling with other adults. Even if your kids carry their own clothes, water, and ways to entertain themselves there are still important documents, snacks, and those essential items that you’ve learned never to leave home without.

That means you’re going to need a bag that’s large enough to tote all those goods around with you. And you’re going to want a bag that helps you stay organized and looking stylish. GGL’s Retreat Bag can hold it all!

The retreat bag is the perfect combination of style and function. It features an internal zipped pocket for extra orderliness and two external zip pockets for easy access to items you need on a regular basis. The Retreat Bag has an easy-wipe lining (just in case) inside the stunning Flower of Life patterned exterior.

Traveling with your family is an amazing way to share growth experiences, explore the world, and learn about each member of the family together. We salute all of the modern moms (and dads, too!) who are making this happen and sharing these precious gifts with your loved ones!

We hope this article made your trip planning just a little bit more fun and easy. What is your number 1 travel must-have? Share in the comments!

Amara Evans is a vibrational healer, collective consciousness-raiser, writer, and devotee of the Goddess. She loves to connect with her global community through writing about important topics like the environment, spirituality, and fair trade.

Conscious gift buying can be exceptionally tricky in our factory and sweatshop age, where consumers are demanding cheap and accessible products at an even higher rate than ever before. If you’re already a consumer of fair trade and ethical brand buying for yourself, then you are well aware of how time consuming (not to mention pricey) it can get. So when it comes to buying for others, do you lower your standards and save? Or is there an easier way?

Shopping sustainably is paramount in our modern world. The population is at an all time high, and surging like never before, Mother Earth’s resources are being strained and we are seeing the effects of that strain all around the globe. There is a plethora of companies that have already made the shift to sustainable practices: renewable energy, recycled materials, and fair wages for workers are all a part of what makes a good business great in the eyes of the conscious consumer. But now that entrepreneurs have figured out how to create businesses that are sustainable… why not up the ante? Why stop at making your business sustainable, if it could be thrive-able? Let’s make 2017 the year where everyone is treated fairly, and we support businesses that are going above and beyond to make this world a better place.

Below are five unique, useable, and most importantly thriveable gift ideas that won’t break the bank. Next time you are in a pinch as to where to buy or what to buy for your friends and loved ones, give these gifts a gander!

prAna: prAna is a retail company specializing in men’s and women’s movement and lifestyle apparel. They are constantly committed to making a positive environmental and personal impact on their consumers and producers. If you are shopping for a man in your life, their products can be especially astute, with many options for versatile and stylish men’s clothing.

Global Groove Life (Yoga): Have an avid yogi friend? Well look no further than GGL’s unique and beautiful Yoga Ball Covers. With dozens of styles and colours to choose from, and a comfortable variety of sizes, these Ball Covers make the perfect gift.

Ethical Shop: Looking for an inexpensive gift that’s also thriveable? Hop onto ethicalshop.org and you will be charmed by the endless amount of adorable fair trade gifts available for purchase. One of my personal favourite is the Yoga Socks, perfect for any dancer, gymnast, or yogi in your life, these comfortable and durable socks are sure to impress!

Global Groove Life (Lifestyle): A gift that is sure to impress all ages, genders, and interests is Global Groove Life’s Boozik line up. These hand carved, natural bamboo speakers, produce brilliant sound from you smart phone or tablet by simply placing it comfortably in the slot, and voila! Crisp, clear, and amplified sounds brought to you completely chare-cord free!

Ten Thousand Villages: Still feeling a little discouraged? Ten Thousand Villages has been a pioneer in making positive change in business sustainability since 1946, and their website has a page dedicated to helping you find the perfect gift. Simply choose from their descriptive widgets and find gifts tailored to the style of whomever you are buying for!

Don’t be discouraged by the daunting task of looking for sustainable and thriveable gifts for your friends and family, use this quick guide as a jumping off point to finding the perfect gift, that also gives back!

     Avery Lentz is a curious creative soul residing in Northern California. She loves to write, dance, travel, and talk with her fellow humans. When she isn't buried in a mountain of notebooks and reading material, you can find her out in the woods, scaling mountains, or perusing the coast. Through her writing she hopes to spread messages of love and acceptance for all and a kind approach to Mother Earth.