007. On Shining Your Light

Inner Vibes 💌 

Journal entry of a girl trying to find flow in the universe 🌍️ 

It’s funny that I named this newsletter The Flow State and it’s taken me 7 editions to finally explain what this means to me and why I believe that entering this state is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Almost 3 months on the road and I can finally say we’re getting acclimated to our new lifestyle. We’ve learnt a lot along the way and I feel like we have this camper life somewhat figured out. It comes with it’s own difficulties, the logistics, being anxious every time we pick up and arrive at a new campsite (we dry camp which means *free* and sometimes, we don’t know what we’re walking into), the towing, the constant search for clean water, the never ending search for a place to dump our toxic waste (yes, it’s the ugly truth of living on the road that I have think about more often than I’d like lol). Living this way is not easy and frankly, I’m just a passenger princess. Dave is the one who has the hard job of driving and towing our camper along🚗 . It’s pretty stressful and I gotta give him big props (shoutout to Dave!). But even with all of this, once you get used to being able to pick up and explore a new area whenever you want, it somehow becomes worth the hassle. The joy we get from being in nature, meeting new people, getting inspired everyday…. I’m not sure I know how to put into words what it’s doing or our souls.

While I get comfortable in the uncomfortable and spend LOTS of time in nature 🌲, I’m finding that my creativity is starting to come back online. For most of my life, I would say I’ve been operating with the left (male), more logical side of my brain. Virtually shutting off the right (female), more intuitive and creative side. I can actually think of a few pivotal moments in my life that shut off my right brain (along with my creativity) and put me in a state of the safe and logical options.

Spending more time in nature (where creativity has no other option but to turn up), I’ve noticed that as I focus more on activities that are “right” brain related, I find myself shining more. How much love, time and energy I put into developing the things I’m most passionate about vs. focusing on the safe and logical options is correlated to how I show up in this world. I feel like a well that has finally started to flow after being kept hidden underground for years.

All of us have had things happen in childhood that have dimmed our light without even realizing. Our soul carries imprints, wisdom gained, and lessons learnt, as well as traumas. Often, these imprints are held within us and keep us stuck playing a role (which was the case for me). When we are fully able to step into our authentic power, being uniquely ourselves without dimming, we unlock some of our magical powers. When I focus on activities that enable me to enter the flow state (the state where you are totally absorbed by and fully focused on something you love), I feel more balanced, and my creativity valve opens. The very creativity I need in order to dream of the life I want for myself. 

It’s all about playing a balancing act with your thoughts. Allowing your left brain to work in service of your right. Instead of letting your logical side dim your creative intuition you use it to bring your creative ideas to life. The sign that you’re doing it right? Your heart opens. Your light shines. I’m finding that when I do the things that make me shine, then I have more shine to share with others - which for me, is starting to crystalize as being a key theme I’d like to incorporate into my next steps. And in order for me to discover what that will look like, I need to be in creation mode. 

As an exercise, I decided to write down a list of activities that I can always come back to. Basically, it’s the random things that make me happy - the ones that get you into a flow state. The things that immerse you to the point where time becomes an illusion. These activities could be as quirky as they come. Here’s a small exert of my list:

✍️ Writing 
🧘 Hiking/yoga/moving my body
📖 Reading 
🎨 Paint by numbers
🎶 Listening to records
🔥 Lighting candles and incense 
🖼️ Going to a museum and taking 4 hours to read every inscription
🪦 Walking around an old cemetery and trying to find the oldest tombstone
🪩 Going to a concert/dancing 
👩‍🎤 Singing
🖌️ Taking an art class
🌲 Shinrin Yoku: The Japanese Art of Forest bathing (it’s a thing - check out this book on it here)
🎥 Going to the movies alone
💿️Spending hours discovering new music at a record store
🎙️ Listening to a podcast or audiobook
🤣 Belly laughing with friends
✋ Helping a friend or family member
🙏 Helping anyone, in even the smallest way
🧳 Traveling

Contemplations:

🧿 Think back in your life to a time when you decided that your light wasn’t enough? What happened? What does the younger version need to hear now?
🧿 Write a list of things that fill you up. Pick one thing from the list that you can commit to giving yourself today
🧿 Who in your life is happy for you to shine bright? Make a list and call someone who’s on it today

Wanderlust Gems 🏞️

Inspiring humans, art, history, nature, adventures and new discoveries 🚀 

We spent a full month exploring Arizona and Southern Utah. I started to get a taste of the west coast lifestyle before arriving to California. It feels like out here, people default to an outdoor lifestyle. Something completely different than what I’m accustomed to on the East Coast. Everywhere we went in Arizona, there were other campers, free land to park on, and camper facilities and amenities at every gas station. We had found our people! 

We visited The Petrified Forest, Monument Valley, Natural Bridges National Monument, Glen Canyon, Antelope X Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, The Grand Canyon, and ended our time in Sedona. 

Petrified Forest National Park ✨ Famous for its stunning fossilized trees, colorful badlands, and rich ancient history spanning over 200 million years when it used to be as tropical as Costa Rica is today ✨ 

Youtube video HERE - PSA: please like and subscribe to our channel if you want to see more videos!!

Monument Valley ✨ Monument Valley’s towering sandstone buttes create one of the most iconic and breathtaking landscapes of the American Southwest which was used in countless classic western films starring John Wayne ✨ 

Youtube video HERE- PSA: please like and subscribe to our channel if you want to see more videos!!

Google List for Utah HERE !

Antelope X Canyon ✨ Antelope X Canyon invited us into a surreal world of twisting, wave-like sandstone walls carved by centuries of flash floods and wind. It was truly a special and unique landscape ✨ 

Grand Canyon ✨ I managed to do the most difficult hike I had ever done up until that point (Yosemite has beaten it). We hiked all the way down into the valley and all the way back up - not for the faint hearted but I pushed myself and felt stronger than I ever have. We also had deer show up at our campsite every morning ✨ 

Sedona may have been the place that touched my heart the most (I’m sure most people aren’t surprised by this).It felt like a vortex of good vibes and high vibrations. At some point, I literally cried while speaking to an Herbalist at the farmers market - out of nowhere, we weren’t even speaking about anything sad - because I was able to have a fully authentic conversation with someone who I felt, really understood me. Sedona taught me that in the next chapter of my life, I’m craving connection with a community that embraces living in relationship with nature.

My favorite activity in Sedona was visiting the Birthing Cave which, according to legend, is where indigenous women used to give birth. The energy was palpable and I couldn’t help but picture these women hiking up to this spot to endure the pain and magic of childbirth. Many of which probably didn’t survive. We also visited the Amitahba Stupa and Peace Park which gave us an opportunity to take a pause ask for some guidance 🤲.

Google List for Sedona HERE!!

High Resonance ✨ 

A song, podcast, author, movie, or book to keep you feeling that high resonance ✌️