ARLENE BARLIIN: CO-VISIONARY BEHIND HEART FIRST™ & CO-CREATOR WRITTEN ‘A to Z’ MEDITATIONS

Arlene passed from Stage 4 Breast Cancer June 2018. HEART First is dedicated to her memory. RIP. xoxo

Arlene was the Co-Creator, with Jay, of the 26 Lettered 'A to Z' Meditations to the question, “What is the purpose of life?”, the centerpiece of the HEART First™ App.

From the moment Arlene briefly met Jay at a mutual friend’s wedding in New York City in 2011, she felt they were connected on a deeper level, instinctively knowing they were meant to embark on their next chapter of life’s journey together. However, the form their travels/journey together took them could never have been anticipated.

Sharing a similar perspective on spiritual well-being together with an enthusiasm for living a mindful, yet effervescent life, Arlene answered, without hesitation, Jay’s unexpected email request to begin an online communication to answer the question, “What is the purpose of life?”

With regularity over a 5-month period ending in March 2012, the two composed and exchanged meaningful words, phrases, poems and lyrics, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet ‘A to Z’ (per Jay’s request).

As Arlene and Jay got to know each other better through this inspiring exercise, Arlene found it a useful tool in helping her define her own unique approach to life as well. Their exchanged messages became a vocabulary of positive affirmations; a dictionary of supportive and contemplative/reflective thoughts.

What neither Jay or Arlene knew was that their back and forth correspondences would later evolve into the centerpiece and soul of this groundbreaking App for cancer patients and the people in their caring support: HEART First.

In 2012 their playful, light-hearted, purposeful interaction took on new meaning. Their linguistic exchange became a means to keep track of each others well-being and help each other, positively and purposefully, through challenging times ahead that neither of them could have foreseen.

Arlene was always excited to stand behind “HEART First”; understanding its evolution into an App using the written meditations Jay and she composed as its centerpiece and inspiration to help others affected by cancer’s reach.

Arlene lived in Toronto, Canada. Dedicated to a holistic lifestyle, Arlene's background included many years working and practicing in the holistic wellness and food space in Canada and the United States. She had been a yoga teacher for over 30 years, and was a pioneer of Toronto's yoga movement in the 1990s, having opened the Sivananda Yoga Centre in the city. Arlene was a trained vegetarian chef and advocate of Chinese herbalism. Her most recent professional endeavor was SipTea, an organic tea company based online with headquarters in Los Angeles. She was the mother of three strong, independent girls and she practiced meditation, qi gong and Karma yoga on a daily basis. Arlene succumbed to Stage 4 Breast Cancer on June 10, 2018. May she "Rest In Peace".