"Be the kind of woman who, upon getting up in the morning, places her feet upon the ground and the Devil says, 'Oh crap. She's up!" ~Kathy LeMay Passion Into Action keynote speaker
It began to the beat of one drum as over 250 women joined together at the 2nd Annual Passion Into Action Women's Conference in Grass Valley, CA. From the moving performance by the Feather River Singers, to opening up with Nina Simons, crying & laughing with Kathy LeMay, being authentic and ready to lead with Tiffany Dufu, bringing women into circle with Jean Shinoda Bolen plus 17 amazing presenters, we are forever changed by this experience & thank each of you who participated in the event.
Nina Simons' passion for cultivating women's leadership and enhancing the planet is contagious and inspiring. She did an incredible job of engaging the participants and providing a safe space for them to open up and share. We so appreciate her ability to listen, her honesty and her sincerity.
Kathy LeMay wowed us with her presentation. We especially loved how she engaged the participants through her personal stories, out-of-the box thinking and sense of humor. She has redefined philanthropy and how we can utilize our passion to be of service to each other. While she has raised over $500 Million dollars for organizations she reminds us that giving to the greater good doesn't require millions.
Tiffany Dufu, new President of The White House Project is striving to train 8,000 women to take the lead in the United States and there is no doubt that she will achieve that goal! We especially appreciated her attention to authenticity and action in her presentation. It was such an honor to include Tiffany and two of her incredible team members, Liz Johnson and Nevada Littlewolf in the Passion Into Action line-up. Liz and Nevada were extremely inspired and moved by the energy, enthusiasm, and passion of the attendees. We hope to collaborate with The White House Project again in the future.
Activist and author Jean Shinoda Bolen is gathering women together and empowering them to create social change. Her personal stories around bringing women into circle, activism and her efforts to spearhead a 5th World Conference on Women are encouraging and hopeful. Jean speaks from the heart and inspires women to do what they love and share it with the world.
We are extremely grateful to the 17 talented and powerful women who took the time to share their passion and lead 15 workshops at the conference including: Patt Lind-Kyle, Kathleen McIntire, Sonika Tinker, Elizabeth Johnson, Jessica Reeder, Shawn Tuttle, Amber Clisura, Kim Stravers, Stacy Malkan, Carole Carson, Linda Joy Myers, Lisa Schrader, and to our Boston friends, Alexis Schroeder, Jeanne Dasaro, and Jennifer Cohen. We wish Chameli Ardagh a quick recovery and look forward to partnering with her on future events.
A year of planning goes into organizing this conference and we couldn't do it without your support. A sincere thanks to our fantastic volunteers, sponsors, exhibitors, Gather the Women, David Nicholson, Kial James, Haute Trash, Summer Thymes, Briar Patch, the Center for the Arts, Friendship Club, Sierra Mentoring Partnership, Sugar & Oats, Suzie Daggett, APPLE, Women Worldwide, Blossom Organics, Veritea, Nana's Baked Goods, Mayor Jan Arbuckle, Council Member Reinette Senum, Dawn Lorraine, Oberon, KVMR, Stephanie Camp, Jennifer Hall, Sadie Wight, supporters, friends, family and extraordinary participants who helped to create the magic of Passion Into Action.
So, what's next? We are developing the next plan of action to continue the synergy from the event and support each others work and passion.
Keynote Speakers:
Did you miss Passion Into Action? We are hosting a special screening of the four keynote presentations and panel discussions at the Magic Theater Sat. May 14th at 4:00 PM, Sunday May 15th at 1:00 PM, Sunday May 22nd at 1:00 PM, and Monday May 23rd at 7:00 PM. This will include special guests who will share tips and tools on how to put your passion into action. More info to come!
We look forward to aligning our work with the extraordinary presenters of Passion Into Action and will keep you posted.
Share the Passion
DVDs of keynote presentations including: Nina Simons, Kathy LeMay, Tiffany Dufu, and Jean Shinoda Bolen are available for purchase. The cost is $9 per DVD and also includes the panel discussion. To order your DVD contact us at [email protected].
Soiree Into Action
We will continue to hold our quarterly Soiree Into Action events with a specific focus around uniting our community of women and sharing tools to put our passion into action. We are also looking to include teleseminars and webinars to include communities of women across the country. Do you have a topic you'd like to share or learn more about? Please contact us at [email protected].
Your Voice
Within the next couple of days Passion Into Action participants will receive an online survey. As we look to possibly expand Passion Into Action in other small towns and rural communities we look to you for suggestions in order to enhance the PIA experience.
