Global Groovin'

As if the “Who am I “ question wasn’t enough, I sometimes, oftentimes am compelled to truly consider what Global Groove Life is.  Over the years, I’ve examined our motives, especially when folks ask us questions about the GGL “brand”. I’ve never thought of us as a brand, I’ve always thought of us as a team. Our family, volunteers, artisans, loyal patrons; Team GGL.

The lotus flower is beloved by people around the world. We at Global Groove Life love the lotus so much that we’ve included it in the GGL logo! It represents growth and rising above the muck to bloom and express - the same way that fair trade and fair business rise above the dirty, exploitative practices of traditional business to expand into a better way of interacting with the world and our human family. The GGL lotus is overlaid over a map of the world that we love so much. A perfect fit to represent our intention to uplift the planet!

Purification So Sweet

 Humanity has long revered the lotus as a floral representation of purification. The plant grows up through the mud and reveals the purity of its beautiful essence as it blooms. It shows us how we, too, can share our essential natures as we continue to purify ourselves and push our way beyond the sticky mud of the world.

No Mud No Lotus

 You may have heard this expression shared by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Monk and world peace advocate Thich Nhat Hanh, “No mud, no lotus.” All humans are born into a world where there is suffering - represented by the mud. And each person incarnated in this world has the potential to become fully enlightened and fully self-aware - represented by a blossoming lotus flower.

 This quote reminds us that even our suffering serves us and helps us to feel gratitude for the entire experience of life. In this way the lotus is also a symbol of transcendence. What a great reminder of this powerful ability we have to overcome and rise above.

#LotusLove Tribe

 Global Groove Life is partnering with Global Party People! We’re a global community that supports respectful co-existence through peace, love, music, dance, and community. We operate on the vibration of love and trust and use art and music to make the world a better place. We believe that a smile is the same in every language. Come dance with us and join our Global Community.

 Do you want to join our Global Tribe? During the month of September GGL is offering you a FREE #LotusLove decal in the color of your choice! Global Party People is offering a FREE music download, too! Just sign up here to join us on our journey and to receive these free gifts!

 Color Therapy

 The #LotusLove decals are available in an assortment of colors - the chakra colors to be exact. So which color - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or violet - are you resonating with today? Or what aspect of your life do you want to reinvigorate?

 Global Groove Life chose to print the stickers in the chakra colors because often folks are attracted to colors which represent different things that are going on in their lives and/or physical bodies. Learn more about each chakra associated color below.

Chakra Power

 Choose red to empower and clear your root chakra, muladhara, which will have you feeling secure and grounded. The orange decal will assist you in balancing your sacral chakra, svadhisthana, so you can freely express yourself. Go with the yellow lotus to heal your solar plexus chakra, manipura, to be confident and feel in control with a healthy sense of self esteem.

 A green lotus decal will assist you in clearing your heart chakra, anahata, and feeling compassion in loving relationships. Choose the light blue sticker to balance your throat chakra, vishuddha, which will support you in expressing yourself openly and freely. A dark blue lotus will help you with your third eye chakra, ajna, the center of intuition. Choose the purple lotus to clear and balance your crown chakra, sahasrara, so you can have a clear view of the world and your connection with it. Even if you’re not aware of what you’d like to work on just let your intuition guide you to choose whatever color lotus decal you’re drawn to.

 Which #LotusLove decal are you most drawn to? Get yours today!

Amara Evans is a vibrational healer, collective consciousness-raiser, 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.

Global Groove has been providing color, pattern and texture options for exercise ball covers without delay.  If you are the proud owner of a 55cm, 65cm or 75cm exercise ball, then you have more than likely transformed your exercise or living space into something just a wee bit more palatable and groovy than the mood that the sticky, yucky plastic ball creates on it's own!  Maybe you have a fluffy fur exercise ball cover, or a racey animal print balance ball cover.  Maybe you've chosen a precious pink birthing ball cover, or funky swirl stretch cotton yoga ball cover.  Whatever your personal style may be, without a doubt that your personal space looks and feels a whole heap better now that your exercise ball is a functional piece of art and not an eyesore shoved behind the couch or in the closet!  

