Community at Interdependence Natural Foods

Suzy Bean has a degree in experiential education and ecopsychology from Prescott College. She has a love for the southwest, the earth, and enjoys all opportunities for healing and human connection. Her professional work centers around health and organic food, and she owns Interdependence Natural Foods in Sedona, AZ. Interdependence Foods offers a wide selection of natural remedies, local and organic foods, and cleanly-crafted body care products.

Interdependence Foods has been part of the Sedona community for many years. What inspired you to take over the business, and what made you feel it was the right next chapter for you?
I had been looking for my calling and had a bit of a “duh” moment one day. I had worked on farms and in health food stores, and always been a part of something like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, but it hadn’t occurred to me yet that I wanted to have a sweet little shop of my own. I didn’t have any business experience or start up funds at the time, but told the Universe I thought I would be a great candidate should the opportunity come available, and would do it well. Within 6 months, long-time health food store Rinzai’s Market was for sale, and I received an inheritance from my uncle that was enough to just about cover the down payment. I had the moral support from family and those around me, and Sedona rolled out the red carpet! My housemates and I still call the spot on the ceiling I was looking at when I made my initial prayer the God-Spot.

Sedona attracts people from all over the world who are interested in health, wellness, and conscious living. What does wellness mean to you personally, and how does that influence the way you run the business?
I have learned that wellness is a journey of listening to and following one’s spirit, and often the spirit communicates through the body having needs. By supporting our amazing vessels in their needs, without mental interference or superimposing an external voice of authority, the more we can heal on all levels. While I consider myself a health nerd, and enjoy that role, I really love delivering the message to customers that their bodies are their own best authority. Sometimes it’s the first time they have ever considered that fact, or been asked what their body feels (or knows) about something, be it a food or a supplement (or a person, or a decision, etc). People reinhabiting their bodies, I consider step one on the wellness journey.

Building a local business takes commitment and community support. What have been some of the most meaningful lessons or surprises you’ve experienced as a business owner in Sedona?
I know as a customer of other businesses myself, when I’m deciding where to go for lunch, or to buy a gift for someone, or to take a class, I go where feels best to go. And I crave good people, integrity, and the feeling that care has gone into what I’m there for. So having a team of uplifting individuals is key, and putting love into those individuals and all interactions in our space is key. We also sell products that are organic in practices (whether they are certified or not), seed-oil and additive free, and local whenever possible.

Website: www.interdependencefoods.com
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A favorite product: Rozendal Vinegars, brought to us by the Amman family’s vineyard in South Africa. Kurt and his wife Lynette live here in Sedona part-time, and bring back these aged, raw red wine vinegars that their family biodynamically grows. There are 4 flavors, two infused with herbs, and 2 infused with flowers. They are sweet like a balsamic, and medicinally alkalizing to the body. You can drink them, put them on a salad or warm meal, or even on vanilla ice cream!

I chose to support the Sedona Yoga Festival because the individuals that put it on and the people who are attracted to it are generally people who care deeply about life. Yogis go into the body, navigate to Spirit, and move according to life’s inspiration.

Yoga Community at Village Yoga Sedona

The Sedona Yoga Festival community has long gathered at Village Yoga Sedona as a place for practice and connection thanks to longstanding sponsorship and support of our annual event. Now, the studio enters a new chapter under the stewardship of Ashley Smith: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, longtime healer, and devoted yoga practitioner.

Ashley’s Journey

Ashley’s journey with yoga began in college, during a period when she was also beginning work in behavioral health at a rehabilitation facility for teens. What started as a recommendation to help manage stress gradually became woven into both her spiritual life and professional path.

“Yoga has been a foundation of my spiritual life in adulthood,” Ashley says. “Life doesn’t have to be easy to be good, and my life hasn’t always been easy. Yoga has been the rope I grab hold of time and time again when stress and loss have me twisted up in knots.”

