Tag Archives | blog

The joy of coming home to Canada!

By on February 10, 2013 in Canada, Travel Tips
Canada snow High Park Toronto

Winter in the Japanese Garden, High Park. My favourite place in Toronto.

Top 10 things to experience in Canada

I recently travelled in India for three months, and as usual I had an amazing time. Anyone who reads Breathedreamgo for more than 20 seconds will know that I am passionate about travelling in India. And it’s true — travel in India restored my enthusiasm for life when I needed it most; and there is a magic in India that just can’t be found anywhere else.

But then one day — December 14, 2012, to be exact — I was in Goa and I suddenly got homesick. Homesick like I have never been before. I wrote about it in There’s no place like home. As exciting as India is, I just wanted to get back to Canada. Continue Reading →

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Travel bloggers conference in India

By on November 2, 2012 in India, News/Events
View of the Himalayan peaks from near Club Mahindra, Kanatal, India

View of the Himalayan peaks from near Club Mahindra, Kanatal, India

Mahindra ConClay “unconference” an eye-opener

It will probably come as a surprise to western travel bloggers that Mahindra Holidays has been organizing travel blogger conferences for five years in India. I had the honour of being invited to attend one such conference, called ConClay Kanatal, at the Club Mahindra resort in Kanatal near Mussoorie (in the foothills of the Himalayas). It was a wonderful experience — and eye-opening in more ways than one! Continue Reading →

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Learning to be a meaningful adventure traveler

By on September 25, 2012 in News/Events
meaningful adventure travel, blog, travel, travel blogging, writer

Just a little jungle jewelry. You have to make a fashion statement in the Amazon!

Introducing travel writer Lindsay Johnston

Note: With this guest post, I am introducing Lindsay Johnston, who is a talented Canadian travel writer, and who will be helping me with the development of Breathedreamgo. Please read on to find out more about her. Welcome Lindsay!

As I sunk my teeth into the chewy, copper colored meat, I could tell instantly it wasn’t going to sit right. Cuy (better known to us as guinea pig) might be a delicacy in Andean countries like Ecuador, but for a Canadian ridden with altitude sickness, well, let’s just say it tasted far from “like chicken.”

Still, in that moment, sitting in a lodge the highlands, I felt at home. Continue Reading →

Top 5 niche blogging tips: Love and money

By on June 4, 2012 in News/Events
Mariellen Ward, travel blogger, blogging in Bhutan and India

Me, on the job as a travel blogger in South Asia (staying at the gorgeous Uma Paro in Paro, Bhutan)

The Niceties of Niche

This week I am speaking about niche blogging on a panel at MagNet, Canada’s Magazine Conference, along with fascinating fellow panelists explorer/writer Adam Shoalts, food activist/writer Joshna Maharaj and moderator Anick Quin, Editor-in-Chief of Western Living Magazine. My topic is called The Niceties of Niche and it’s on Thursday, June 7 at 4 p.m. This is a condensed version of the points I’ll be making. Continue Reading →

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A great week for Breathedreamgo

By on February 17, 2012 in Canada, News/Events

And a breakthrough year for travel bloggers

I’ve been travel blogging about India and meaningful travel for about two-and-a-half years on Breathedreamgo, and for several years before that on a previous blog, too.  Slowly, I’ve been building my career as a travel blogger and advocate for travel blogging, and this week feels like a breakthrough week for me — as I think this year, 2012, will be a breakthrough year for travel blogging. Here’s what happened. Continue Reading →

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My story: Why I write about travel in India

By on January 13, 2012 in featured, India, News/Events, Responsible Travel, Yoga/Spirituality
Elephant blessing in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Elephant blessing in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India, 2006

Travelling to India in 2005 saved my life

I recently realized that my story doesn’t actually appear anywhere on my blog. By that I mean, a concise telling of why I blog about India. And it’s not like I just started this. I’ve been traveling in India, and blogging about it, for six years. But it feels like it’s time, especially since Sir Ken Robinson helped provide me with some new insight.