Connect with Us
Our radio program continues to feature the stories of everyday extraordinary women. We appreciate the support of our host station, KVMR as we move towards syndicating See Jane Do this year on other stations across the country.
You can also read about extraordinary women in our column in The Union Newspaper.
We are excited to speak at the Green Life Eco Fest May 21st-22nd and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters annual conference June 1st-4th.
Passion Into Action is a success because of your commitment to invest in "you", doing your part, sharing your stories, and following your heart. We appreciate your support and can't wait continue the momentum and energy this coming year.
"In gatherings like this you will not learn the "right way" to be a woman, instead you will inspired to again listen to the gentle whisper of wisdom from within yourself." ~Chameli Ardagh
Chameli Ardagh founder of Awakening Women Institute, returns to the Passion Into Action Conference to share tools on how to connect with the clarity you need to navigate through life as a vibrantly awake and creative woman.
Chameli is a leading pioneer in contemporary feminine spirituality, and she has inspired thousands of women around the world through her breakthrough methods for living and embodying feminine brilliance. She is especially appreciated for her love of mythology and storytelling as a method for illuminating our hidden strength and beauty.
Chameli has taken every opportunity to become adept in her field through her own practice as well as through extensive training in group dynamics, meditation and spiritual counseling. She also has training as an actress, which adds an expressive and playful flavor to her approach. She is initiator of a thriving global network of women's groups, and the author of three books on feminine empowerment and spirituality, which have been published in three languages. She is a regular blogger on www.awakeningwomen.com.
Chameli's workshop, From Creative Chaos to Clarity: ~ channeling the wild feminine into your authentic contribution at the 2nd Annual Passion Conference is part of the "Leading Your Life" track.
In preparation for her workshop she asks two important questions, Have you ever had the experience of having too many good ideas only to end up in overwhelm and confusion? How do you channel this deep longing to express yourself into action?
In this workshop Chameli will share her passion for how ancient Goddess myths can guide us into deeper authenticity and feminine embodiment. You will learn tools of how to connect with the clarity you need to navigate through life as a vibrantly awake and creative woman, with a gift to give.
Chameli shares with us what she loves most about her work, mentors who inspired her passion, and the importance of women gathering together right now.
1. How are you putting your passion into action?
I travel around the world meeting with women, exploring the potential of the feminine. I am the founder of the Awakening Women Institute, a global network of women, who want to step into leadership in their own lives, AND want to find ways to stay awake, healthy and balanced in the process. I write books, I facilitate retreats and trainings, and I am very passionate about my own practice with my Awakening Women’s group here in Nevada City. My own practice and exploration is the foundation of everything I teach.
2. What do you love most about the work you are doing?
Women have learned to give up our power and wisdom, through a whole lot of adopted ideas of how we “should” and “should not” be, social and also spiritual ideas. In the Awakening Women gatherings, all those borrowed ideas are left by the door, and we explore in an open way what is really true for us. What happens next is what I love most about my work. To witness the strength, beauty and wisdom that reveal itself through women, when we relax our borrowed agenda of trying to fix ourselves it touches me so deeply every single time. All that we long for is already right here. It gives me hope for this world.
3. What were the motivating factors that inspired you to get involved and share your passion?
When I grew into woman hood in the 1980’s I found myself deeply confused about how to act, to feel, to speak. I had no idea how to be a woman in the world. All the role models I saw around me seemed to be constricted in one way or another. The women in Norway, where I grew up, had thoroughly proven that they could "do it as good as men,” but on the other hand it seemed like "doing it as good as men" only made women tense, unhappy and stressed. Relationships were not working and the feelings of women were generally viewed as an inconvenient disturbance.
This motivated me to, in my late twenties to embark on a journey back to my feminine roots. A journey that is oftentimes challenging and demanding but always deeply satisfying to my heart. The doorway for me was to explore this together with other women, in the Awakening Women Circles.
Here we explore empowerment beyond the fighting and competitive mindset that says, we can do it just as good as men, and instead we are reconnecting with our deeper truth, a relaxed and aligned state of being that transcends power games altogether.
Here spirituality is no longer a distant word with heavy dogmatic rules glued to it, but instead our shared direct experience, a fully embodied realization of freedom and love uniquely experienced and expressed through each woman.
Being with other women in this way has had a stunning effect on my life. It has brought, and continues to bring, a profound depth to my marriage, my creativity and my ability to manifest my dreams.