Over the years, her practice evolved through meditation, mantra, pranayama, kundalini teachings, and somatic awareness. She studied with longtime  Sedona Yoga Festival presenter Peter Sterios while living on California’s Central Coast, where yoga began informing her work as a therapist in deeper ways.

“Peter’s passion for somatic awareness and the levity we gain from grounding became integral in my awareness as a therapist and woven into the healing work that I’ve continued to do for decades,” she shares.

Ashley eventually completed teacher training and envisioned creating a small community healing space that would blend yoga, therapy, expressive arts, and gathering. Then the pandemic interrupted those plans.

“What got interrupted was just getting incubated,” she reflects now.

The Sedona Connection

Her connection to Village Yoga began years ago during a visit to her father in the Village of Oak Creek. Ashley recalls walking into the studio for the first time, meeting former owner Marianne, and immediately feeling something meaningful there. The experience stayed with her, even as life called her back to California to continue building her therapy practice and teaching work.

Years later, after personal loss, life transitions, and increasing time spent in Sedona, Ashley found herself returning again and again to Village Yoga. She attended Sedona Yoga Festival in 2024. Shortly after, during a women’s business conference, she unexpectedly reconnected with Marianne. Soon after, the possibility of carrying Village Yoga forward emerged.

“The more I considered the reality of having the Village Yoga space as a resource, the more I realized that I could fulfill the dreams of my much younger self,” Ashley says. “Ownership of Village Yoga allows me to fulfill this long-time passion for creating a community around my yoga practice, as well as my needs as a professional healer.”

Rather than dramatically reinventing the studio, Ashley sees her role as caring for what already exists.

“I never would have created something as big as Village Yoga,” she says. “What I see before me is an invitation to steward and facilitate what is already there — something that exists for and because of our local students, the teachers, and the greater yoga community.”

The Vision for Village Yoga

That spirit of stewardship shapes her vision for the next chapter of the studio. Ashley hopes Village Yoga remains a place where people feel accepted, safe, and inspired to explore their own path.

“Community in a studio like Village Yoga means acceptance,” she says. “I want people to feel that they have a place to come to no matter what is going on in their life or their body, and that they will be greeted with smiles, warmth and friendship. Isn’t that what we practice for anyway? We practice knowing ourselves so that it’s easier to be close to others.  I bought into this community because it was clear there was already a culture of being kind and careful with each other.  It’s a beautiful technology, that as we come closer and deeper into our own truth, our body wants to be around the hearts of others living their truth.”

Ashley is also expanding Village Yoga’s role as a community gathering place by making the event space available for workshops, trainings, retreats, and collaborative offerings.

“I want other practitioners and providers in the community to feel that Village Yoga is a space where they could launch their vision,” she explains. “I’ve made the rates in our event space accessible so that you can try out a series of workshops or cultivate that offering you’re so passionate to give.”

Located in the Village of Oak Creek near Bell Rock, the studio offers easy access for both locals and visitors, with nearby lodging, dining, and trail access. Visitors attending the Sedona Yoga Festival or exploring the area’s renowned  immersions and experiences can easily access the studio from nearby accommodations.

“Even those flying in can easily shuttle right to our doorstep from PHX,” Ashley says. “No need for a car when you can walk from the venue to multiple dining and lodging options.”

More than anything, Ashley hopes the studio becomes a place where creativity, healing, and connection continue to flourish.

“I want more fun, more creativity, more healing coming in and joy walking out,” she says. “This beautiful, sun-filled space is your open invitation to fill it with your heart’s desire.”

Ashley leaves the community with a reflection that feels deeply aligned with both Village Yoga and the spirit of Sedona itself:

“We heal and thrive in community.”

Ashley Smith is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and longtime yoga practitioner with more than 30 years of experience supporting youth and adults through healing and transition. She integrates expressive arts, somatic awareness, and yoga into her work and is honored to steward the next chapter of Village Yoga Sedona.