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behind the scenes

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.” ~ James Morrison

Most of us don’t fit into boxes, categories or easy definitions, and those who do, should get out and run for their lives.

As long as we’re still alive, every moment is a sweet invitation to break free and return to our original selves.

Most people spend their life in the waiting room. We wait for the perfect time, for our turn to share, to shine and to explore the realm of unique creativity of ‘living’ that exists within every cell of our body.

And while we’re waiting, the life we’re waiting for passes.

But your life is already an organic work of art.

It happens in your walk, the twinkle in your eye, the way you express yourself, the depth of truth within your thoughts and within your honest reactions to the world. It’s happening as we speak and every second between the rising and setting sun.

Every heartbeat is creation.

Every breath is a second chance.

After years of trying to find our way through a desolate labyrinth, we suddenly realised that there was no door to be found, but one to be created…by us. So we began from scratch. But neither of us was a carpenter.

So, we started collecting tools and sketching blue prints all the while fully knowing that we could never return to the life we had been pretending to live.

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Co-Rebelles in Creative Crime

Andréa Balt

Co-creator & co-editor-in-chief.

Unfinished book with a taste for greens, bikes and poetry. Holds a BA in Mass Communication, an MFA in Creative Writing & is an AADP certified Wellness Alchemist.

Loves handmade-homemade vintage life, cats, guitars & mountains. Moves a lot. Emotionally unstable when it comes to Art & Music. Confused about being born in the late 1800s, and then again in the 20s, 40s, 60s, her last human experience beginning in the 80s. Raised by wolves, cries at weddings & laughs at funerals. Not interested in saving her life, but in spending it in sustainable & recyclable ways.

Other than her work on Rebelle Society, she has two more children: Rebelle Époque, a personal time & art capsule where you’re always welcome for a virtual cup of tea, and she recently started Creative Rehab, a 365 day self-experiment seeking to exercise the creative muscles at least once a day, for a year. You can also find previous versions of her on elephant journal.

Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Tumblr or via email: andrea@rebellesociety.com.

P.S. Her name is pronounced un-DRE-ah. If you call her AEN-dree-ah, she won’t answer.

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Tanya Lee Markul

Co-creator & co-editor-in-chief.

She has a Bachelor in this and a Master’s in that and a few hundred hours in this combined with that. She believes the most important classroom: life in this body.

She has a thing for Nordic multicellular, eukaryotic organisms—the reason why she moved to a Northern island inhabited by light-eyed giants and Norwegian Forest Cats (also known as Sjaelland, better known to most as Copenhagen, Denmark).

Her daily schedule includes the pursuit of creative expansion through writing and practicing and teaching yoga. She believes the most special ingredient you can find, be and put into anything is: yourself. Remember, everything you want, you already have and are. Look within. The more you use it, the more it will grow.

For work/play she edits & blogs at Rebelle Society (You Are Here), makes a daily green revolution at Rebelle Wellness & was the yoga editor for elephant journal from 2010-2013. You can also find her on Facebook and Rebelle Lotus. For yoga check out Yogacentralen and contact her via email: tanya@rebellesociety.com.

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Christian Hoegsberg

CFO & Advertising Manager.

He has a Master’s in International Business and a Bachelor in something long forgotten. He spends his working hours juggling multiple personalities like the marketing consultant, the creative writer, the co-founder of a pro bono online forum for recycling and the rather self-taught and exclusively self-employed accountant.

In the real world, he spends his time on clay tennis courts, on his rusty old bike, inspecting nearby natural areas, on a yoga mat wondering why his tendons won’t cooperate, in the company of his furry, mouse-chasing best-friend, or in his apartment searching for his keys, his wallet, his phone or whatever he might currently have misplaced.

He has a sweet tooth but continuously tries (and fails) to substitute cakes, candy and ice cream with fruits, nuts and other pretenders.

He edits and blogs at Rebelle Society (You Are Here). You can also find him on Facebook or at Culico. You can also contact him via email: christian@rebellesociety.com.

