Two trucks, one with a camper in the bed of the truck, three tents, three dogs, one cat, four adults, three kids, and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff that has made extended traveling both extremely fulfilling and also challenging. 

My family — including our good friends who we consider our brother and sister (auntie and uncle to our kids)— has been traveling through Mexico for the last 2 months or so, and I have to say, it’s one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 

We have been spending most of our time camping “off-grid” (aka wild camping aka not connected to electricity or water) on beaches… The differences in life here in Mexico compared to life in the States have been striking, and have helped us all grow in some really profound ways. 

Sitting here in a thatched roof restaurant, facing the epic ocean and witnessing the waves roll in one after another, feeling the scratch of salt and sand on my skin not only in this moment but almost constantly… the simple sounds of Mexican music wafting in the air, human laughter, the beauty of the Mexican language and parrot squawks, pops of pink and swaths of green everywhere I look, and hundreds and hundreds of coconut trees just dropping their fresh goodness onto the ground… the bounty of the world’s freshest and juiciest fruit literally falling from the trees around me… 

There is a lot to love about this place, and these people. Even just the energetic frequency of being in such a fertile, chill, more-removed-from-US-culture matrix  leaves so much more space for expansion and groundedness than the frequencies we experienced for our entire lives up to this point in the States. 

It’s hard to encapsulate in words… Every day here has felt like a medicine ceremony in a sense… Either pure bliss and presence (which was reallllly hard for me to rest in, in the States!… my mental chatter and/or anxious thought patterns were really present a lot of the time, without the gift of as much awareness of them), or struggle and challenge on all levels and the push to gain the lessons and integrate them while also raising three children in a traveling caravan on the beach in Mexico. It’s been a lot… in all of the ways, both positive and challenging. 

I think the one thing that feels like the biggest changemaker has been the lack of stimulation.. 

or, I guess, there is a different kind of stimulation.. 

Instead of being constantly reachable by friends and family and others, instead of being constantly able to pick up my phone and check social media or email, instead of having access to movies, music, constant Googling, researching, reading… Instead of receiving so much information and stimulus, and instead of the constant ability to escape out my 3D reality into the realms of technology… 

I am hanging outside most of the day, watching the ocean, feeling the earth beneath my naked feet. I’m feeling the gentle breeze across my skin… I haven’t even been reading much… Just being present in my reality and watching my kids explore the bounty of Mother Nature. 

Not by choice of course at first, but by necessity. Most of the beaches we have spent most of our time at have not had any sort of cell service, and the towns nearby do not have coffee shops on every corner (or any corners) in order to drop in to that reality. I will forever be appreciative of the push from the Universe to just turn my phone off for weeks on end and be present. 

That’s not to say I’m not busy in other ways, though. It does feel like there are many more small tasks that make up this type of life. Washing dishes by hand in a bucket of ocean water, washing laundry by hand in a bucket and then hanging it to dry in the fresh beachy air and sunlight, cutting mango after mango after pineapple after mango for the kids, trying to keep up with the steady onslaught of sand in the camper and stuck all over the kids’ sticky juice-covered skin (and my own)…. 

But in general it feels like a simpler life… in a simpler country… surrounded by simpler, happier people. 

I’ve never seen folks smile as big as I’ve seen these folks smile. And these are folks who will come up to us as complete strangers and strike up a conversation, bring us local fruit as gifts (the gift economy in full force, just for the joy of it, not expecting anything in return! Though we do give gifts too, if we have anything anyone wants or needs), literally teach us how to fish with a cast-net in the ocean while being stung by tiny Portuguese man-o-wars, just to make sure we’ve really got it (and to bring in some extra fish to gift to us for dinner). 

They live in “small” concrete box homes without city water, without air conditioning, and without television often. They don’t have the same bells and whistles we have even in our camper, and they are so joyful and kind and generous and… present. Blissed out. Not worried. “No preoccup.” 

(Unless they’re worried about the dogs and kids being eaten by supposed crocodiles in the river.. (which we never actually saw, but)… or scorpions stinging us as we walk on the beach at night… which are valid concerns haha.. and feel very real-world compared to a lot of my own personal concerns while living in the States.)

I think part of the reason these folks have the stunningly refreshing energetics that they do is also because of the ancestors of this land, and their connection to them and to the general energy of mama Gaia here. It’s of course extremely challenging to explain what the energy of powerful dead ancestors feels like in a place, or the vibration of the land here and how potent it is… but it’s a real part of our experience transitioning to a new frequency of existence, and apparently a large part of the general lives of the locals as well.

All of these factors together have created this energetic stew that has made it really easy for all of us to sink so deeply into presence, it has made me wonder how I ever managed to live any other way. 

My heart is more open, less guarded and defensive, and my mind is more regulated and in the background, allowing my newly at-ease heart to lead the way. 

I’m more able to witness anxious or un-true (program-based) thoughts if and when they arise, and then release them and tune back into my safety and my heart. This was really challenging for me until very recently! I used to go down some quite extensive and detailed “what-if” rabbit holes before I would be able to pull myself out of an anxious thought pattern in our old life. 

