November 3, 2022
I’ve had some big changes in my life as of late. Most recently, I left Austin after what felt like a 4-year-long initiation ceremony and moved back to Sedona. I wanted to share a little with you about why we, my partner Sonya and I, chose Sedona.
Sedona is the one place on the planet that I can truly call home. It has one of our highest concentrations of friends and family. The energy here is palpable and deeply healing for me. It was the place I returned to after moving back from the jungle, because I just needed a quiet place to recalibrate.
The first time I moved to Sedona was because friends of mine had some land, and they were willing to let me pitch a tent there. I figured it would be for just a few weeks, but I ended up staying a whole year.
That year was a deep part of my integration.
I knew it was going to take me a long time to reintegrate back into Western society after living in the jungle at the pace of nature for a whole year with no shoes. Well, I guess I had shoes, but I chose not to wear them. Either way, it would be difficult to come back into the fast pace of Western society. However, having the opportunity to live in a tent in Sedona for a year was a perfect way for me to begin my reintegration.
After that year of living in a tent, I spent the next year building a cabin. I used all natural materials from the land: wood, rocks, and clay, and I made a living roof. As I was building the cabin, the cabin and the land were slowly rebuilding me.
I have a lot of gratitude for having found a place where I could deeply heal with the support of friends and family.
Another aspect I appreciate about Sedona is that it is a power place. Many people describe the experience of feeling charged and inspired while here, along with other heightened mental, emotional, or psychic aspects as their senses and bodies come online.
It might be that there’s a lot of iron content in the dirt and in the red rocks, which is a paramagnetic element that may influence a person’s energetic field and/or physiology. It might be its placement right near a major ley line on the planet, which modern science is beginning to understand (as our ancestors once did) as being a grid of heightened electromagnetic activity.
It might also be that there are only 10,000 people who live here. The highest buildings are three stories and the only four-lane road is the major avenue through town. It takes about 10 minutes to get from one side of town to the other. It’s also been officially designated as one of nearly 200 “dark sky cities” in the world.
So for all these reasons, moving back to Sedona is an opportunity for me to come back to a place where I have a lot of respect for the beauty of the land. The First Nations peoples–specifically the Hopi, Sinagua, Yavapai, and Apache–have stewarded this land to be a sacred place of pilgrimage, reverence, ceremony, trade, and communion with one another and with the spirits of the land for many, many years.
For me, it’s also about coming back to simplicity.
Right now, a quiet energetic grid is super important because I know it’s where I rest well. As much as I love Austin, it was not a place where I felt rested. When I come back to Sedona, I always feel a deep sense of renewal, revitalization, rest, and recalibration.
Not everybody feels that, of course. Some people feel the opposite and really come alive in big metropolitan areas, while others come alive most near the ocean or in the mountains. It’s helpful for us to listen to our bodies.
Where do you feel most inspired?
Where do you feel most fulfilled? Creative? Empowered? Expressive? Centered?
Where do you become most alive?
It’s interesting to note that while a lot of people come to Sedona to vacation, not many people come to Sedona to live. Sometimes vacation hotspots will have a brief kind of renewal factor. But if you live there, over time, it can be destabilizing. If you leave an acupuncture needle in for too long, then it becomes less helpful.
Like medicines themselves, they all have their sweet spot. If you don’t use enough, there’s no effect. If you use too much, it becomes poison. Places to live can have the same positive and negative effects.
There are other hotspots and power centers for me on the planet, like the Pacific Northwest, Summit County in Colorado, and the Big Island. These are the places where I like to live, retreat, and visit because I feel most alive there. It’s where I can do the work I’m here to do because that aliveness is actually fueling two things.
One is my growth: what I’ve come to do, be a part of, learn, and grow into.
The second is my service: what I’ve come to offer as my gift.
Where we live, ideally, serves both. Not all places do, though. One place that serves your growth might not be the same place that fuels your service. Those places on the planet that fuel both simultaneously tend to be the ones that renew us the most, too.
That is why when I knew my Austin chapter was complete, I knew it was time for me to go home to Sedona, where I could rest, replenish, grow, and serve.
To your health,
Dr. Dan
Get healthy. Stay present. Help out.