4. Who were the some female role models or mentors that inspired your work and passion?
When I grew up I had an aunt who had cancer. For her the illness was a wake up call, it inspired her to explore a more fulfilling and passionate life than she had lived before, and she inspire me to do the same. She would cheer me on, follow your dream, follow your dream, she used to say. And this is what I have been doing my whole life, I have followed my passion and my dream. Later I had a mentor, ShantiMayi who mirrored to me that the love I was trying to get from the outside is within me. This was a radical shift of perspective that has been and still is the base of all that I do. Now it is the women in my Awakening Women group here in Nevada City who keep opening me to a deeper connection to my gifts. The group is like my roots, roots that just keep on deepening. The deeper these roots grow, that higher I can fly, the more I have the strength and courage to travel the world and step into bigger leadership. Something I am very passionate about sharing is this: we don’t have to do it alone!
5. Why is the work you are doing so important for everyday women?
We are blessed today by living and enjoying the fruits of the women's liberation movement. Women in the western world are enjoying rights and freedoms and empowerment that we never have seen before. The women's liberation movement was about breaking free from the home, the home that had become a prison, and we had to break free from restrictive roles.
The new women's movement that we are seeing today, and that the Awakening Women work is about, is a returning back home. Not to the home that imprisoned us, but home to our bodies, home to our wisdom, home to what we call awakened and integrated feminine values.
Imagine for a moment a world where women are 100% committed to taking care of themselves first and they do this for the sake of all. Imagine a world full of women who are overflowing with energy, with health, women with the inner well filled to the brim and beyond. Imagine how we all would benefit from this. The good news is that we all can, with very simple steps in our own lives, begin to live this vision.
6. Why is it so important for women to participate in an event like the Passion into Action Conference?
We don’t have to do it alone! We don’t have to do it alone! We don’t have to do it alone! When we truly get this we can create miracles in the world.
7. What are you hoping will be the biggest take-away for women at the Passion into Action Conference?
In gatherings like this you will not learn the right way to be a woman, instead you will inspired to again listen to the gentle whisper of wisdom from within yourself. Through practice you can learn not only to listen, but also to speak and act with clarity and truth from this inner guidance so that you can be a shining example of feminine awakening and empowerment in our world.
8. What is your message to women around the world?
This is the time. We are co-creating a new paradigm together. In embracing the wisdom and power of the feminine there is nothing we cannot do.
To participate in Chameli Ardagh's workshop click here to register for Passion Into Action.
Passion Into Action, Friday & Saturday, April 29 & 30, Holiday Inn Express, 121 Bank Street, Grass Valley, CA featuring special guests Nina Simons of Bioneers, Marie Wilson of the White House Project, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Kathy LeMay and many more.
"The most incredibly evolved group of women I have ever met in my life!" - Gloria Feldt
"Passion Into Action is like falling in love. If you fall in love deeply enough with that which really matters to you, everything opens from there." - Chameli Ardagh
"You could see what the outcome of this conference is...it's a way for women to voice what the issues of the day are, how we can improve our community, the nation, our planet. It provided me with inspiration, but also tools." - Elaine Sierra
Join today’s leading women’s speakers and activists at See Jane Do’s 2nd Annual Passion Into Action: A Women’s Conference. See Jane Do will host world renowned speakers and over a dozen workshop leaders on self development, green living, health & wellness, leadership and the value of you.
This inspired gathering of hearts and minds was realized after an exciting year traveling across the nation to capture the incredible stories of everyday women who were doing extraordinary things for the planet, for our monthly radio show and website.
We wanted to design a conference that specifically served women in rural communities and small towns. These are places where small steps can lead to bigger changes at a rapid pace and community members are vested on a personal level in taking care of each other and the area in which they live.
Passion Into Action creates a space for the women in their community to meet, network and explore ideas on how to work together on one another's projects and strengthen their community. Most important, the content of the event will hopefully transfer ideas into action. The event showcases real women with real solutions; mixing local and non-local leaders & visionaries, artists & musicians, mothers & grandmothers, teachers & students, homemakers & business owners among others.
Whether you’re seeking tools to fund your passion and business, connect with a group of like-minded women to support the good work you’re doing, or finding your voice and simplifying your life, we hope you find Passion Into Action to be an investment in your and our collective futures.
Friday, April 29, 2011 Passion Into Action Opening Night "A Special Evening with Nina Simons of Bioneers" plus Feather River Singers and special guests 630pm Reception, 7pm Show
Save & Buy the Full Conference Pass - Friday "Opening Night With Nina Simons" & Saturday Conference (includes Continental Breakfast & Lunch) $95adv/$105 door
Saturday Conference Only with Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, Kathy LeMay, Marie Wilson & 15 workshops (includes Continental Breakfast & Lunch) $70adv/$80door (Please add $3 for service and handling fees)
2010 was definitely a roller coaster ride. The year’s top news stories included fierce acts of Mother Nature such as the earthquake in Haiti, the Icelandic Volcano, the Chilean earthquake and tsunami; man-made disasters like the Gulf Oil Spill; historic legislature that included President Obama signing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and health care into law; plus Elana Kagan was sworn in to Supreme Court the fourth ever female Supreme Court Justice. In California, Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown went head to head for governor. American hiker Sarah Shourd was released by Iran after being detained for 13-months for crossing an unmarked border and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was also released after years of detention by Burma’s Junta.