In general, I feel that this change in my way of Being on a daily basis has flipped my way overall of existing on its head. 

And I know this is just the beginning, and that the space created by being in such a different sort of of living, every day, will just continue to bring more and more stored shadow and challenge and emotions and beauty and hidden gems to the surface that just haven’t had time or space for integration.. for my whole life until this point… Phew! Deep breath for that.

I always want to share my life with the world and call out to everyone else, “Hey you! Come live this way too and see how many blessings will come your way!” But I think I’m finally at the point in my own life experience where I realize that my way of living — no matter how mind-blowingly expansive it feels for me and mine — is not The Way for everyone or anyone else necessarily… and would not provide the same results… 

AND… 

Maybe I can plant some seeds from outside of the matrix.. or drop some of these massive downloads and codes that have been coming through for me personally from this place, these elements, this way of Being… 

OR.. 

Maybe I just need to spew out some words to make my own experience feel relevant and valid for myself haha :) 

Whatever it is.. :) 

One thing I do want to point out as well, about our experience, is that we had a LOT (it feels like A LOT now, at least) of rules about how we needed to exist when we were in the States, and we have had to release most of those rules as we have traveled further into Mexico. Which has been its own sort of ceremony in and of itself. 

For example, we ONLY ate organic food in the States. We ONLY drank living spring water. My kids were bathed with regularity and my own clothing, dishes, and other “things” were kept at a certain level of cleanliness. 

These were rules that were extremely important to us, they made up a large part of our identities, of who we considered ourselves to Be. 

None of that is possible here, 99% of the time, though. 

I personally feel a lot of freedom and liberation now, though, having had to release those rules and ways of being and sink in deeply to a new way of existing that has more of a flow and less constriction/contraction. In the beginning, though, these were all things that we considered big stressors. 

I think a lot of that stemmed from being within a country where we felt a lot of fear and anxiety in general on a daily basis, even just collectively, and these rules were our way of trying to maintain some sene of order and control amidst the chaos. I’m saying this in hindsight and from a place of removal, which is different than my perspective while living in Sedona, of course. 

I am happy to report that I will now gladly wash my dishes and clothing in unpurified ocean or river water, my kids have never looked grubbier, I never wear deodorant, we all eat non-organic fruits and veggies from whatever local store or random truck driving by selling them that we can find (in addition to the fruits that just fall from the trees around us), and sometimes we even pump the camper full of locally “purified” water that I think still makes us have diarrhea but we all drink it anyway because that is what we have access to. 

(Unpaid plug for my two favorite gadgets that we brought with us on the road that have made life so much more flowy: our Nomad water filter (can literally use this to pump water from a river into the filter and then into the camper after purifying it… so relieving, and the only reason we don’t use this for water 100% of the time is because we don’t always have access to rivers/non-salt water..) and our Bluetti solar setup. Free energy from the endless power of the sun!)

Annnnnd… it all feels really fine. And like the spirit of Mexico is literally inoculating us on all levels, changing our microbiomes to the fullest extent, so we can live, think, feel and breathe like new animals here. Beautiful, really. 

………

I will tune in next time with some tales from my time in Peru, sitting with a master plant medicine, Ayahuasca :) 

As if we didn’t call enough adventure into our lives, that was a BIG fulcrum point for me as well… and as cliche as it may be, I will forever think of my life/identity in parts: “before Aya vs after Aya,” similarly to the way I do for “before kids vs after kids.”  

More to come on that :) 

Here are some locations from our trip so far! I know I promised photos last time but the Wi-Fi here is a real issue for uploading photos and I keep getting booted off. I will try again at some other time and send out a photo dump :)

Thanks for joining in with me on this adventure and please feel free to respond with any questions or comments you may have. :) 

Unless it’s “Isn’t Mexico SO dangerous? Aren’t you worried about gangs or the cartel or crooked police or montezuma’s revenge or x, y, or z?” 

Our experience has shown us that a lot of those stories are programs to keep people from living a life like this…. Or at least that those stories are not part of our particular reality/timeline (just like the whole crocodiles-eating-our-kids one wasn’t… seriously the locals were SHOCKED we hadn’t seen any crocs at the beach we were at for 2 weeks at our last camping spot.. I guess these “scary” programs/realities are not in our own unique and particular story, even though they have been for many other families here… Thank you crocs, cartels, crooked cops, and gangs, for picking up on that vibe! We were not able to escape the diarrhea but I think we have that one under control and have some really amazing tools for that at this point… but also… see above about being inoculated by the energetics of Mexico, lol). 

So much love and peace and sunshine and ocean breezes to you all! Until next time. 

Locations: 

Los Lobos

La Manga Dos

A coconut orchard outside of Mazatlán

Topolobampo

San Blas

Sayulita/San Pancho

Playa Peñitas near Tomatlán (nearly deserted beach that we felt really at home at, plus the locals were particularly generous and open-hearted as well)

Plus, one very special little surf village where we are currently feeling very taken care of in all of the ways, which I will probably write about in more specific detail once we leave :) 

In Gratitude & Service,

Ashley