But what about your smaller folks?  You've been asking and you've been waiting and lo and behold, you have been heard!  Global Groove is happy to announce that we have introduced exercise ball covers in the 45 cm size to accommodate healthy kids' decor too!  

Remember that the 75cm covers now come in a wide variety of options, too.  So, you six footers and up, time to get stylie and groove out your exercise ball cover!  Join us in fashionable living and shop for ball covers in all sizes here.

"Thank you for being here. You are the only real thing in this whole place."--Yesterday's Global Groove customer comment.

That's why we came here. Keepin' it real in the SR plaza! Thanks to everyone who notices the difference.

As Global Groove Life Team America packs up and rolls out of town, we send one last good bye and a very special thank you to Santa Rosa for letting us come be a part of your lives for a small time. We had a great time with you and enjoyed getting to know you a little better-- don't be a stranger, Santa Rosa, come visit us wherever we land next!

They only meet all together once a year, and when they do Global Groove Life's master sewer Pi Jane's family dances together. A Lahu New Year festival with Pi Jane today, where the Chiang Mai Lahu group welcomes those from surrounding Lahu villages to celebrate. To keep New Year traditions alive, the day is spent dancing in traditional clothes around three trees. The banana tree for its fruitfulness, the sugar cane for its sweetness, and a pine tree to symbolize the turn in season. The day is spent dancing laughing, playing music, eating and welcoming villagers from surrounding areas as they arrive.

When they get together they sing. though I don't speak Burmese, I can tell their songs aren't about the words as they seem more to be reflections of their state of being. Celebrating NYE with Global Groover Adun and her Lisu family shows me that celebration can be a state of being. What can you celebrate with your being this year?

We love the Giving Tuesday movement that was sparked in protest to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday consuming holidays. We love the heart behind it, to support businesses and charities that are focused on helping others. But we think that giving and helping others with your purchases is more than one intentional day, it's a lifestyle choice! Thats why we do what we do. Thats what we affectionately call the "global groove life". It is living life globally minded, putting money and efforts where the conscience guides, and let living generously be the objective. It is freeing and we exist to hopefully help others join in. So while we celebrate an idea like Giving Tuesday, we ask for you to press forward and discover ways to give everyday!

We sat in the back seat, five people side by side, two laps filled with children, holding one another close as family in the cab of a four wheel drive truck. From what I could see, I knew Pii Jane's brother in law was driving us to her mountain village in this car, but from what I could feel, amidst their energy with one another, something bigger was driving us to go to this mountain. 

Pii Jane, the talented in-house, all-purpose, seamstress for Global Groove Life, comes from the Lahu tribe, a hill tribe in Northern Thailand. She is one of the many people employed with Global Groove Life with it's fair trade ethics. I had been invited to go with her to visit her brothers house on a mountain for a thanksgiving celebration, an introduction to a Thanksgiving outside of my own culture.

After a three hour drive into the mountains, we were welcomed into Pii Jane's brothers wooden home with hot tea, while the house erupted with the joyful conversation of a family reconnecting. It all sounded like a song to me, free to speak their local dialect with one another, and I am drawn to wonder what they share with one another. 

After a few moments of sipping tea, white papers are passed around to each member, and the family sings in harmony an unfamiliar tune that I wish I knew. After three of these songs, Pii Jane instructs me to put my shoes on, it was time to walk to the church. 

A dusty, up-hill mile later, we reach the landing and wade through an ocean of shoes and several rows of people seated outdoors to cross the threshold into the single-roomed, cinderblock building. Each pew is heavily filled, yet somehow five spots instantly appeared upon our arrival. I take a moment to absorb this new environment, and am quickly drawn to the contrast of the orange marigold flowers carefully strung across a room of sea blue walls. My eyes are drawn to the decorative fountain of golden plastic  reflecting prisms of light from the center of the room, a party piece that seemed to be hung to evoke a spirit of celebration. 