In some ways these national and international news stories mirrored the twists and turns of our communities and our own lives.
With See Jane Do we are striving to uncover those stories that fly under the radar even though they affect all of us. We are redefining information sharing for women through bridging of traditional media with new media; streaming radio, linking video to webisodes and connecting people from a virtual world back to a regional one.
Unlike other programs geared towards women, which mostly covers entertainment, beauty and some women’s issues, See Jane Do takes current news topics we are concerned about and creates a personal story with a reason to care and a solution to do. Our programs are organized around the media, social justice, power of the purse, environmental action, health & wellness, politics and leadership.
It’s our hope that See Jane Do provides a platform for you and other everyday women to speak from and hear from real women with real solutions.
Today we will feature some of our biggest take aways from 2010; the stories, events and experiences that reaffirmed this movement is a lot bigger than we thought and yes, you and I are the one’s we’ve been waiting for. It is our time.
Take Away 1 - Don’t underestimate the power of your story, it might just change the world.
"A movement isn't a movement unless it's moving" ~ Gloria Feldt
We kicked off 2010 with the first annual Passion Into Action Conference. Over 300 women braved the snowy conditions and traveled from all over Northern California to attend this sold-out conference, which featured Nina Simons of Bioneers, best-selling author and activist Gloria Feldt, and former US Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan. We wanted to create a space for women to share their story with others in addition to meeting, networking, and exploring ideas on how to work together and strengthen our communities, with the intention to transfer ideas into action. In addition to our incredible keynote speakers the conference included seventeen workshop leaders.
Nina Simons shared the importance of owning our story, the relationship we hold with the earth and the potential women have to enhance our planet together.
Gloria Feldt challenged us to think about power and the importance of Sister Courage. She has been a tremendous advocate for See Jane Do and we were extremely honored that she included us in her new book, "No Excuses, 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power".
"See Jane Do's unique multimedia platform holds exciting promise as a new model for civic engagement and leadership in today's fast-paced, fragmented world." ~Gloria Feldt
One of the most powerful mediums to amplify women’s voices and perspectives and ultimately transform culture is through film. See Jane Do traveled to the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, to interview women filmmakers and film festival organizers. Later that month we headed to New York City to cover The White House Project’s EPIC Awards and host their Media Lounge. While there we met with the Women’s Media Center to get a clear picture of where women stand in the media. We were shocked to learn that only 7% of the stories we watch at the movies, are told by female directors. This means that 93% of the films (even the ones about women) were interpreted through a man's perspective. Women hold 3% of decision-making positions in all forms of media. We also celebrated Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award for best director for the film Hurtlocker, the fourth time a woman had been nominated for the award and the first time a woman had won in the history of the Academy.
Take Away 3 - Speaking up, Speaking out, Taking Action – When enough is enough.
We met several environmental action heroes that were risking life and limb for environmental and social injustices this year including Diane Wilson, an award winning activist, author, co-founder of CODEPINK and shrimp boat captain. Diane made national news as a result of her outburst during Tony Hayward's hearing (CEO of BP). The activist was awakened in Diane over twenty years ago when she discovered that she lived in the most toxic county in the United States.
We also interviewed Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Lynn Henning a family farmer who exposed the polluting practices of livestock factory farms in rural Michigan. Her efforts to require CAFO's (basically animal factories that confine thousands of livestock) to clean up the toxic brew that is contaminating ground water, lakes and streams, has gained the attention of the EPA.
"Are you seeking approval of the world or seeking to change the world?"~Eve Ensler
Elisa covered The Women's Conference in Long Beach, California and spoke with powerful change makers like Donna Karan, Rosario Dawson, Lisa Ling and Eve Ensler. Eve described the event as her coming out day since it was her first public speech having recoevered from uterine cancer. She is playing a tremendous role in working to end violence against women and stressed that changing the world is not about being liked or seeking approval. We must be brave and step up to create a better world.
A growing number of women are taking their health into their own hands, changing policy, setting deadlines, and creating hope in healthcare. Whether you're for universal healthcare or not, pro-choice or anti-choice, most might agree that women's health needs often take the back seat in the America. As a result, many women are standing up and moving forward for their healthcare rights. This also includes changing policy to expose and ban the toxic chemicals contained in many of our home and beauty products and setting a deadline to end breast cancer.
