Two months ago, I was meditating on the white sands of Tulum, Mexico by the clear, aqua Caribbean ocean. I asked my soul please tell me where to go next. I closed my eyes and a vision appeared of me in a double story jungle house with a basic kitchen, waterfall nearby and view of the ocean within a 5-minute walk. The ocean was dark blue and had waves. I knew it was the Pacific Ocean not where I currently was. I asked where this was and saw a map of Central America that stopped around the Nicaragua and Costa Rica area.
I was already in paradise, enjoying the beaches, cenotes, Mayan ruins and yoga programs around Tulum. I had friends that lived there and a few months up my sleeve to write my first book and design an affirmation card deck. As much as I loved Tulum I knew after one month it was time to move on. Yes it could have been the perfect set up renting a place in town for around $800US per month, riding my bike or getting a scooter to get to the beach and continuing to teach meditation at 5 star hotels like I was. Plus seeing my friends in the evenings after I had done my work during the day.
As amazing as it sounded I knew I needed somewhere smaller, more low key, walkable and with less social distractions. As much as I enjoyed teaching my meditation system Soul Talk Meditation on the beaches of LA and at retreats and hotels in Tulum, I was open to spend a few months solely focused on my content projects instead.
So I briefly went home to LA grabbed my dog and followed my heart to Nicaragua, as I had two friends from Canada that lived there. I started in San Juan Del Sur and by the excited request of my friend started looking for a nice house to rent for a month to focus on my book. As much as I wanted to be around my friend and her son and be in a cheaper country than Costa Rica, from the beginning I was not digging the vibe of the place.
I wanted minimal distractions, reliable internet and access to healthy vegetarian food. Instead of I found regular power outages and a surfer, party zone everywhere I went. It was hard to get vegetables and access healthy food outside of the larger towns, I knew I didn’t want to be in. All in all it just felt too hard, not the right vibe and didn’t match the vision I had in my head.
After 6 days of trying to find the right conditions, I moved on to Costa Rica and went straight to Montezuma a place I was intuitively led to go. Upon waking up the first morning and eating at a restaurant on the beach, I knew I was in love. I found my chill fishing village, no party surfers and access to good food.
I rented a nice 1-bedroom house for the first week way over my budget until I could find the jungle house I saw in my vision. As nice as the house was and walking distance to Montezuma town it didn’t inspire me creatively (and had too many spiders inside), so I kept looking.
While standing on the street to catch a bus, a car approached me and asked if I wanted a lift. As hitching was standard there I got in and met a Swiss lady called Claudia who lived in the next town of Cabuya. She also had 3 houses for rent. I told her I wanted to be in Montezuma only and got her contact details just in case.
After not getting any work done that week and searching for a house to live, I came up with nothing. All options were either too expensive for the holiday season or cheap and run down. With no more options, I rented a scooter and got in touch with Claudia to come check out her 3 houses. As soon as she showed me a two-story jungle house that was in my budget, I knew straight away it was the right one.
After two weeks of searching for the perfect place I could finally get my work done, I thought I found it. Within the first two days of being in my new creative space the internet stopped working for a week, I lost my phone and my computer needed to be restarted 7 times just to work each day. The beach I imagined swimming in each day was a rocky beach not very swimmable and i was getting eaten by mosquitos everywhere I went.
After my technology disasters and disappointment with the beach, I realized that as long as I have preferences and needing things to be a certain way just to be productive with my work than I’ll never be productive.
Even though all the above stresses happened I’ve made a good lead way with my first book, I have the structure and design template for my cards and all the recordings for my Mayan book were taken off my phone before it went missing
(because I didn’t have any internet to distract me with other work).
I’m now able to surrender, be in the moment and do the work that stands out to be done at any given time.
I have a big blueprint and plan for my business and a lot of content to create, which I know takes time.
I’m also grateful to be in such a small town where there are no social or swimming distractions.
The internet is now back and I have access to lots of vegetables and at least one restaurant I can eat food at. Bliss.
