Linzee Belle

September 2024 BABs

September is a month of harvest, a time to gather your crops, or the abundance you've nurtured throughout the year. Everyone knows some years are more productive than others. Depending on the year, your production often fluctuates. Perhaps you receive a larger company bonus and your gross salary is more abundant than the previous year. Maybe your creativity has doubled over the last twelve months and your art takes off. Perhaps you gained a grandchild. Each of us "produce" abundantly in various ways and what one considers important may mean nothing to another. We each have varying levels and methods of labeling what we consider as a credible product of our efforts here on Earth; however, what about the rare individuals out there who believe their success is determined by how much they focus on helping others grow and "produce." Helping others is their definition of success and fulfillment.

Big BABs United Executive Council has found this person to represent all BABs worldwide this month. Ms Linzee Belle is such an individual. Linzee is an Embodiment coach, motivational speaker, author and Co-owner of Align and Allow retreats.

When asked to define her life mission, Linzee said, " to serve people with love back to their wholeness through the body. Love does not accept exclusion." Go back and reread the last sentence. Now you understand why Linzee Belle represents the best of us bad ass bitches.

This Tuesday the harvest moon will appear. Historically, this window of successive moonrises was Mother Earth's way of providing more "moonlight" and allowing farmers to work and harvest crops for longer into the evening. It was this eternal mother who provided moonlight for the farmer/man to work. Eventually another man, Benji Franklin starts playing around with a kite and key and discovers a way to provide an artificial light, aka. --- electricity, but originally we all derived our energy and power for light naturally. It's Mother Nature's persistent beacon of light and energy that reminds us of Linzee.

I met Linzee in one of fellow BABs Paula Kokanovich's dance classes. Linzee lights up the room. She's positive, supportive and uplifting to each and every woman present. She and I had never met and yet she ran to hug me. She's also incredibly beautiful, so the insecure teen in me was automatically guarded; however, Linzee's glowing essence make it impossible for anyone to hold negative energy. Just as the harvest moon, her light is that bright.

When considering the harvest moon, ancient Greek mythology gives us the story of Persephone's annual return to the Underworld. The Harvest Goddess, Dementer, is Persephone's mother. The loss of her daughter makes her distraught and so sad she refuses to make plants grow, which is what we now recognize as winter. Most of us BABs are no stranger to growing up with the unwavering love of a mother, who was raised by baby boomers. In retrospect, this generation's love can seem different and maybe even contradictory to what we, as mothers, view as love today, but it's love nontheless. Most moms from that generation recognized independence was vital for success in a man's world, which probably explains the misunderstood logic behind their dreams and goals for us. Persephone may have reacted with the harvest moon out of anger, but it was born out of love for her lost child.

Linzee's mom is a soft tissue specialist for touring musicians. She's currently touring with Justin Timberlake. Coming from the entertainment industry, Lorie Marick, could undoubtedly recognize the glowing light of her daughter and realized the potential security Linzee could attain in that world. Linzee attended Hamilton High in Chandler, Arizona, until her junior year, after which she and her mother relocated to New York, where she completed her studies online. At the age of 16, Linzee auditioned for and signed with a girl band under the Def Jam label in Atlanta, Georgia. Linzee was the youngest of the group and was therefore treated poorly by the older divas. Eventually, they got dropped by Def Jam.

Completely opposite to most of us, Linzee talks of her failures as easily as her successes...and she does it with bubbling over enthusiastic energy,

"All of life is searching for harmony. Even in the darkest moments that's when you expand your wings."

And she did just that. She didn't allow the mean girls and the Def Jam setback prevent her from pursuing her path, although at the time she wasn't sure

what that was.

She moved to LA, but felt she couldn't get past the loss of succeeding with the girl band. She didn't believe in herself anymore.

At this point in time, her mom's entertainment contacts came in handy, because one day she randomly gets a call from a guy asking if she would be willing to sing for a band touring overseas. She signed a year contract and traveled to Bahrain in the middle east. She fell in love with her drummer and became a mother. It is this union that gave her a son, Sammy . The drummer is gone, but Sammy is and always has been the true light of her life.

Pushing pause on career goals is nothing unfamiliar to us Momma BABs. She says, "Everything is happening for us, not to us." Linzee was a stay at home mom for a while and put her love of entertainment on the backburner.

It was during this time that Linzee lost a brother to suicide and a sister to a motorcycle accident. She unapologetically and with complete frankness explains she is a recovering alcoholic.

As with most of us, the effects of her mom's influence become more visible in varying times in her life and she's eventually able to return to her love of singing and dancing

Music became her drug fix. She began to dance professionally. She appeared in a Dem Franchize Boyz video and years later was able to fulfill a lifelong dream and performed in the 2023 Superbowl with Rihanna.

A friend encouraged her to attend a Tony Robbins event, UPW- Unleash the pain within, in LA. This led to her taking her 800 hour yoga certification in Yoga Nidra Meditation and Life coaching certification from the Southwest Institute of Healing. She also completed a Steve Jaggers course on somatic breathwork.

It was then Linzee realized her goal was to help enlighten others how to heal from trauma.

The stars began to align and Linzee learned of a Peruvian Ayahuasca retreat that was in need of an instructor in advanced yoga and breathwork.

Linzee applied and headed to Sacred Valley, an Indigenous community in Peru. Indigenous cultures have been using this plant based medicine to heal substance dependence, anxiety and mood disorders for centuries. Linzee said this Shaman led journey was the "most ancestral spiritual experience of my life."

Completing this journey led Linzee to partner with her best friend since the age of 12 and create "Align and Allow Women's Retreats."

She and her business partner, Maria Macsay, wanted to teach women to discover their own inner light by learning to fall in love with themselves. Linzee says her relationship with Maria has been the most healing relationship in her life. After Peru, she says she knew she wanted women to realize the powerful energy created and attained when women bond in community through love.

"Alignment with yourself and the universe is your divine inheritance. It is what our original goddess, Mother Nature planned for us."

She feels her journey has taught her a deeper understanding that love and light cannot exist without experiencing the darkness. "We control our energy," she says with a wink. Linzee also offers a progam called, "The Siren," which offers a transformative journey for women to ignite the flames of their deepest desires and empower them to claim them with unwavering conviction.

Her webpage says "The Siren" unravels the conventional boundaries of "self-help" and invites you to embrace a playful artistry in your personal growth. Offering someone to explore innovative pathways and discover the joy of infusing every aspect of your journey with creativity and wonder.

I, personally, can attest to this program's success. You're probably wondering how I can be so sure that my 6 months of one-on- one work has been productive for me. My answer to you would be, "you're reading this aren't you?!!"

BABs is always in my heart and mind, but working with Linzee has lit a fire under me to continue my pursuit of highlighting BABs in perpetuity. I've always felt it was important work, but Linzee's work has given me the push I needed.

NASA says Tuesday's Supermoon will be larger and brighter than previous supermoons and it will also be accompanied by a lunar eclipse. This happens when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and only a part of the moon is obscured by the Earth's shadow giving it a glowing reddish hue. Linzee like Mother Earth provides love and light. She measures her "harvest's" product by other's success. Kind of goes back to that line I told you to reread. "Love does not accept exclusion." This life philosophy is why we consider her a badass bitch for the ages.

So over the next few nights while you're enjoying the light and beauty of this incandescent harvest moon, take a few minutes to reflect and ask yourself who are the bright and shiny BABs that bring out the best in you.