Off The Grid in Mexico
and a simple questionnaire that will expand your mind & emotional vocabulary
I’m going to keep this short, because I want it to be readable. If you want to skip to the emotional awareness questionnaire, click here.
As of February 7th, 2023, exactly sixteen months after this adventure began, I had spent eight months on the road in a van and eight months residing at Grandma’s place. Of course, even when I was spending time in her 1950s bungalow drinking tea, meditating, reading, and taking many courses, I was still flitting around to Hawaii, LA, Edmonton, Fernie, Nelson, Taber, Lethbridge, and Vancouver Island. My grandma spent most of those same eight months reading the Book of Mormon, drawing elongated circles in wordsearch books, and watching her shows on TV. She told me I needed to slow down and relax, but also asked me how the whole “making money thing” was going. I told her this is me slowing down, and that soon enough, the financial path forward would become clear.
See, it’s not about the money. Money comes and goes; time is our greatest resource. The best time is spent with intention, and often with others. The money comes when we follow our passion. I get paid to help people find clarity amidst their chaos. I am rewarded for my love of listening, and by listening to love. I learn what I can, do what I can - as best as I can - in contribution to others, and from that state, those are the only dollars I’m interested in making. That’s not exactly great business advice, though, and so I began to recognize I’d need some help in the department of how to manage and grow a vision. This was no longer about money, per se, but about my relationship to the future. This was about bringing action and intention together to drive towards a specific outcome that benefited as many people as possible. I’d learned enough. Now it was time to begin giving back in earnest. Hoarding knowledge and potential would destroy my destiny and corrode my dreams. So, this month, I took a leap.
I hired a company to create a revenue roadmap and marketing plan. I paid them $16,000 to listen to my vision, articulate and organize my skillset, and develop a plan to market my passion to those who could benefit most. They guaranteed that I would make back my money in ninety days or they’d refund me the difference. All I had to do was follow the strategy, one defined task at a time, and it would all come to fruition. Their confidence in me teaches me how to be confident in myself. I want to internalize the perspective and skillset that they have, and they are eager to guide me towards success.
On February 7th, I flew down to La Paz, Mexico. While the strategy company prepares the vision and tasks to achieve my three year plan, I decided to use my time in a very different way. On Saturday, I will get picked up by my friend Ania, whom I met while traveling last year, and her new friends who are constructing an off-the-grid sustainable community in the desert a few hours outside of town. She had recently discovered this budding community and wrote to tell me that it was magnificent in its current form and that she resonated with the vision they had. I asked questions about the weather, how many snakes, spiders, and scorpions she contended with, and whether they were vegetarian. The answers didn’t scare me off, and so, on a whim, I decided that in lieu of an ashram in India, a few weeks in the desert building clay houses and tending a garden would create a welcome and meaningful respite.
My intentions are simple: cleanse the body, use my hands, expand the mind. Beyond the immersion in a new culture and way of life, I would specifically make personal commitments. No alcohol, no cannabis, no phone, no screens, no internet, no sugar. With perhaps the exception of cannabis, my crutches are well moderated. My body feels as clean and healthy as it ever had, but I still wanted face whatever demons I’d been avoiding. It had worked well for me in Hawaii (I came back with a powerful list of everything that made my happiness conditional and immediately managed to release most of it), but Hawaii had lacked purpose with what to do with my time. Working with my hands for the benefit of a group of people felt like the missing ingredient. The skills and philosophy I could learn by witnessing and participating in this community would be treasured for a lifetime.
I will be out of touch for at least one month, but I plan to provide a meaningful update to you thereafter. It’s important to me that I what I learn, I pass on, and I will do what I can to provide you with an opportunity to reflect on how these ideas can be applied to your own life. After all, I may be in Mexico, but your life is an adventure all the same. One thing I know is that we are not intended to do this on our own, and I am passionate about your own expansion as much as mine.
The Emotional Awareness Questionnaire
If you want to answer these questions, click the link below (you’ll also get a link to a great list of emotions).
what are the three positive* emotions you feel most often?
what are the three negative* emotions you feel most often?
what percentage of time do you think you spend feeling the positive list versus the negative list?
*terms like “positive” and “negative” are subjective, but generally speaking, emotions that feel comforting or exciting are literally healing for your body and emotions that feel uncomfortable or agitating are destructive to your body on a cellular level. There’s nothing wrong with experiencing discomfort, but sustained or unconscious discomfort without reprieve or without an awareness of choice will cause suffering.
I’ll share the results of this questionnaire by the end of March.
Love you,
-Shua