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Sharon Pingitore

PR Associate & Head Recruiter.

She has become (through no fault of her own) the Mamaste to many. She dons her super cape and figures out what needs to be done. And does it.

Mamaste has a penchant for interviews. Her previous life has been a dress rehearsal for her second act: the art of asking questions. You can find her at many yogic and not so yogic events, connecting movers and shakers.

Mamaste is a mom, yoga teacher, and most of all listener. She’s also an avid reader, musicoholic, oenophile, traveler and tech fanatic, with an eye for photography.

Besides her work at Rebelle Society, you can find her all over the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr. You can also find samples of her writings on her website, MamasteNYC.com, as well as elephant journal, YOGANONYMOUS, Mom ala Mode and Patch. Contact her at: mamaste@rebellesociety.com.

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Tracy Wisneski

Managing Editor, Writer, Dream Weaver.

Tracy has a BA in English Education and is currently working on her MA in Mass Communications at USF. She’s called Mom by countless children, even though she only gave birth to two of them.

She has the obnoxious habit of blasting out of bed each morning before the sunrise, eats left-over dinner for breakfast and can’t stand coffee. Her favorite place to work is on the enchanted porch her hubby built where she’s surrounded by birds, koi and her two cats. She is fascinated by nature and can only thrive in warm, sunny climates.

Nothing upsets her more than people’s inability to see themselves in others and it is her life’s goal to chip away at that disease one story, status update and encounter at a time. When she’s not clacking away on her laptop, she loves to find empty trails so that she can dance as she walks or roller-blades and fears she will one day become the next viral video.

Other than at Rebelle Society, you can find Tracy on Facebook, Twitter, elephant journal and her blog on Parenting. You can also email her at tracy@rebellesociety.com.

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Soumyajeet “Jeet” Chattaraj

Editorial Butler Black Belt, Resident Site Grammarian, Poet, Jack-of-all-Trades Extraordinaire.

After a more socially acceptable start to his academic and professional career, which included standing first in his High School exams (and joint seventh in all of India in his education board), a BE (with Honors) in Mechanical Engineering from one of the top engineering institutes in India (BITS Pilani), a 2250 in GRE with absolutely zero preparation, and a first job at Infosys, one of India’s top IT concerns, Jeet decided to venture out into the big, bad world to ditch bookish education and substitute it with an experiential one!

In his spare time, which is sparing at best, he loves engaging his geeky side to the fullest extent – and obsessively engages in absorbing random trivia, and solving puzzles of any and every kind, primarily crosswords and sudoku – one of his proudest achievements being able to completely solve the New York Times crossword 137 days in a row before being forced to break the chain due to 18-hour workdays that included weekends.

Having gone up to a High Red belt in HapKiDo, before being forced to move due to a job change just before his Black Belt test, he hopes to get back to it some day – and credits yoga and his newfound love of running for staying in somewhat of a decent shape, while always being mindful of the ever present room for improvement.

He also wishes to go back to writing poetry some day, something which has always occupied a special place in his heart, and helped him win awards in college. A universalist when it comes to approaching people from all over the world, he considers himself to be a global citizen first and foremost, instead of identifying with any exclusive and divisive tags.

A lifelong and certifiable black sheep (irrespective of skin color, since that would have qualified him as a ‘brown sheep’), Jeet feels uncomfortable with certainty and strives for a meditation-driven comfort in uncertainty. In spite of English and Mathematics being two of his greatest loves, his engineering degree placed him in IT, which is where he tries to make himself useful during regular work hours, and spends the rest of his time trying to accommodate other social and extracurricular activities, with an optional and approximately four-hour gap for sleep. Other than his work as a Jack-of-all-Trades and Editorial Butler at Rebelle Society, he tries to spread positive awareness through Facebook , random acts of kindness, and trying to recruit fellow dreamers – a la John Lennon – to be his kindred souls in this short journey called Life.