See Jane Do examined the stuff in our stuff with Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face, Erin Switalski, Executive Director of Women's Voices for the Earth, and Britta Aragon activist and blogger of Cinco Vidas. We covered the health care reform town hall meetings and captured a personal perspective of women's heath with the Women's Health Specialists. Finally we featured extraordinary women who are taking incredible measures to end breast cancer by setting a deadline and bringing women together to support the cause. We walked with women in the Barbara Schmidt Millar Triathlon, founded by Cathy Anderson-Meyers and spoke with Fran Visco, breast cancer survivor and president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition who shared their strategy to setting a deadline to end breast cancer by 2020.
See Jane Do hosted four Soirees Into Action in 2010 including the Green Makeover Party.
Take Away 5 – Women’s Economic Influence – Becoming the CFO of Your Household
Women now make up over half of the work force. Women are launching businesses at twice the rate of men but funding sources still tend to lean towards male-owned companies. We control up to 85% of what's bought or purchased in the United States andwomen control 60% of the wealth. Why is it then that most women don't feel economically powerful? In fact, about 90% of women surveyed said they don't feel financially secure. In order to make a difference and enhance the planet we need to feel comfortable with our level of influence and in this nation, money talks. We interviewed Maddy Dychtwald, author of Influence: How Women's Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, award winning poet Molly Fisk, Jane Roberts, founder of 34 Million Friends, Teresa Delfin, founder of Mountain Mama, Gina Robison-Billupsand, founder of Moms Making a Million, Nevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall and best selling author, Riane Eislerwho is creating ways to implement a new economy. We also hosted the Funding Your Passion Soiree Into Action.
Many youth today, especially at-risk teenage girls are lacking role models. They are overwhelmed with the struggles of coming from broken homes where drugs and poverty are prevalent, survival is a constant concern, and options seem limited or non-existent. Programs across the US, including right here in our hometown of Nevada City, are uniting these girls with mentors to build confidence, teach social change skills, provide authentic and positive relationships, and reshaping their and our future for the better. These are the seeds for future social activism that need nurturing.
Take Away 7 – Definition of Community is a Common Goal
Last December, former Mayor Reinette Senum in her TEDxGrassValley talk raised the concept of community as a common goal and it got us thinking about the many community movements we covered this year and the need for collaborative leadership. For many of these communities, they are on the frontline of environmental and social change and thusly being impacted the greatest. It is essential to hear their stories first hand. In our program on Transition Towns we traveled to Reno, Nevada. In the "wild west" where the attitude was once every "man" for himself, women are pioneering a gentler expedition and this time they are doing it together to create a sustainable city that isn’t dependent on peak oil. We also attended the annual Bioneers conference in San Rafael, CA and the Women’s Conference in Long Beach, CA.
Extraordinary Janes: Reinette Senum, Molly Fisk, Chameli Ardagh, Ginny Woods, Suzie Daggett, Rainy Blue Cloud, Transition Reno founders, and the String Sisters.
Moving forward in 2011, we ask what will your story be? What’s your legacy?
We’ve heard and met so many extraordinary Janes this year, all of which started out as everyday women, but because of a certain issue or a passion that struck home for them, something inside was ignited to do more. Some did it alone and created a movement where others joined them, while some reached out to friends, family, and their communities to organize around something they felt passionate about and make a positive change.
In this talk Chameli Ardagh will speak on how to allow for a natural response towards injustice, without creating more hurt, how to embody the power and beauty of feminine rage, why we are called to step up and give voice to the power of the fierce feminine, and how anger is not intrinsically negative, only what we do with. Chameli will also show how an ancient goddess archetype of the fierce aspects of the feminine are highly relevant and illuminating for women and girls today.
Chameli Ardagh is a leading pioneer in contemporary feminine spirituality, and she has inspired thousands of women around the world through her breakthrough methods for living and embodying feminine brilliance. She is especially appreciated for her love of mythology and storytelling as a method for illuminating our hidden strength and beauty.
Chameli has taken every opportunity to become adept in her field through her own practice as well as through extensive training in group dynamics, meditation and spiritual counseling. She also has training as an actress, which adds an expressive and playful flavor to her approach. She is initiator of a thriving global network of women's groups, and the author of three books on feminine empowerment and spirituality, which have been published in three languages. She is a regular blogger on www.awakeningwomen.com.
Chameli was born in Norway and now lives in Northern California with her husband Arjuna and two bonus sons.
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