In early December of 2011, I marked the six-year anniversary of landing in India for the first time by publishing Six years of travel writing and blogging.  A while later, I was on Twitter and saw a Tweet from @SirKenRobinson, which said he was writing about passion. You have probably seen Sir Ken’s video — the most famous TED video ever, about how school kills creativity in kids.

I tweeted my six year blog to Sir Ken, he read it and retweeted it, and the next day his co-author Lou Aronica contacted me and interviewed me for their new book, Finding Your Element — which is a follow-up to their bestseller about passion called The Element. The interview with Lou was cathartic and made me realize why I do a lot of the things I do: it’s because I am a deeply creative person who has never had my creativity supported. Well, certainly not in school. Continue Reading →

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Breathedreamgo nominated for 3 Canadian Weblog Awards

By on January 3, 2012 in News/Events

Canadian Weblog Awards 2011 nominee

I’m really pleased to announce that Breathedreamgo was nominated for three Canadian Weblog Awards 2011 in the Writing, Travel and Design categories. The Canadian Weblog Awards are a juried competition intended to highlight good weblogs of all genres from across Canada.

This blog has always been a labour of love, and the product of several talented people, especially WordPress wizard Jennifer Johannesen of lowtotheground.ca. But I’ve never really promoted it or SEO-ed it as much as I could (or perhaps should) have; I’ve never really competed to be in the Top Travel Blog lists; nor have I (as yet) monetized Breathedreamgo, or thought of it as a business. Those days are all ahead of me. Perhaps.

But I have poured my heart into it! So, receiving recognition is doubly, triply sweet. Thanks so much to Ninjamatics, who run the Canadian Weblog Awards. I’m very proud to be nominated. And proud to be among bloggers like these, who won last year. Continue Reading →

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Interview with Chris Guillebeau

By on October 17, 2011 in News/Events
Photograph of Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity

Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity

Living a remarkable life in a conventional world

My interview with the charismatic Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity

In my Travel That Changes You e-newsletter, and on my blog, I try and encourage people to breathe, dream and go. So, I cannot imagine a more perfect person to feature than Chris Guillebeau. Chris is the bright light behind The Art of Non-Conformity (AONC), the Unconventional Guides, the The Art of Non-Conformity book, a blog and online community. A prolific writer, a gifted speaker and an obsessed world traveler, he seems to have boundless energy for encouraging people to get off the hamster wheel and live life their own way.

And he leads by example. After publishing his book, The Art of Non-Conformity, he organized a very unique (and grueling) book tour that took him to every USA state and every Canadian province. When he got to my province, and spoke at the Chapters/Indigo store at the Manulife Centre in downtown Toronto, I went to hear him and interviewed him afterwards. This was stop number 58 on his tour, and he must have been exhausted — though you wouldn’t know it from his funny, upbeat and inspiring presentation. Continue Reading →

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Travel blogging 101

By on March 12, 2011 in Travel Tips
Photograph of Patnem Beach, Goa, India

Photograph of Patnem Beach, Goa, India

How to get started as a travel blogger

Blogging while you travel can enrich your journey in more ways than one. It helps keep your friends and family back home informed, creates a permanent record of your trip and gives you the opportunity to take time to reflect on your experiences. Following are my top tips for getting started as a travel blogger.

First things first – you need to decide where to set up your blog. There are three main options: Continue Reading →

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What it means to breathe, dream, go

By on September 3, 2009 in Responsible Travel, Yoga/Spirituality
moi at the Taj Mahal

moi at the Taj Mahal

Anatomy of a name

I came up for the name of this blog — BreatheDreamGo — in a flash. It was one of those rare moments when an idea hits like a thunderbolt. In fact, it was an epiphany. And after the name dropped into my mind, like a ripe mango, I turned it over and realized it was perfect. It expressed perfectly a philosophy and mantra. Read on to find out more! Continue Reading →

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