As the people share, Pii Jane whispers to me the reflection of their Lahu words into Thai as they take turns speaking in front of the group. Each one shares brightly, with no amplified support, of the gratitude they have for what God has done in their lives. One man, a farmer with a dusty hat in his hand, shares a story about how he had no food, asked God for help, and how God had given him food. The man stands speaking out his gratitude as though that reflection itself were his own offering. After these, each family in the room took a turn using only the harmony and melody of their voices to sing songs for the group. With a rotation of individual sharing, and family song, I recognize that nearly everyone in the room had something to say. I wondered then what my own words might be if I had shared.

Once the service finished, we stepped outside to tables lined with Lahu food prepared and place settings waiting for us, as though to say, "We have eaten, you can eat too". 

We left that mountain in Thailand, driving past trees with leaves for rooftops, fields for rice, and clouds filled with rain, and I realize that here gratitude was more than just saying "thank you" for what you have, but that maybe gratitude is the freedom of giving what you have been given. Gratitude is a gift from the overflow of the heart. 

In the USA, original Global Groover's Corinne (1999) and Taira (2002) reunite to whip the Santa Rosa Pop-Up Store into shape! Spray painting fixtures, things got a little silly...and a little peacock blue! We are loving this process and it is so fun seeing it come together. We are so excited that a place to buy fair trade goods will have a space in the Santa Rosa Plaza for the holidays. Thanks for all the help guys, the shop is almost ready to go, Santa Rosa! 

We scored some sweet finds for the shop decor while thrifting. It's way more fun to find new uses for old things.

Greg putting up our awesome sign. Getting ready for our pop-up shop to be open on Black friday!

Recently things here in Chiang Mai have been a flurry of activity. There have been shopping trips, deliveries, team sewing days, shipping expeditions and more.

There have been baskets and purses and scarves and pipes, tassels and bracelets and hats.

While we’re often busy and spend a lot of time with our suppliers, things have really stepped up a notch. And it’s not just because it’s time to restock the online store. Nope, we’ve got something even more exciting in the works, and we’re so excited it’s time to finally share it with you.

So what’s all this hustle and bustle for? To prepare for our very first Pop-Up Store!

Set to open in Santa Rosa Plaza, Sonoma County in California on November 15th, we’re beyond excited to be heading back to our old stomping ground, bringing that Global Groove magic with us.

Tassles tassles tassles! Greg loaded up with the tassel order for the Tree in Santa Rosa Plaza - opening Nov 15!

Opening a pop-up store is a very cool opportunity for us. Not only will we get to connect with a bunch of interesting people in Sonoma County, but we’ll be able to really give people a tangible sense of the impact of their spending choices over the holidays.

We’ll be able to tangibly showcase the beautiful handiwork of our Thai and Nepali artisans, and help people to become truly involved with where their goods come from.

The pop-up store is going to be a hub of activity in Santa Rosa Plaza. On top of doing a bustling trade leading up to holidays, we’ll be running yoga classes and connecting with yoga teachers in the area for training.

The store will be full of our gorgeous products, with the perfect give for everyone on one of our shelves. We’ll be doing giveaways and social media contests, and inviting people from the mall and local community to get involved. 

Now, we’re going to be keeping everyone up to date about how the pop-up space is coming along via our Facebook and Instagram accounts. We’ll be adding new pics each week of what we’ve been up to and what’s happening on the ground, so make sure you’re following us at www.facebook.com/globalgroovelife and www.instagram.com/globalgroovelife too.

As the opening date draws closer, we’ll be releasing more details about our hours and all the activities that will be going on in-store, along with these photo updates. If you’ve got questions, comments or ideas about the store, just pop a comment on any of the photos & we will get back to you.

We hope you’re as excited as we are & we’re so looking forward to seeing all you Californians when we hit the ground!