I know it's been awhile since my last post in May 22, where I announced that I was leaving Miami for a few months to travel upstate NY and starting the Van Life for awhile. Today, I'm finally sitting down on my van at night time, inspired to write this down, to share how things are doing with me, my health and the business.
LEAVING MY BELOVED MIAMI AND MY BEAUTIFUL HOUSE
This was definitely not an easy decision to make, but I'm happy I made it because it forced me to make radical changes, in a time in my life were I was feeling a little bit out of balance with myself, not very motivated about my life, kinda stuck and physically not at my best. Yeah, the menopausal fairy years, are not fun. I'm just happy to know they're not permanent and this too shall pass.
It's always so interesting when you have to pack a full house and everything that you have, makes you realize how much "stuff" we have. We have to choose what to keep, what's truly important and what is not. Getting rid of things to simplify our lives is not easy, but can be very liberating, as it forces us to practice the art of detachment, and that right there, is a good therapy in my opinion. The less is more and now it is just you, so what's the next chapter?
FROM THE BEACH TO MOUNTAINS AND GREEN HILLS
I must admit that I absolutely love Miami and specially living so close to the Beach. I have everything that I need within 5-15 minutes drive, and I expend most of my time inside my beautiful house or on the beach, so driving from Miami to upstate New York in the new Van with all my animals was definitely going to be a challenge, an interesting experience, or a nightmarish one.
I can say mine was for sure challenging, definitely interesting, and I also found out that truck drivers ( God Bless them) are the bullies of the highways? My goodness, why do they have to go so fast? What's with the aggressive driving?
Like, there're 3 other lines to the left, why are you coming behind me at light speed rearing me forcing me to just move, or just die!
At times I wanted to scream, " Hey, I have three animals inside the van, the cats are freaking out not knowing where they're going or what's going on. When I go fast and hit a bump on the road, everything jumps inside the van, you can hear things moving inside the cabinets, which I have filled with Crystals and beads! So no dear trucker, I don't want to go that fast! please move to the left and leave us alone. Meanwhile all I was hearing was my cats Miau-ing on the back of the Van. A little intense and worrisome at time, as I had to be measuring them all the time that everything was going to be ok;-)
MY LIFE IN THE FARM
Aside from my son, my sister is the only family I have here in America, and I haven't seen her in 4 years. In the almost 20 years she's been living in this farm, I have come to visit only 3 times. Yes what a shame, I know!
And those times I came to visit, after two weeks here I was feeling bored of being "in the middle of nowhere" and ready to go back to my tropical paradise. This time around my feelings are far from that. I'm truly loving it here, it's such a different lifestyle and it makes you appreciate real food and nature in a new renewed way.
My sister's farm is located in a glorious 250 acres of pristine land, with large green hills that extends for as far as your eyes can see, upon arrival I parked the Van in a place with a direct view to those majestic green hills along the horses, goats, ducks, chickens and a curious family of 5 Emus that lives there.
I'm also right next to a huge tree that gives me shade and a delicious country breeze, which is very different from the tropical breeze from the palm trees in Miami Beach. Birds are constantly singing and I'm seeing some beautiful ones that I had never seen before. Imagine waking up every morning to that sight, and sound.
I'm appreciating so much so many things I had most likely took for granted before.
The first 2-3 weeks upon my arrival, I just truly enjoyed all the peace that comes from being surrounded by nature and no neighbors, cars, or anything else except animals. No TV here and the one in my van I don't use, so I have been reading a lot more. I have discovered the Anastasia book series and I'm truly enjoying reading them!
I walk a lot up and down these majestic green hills and this may sound silly, but I'm not used to see or been with farm animals, and here we have highlanders, dairy cows, bulls, horses, goats, sheep, emus, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats and I'm getting to know them all.
The other day I even serenaded the dairy cows;-) To my surprise they loved when I sang to them and came even closer to me, so I just kept singing! Here I'm sharing a funny video with you all.
The one thing I'm loving the most, is seeing how happy all the farm animals are here, they are completely free to roam the entire land, they eat the grass, breathe fresh air are together with their herd and absolutely love my sister and every time they see her coming or hear her voice, they come running to her. It's so amazing to see the relatiosnhip she has with her animals.
Happy healthy animals means healthy nutritious food! unlike commercial for-profit "farms" were animals are always kept inside stalks, tied up, corn feed, antibiotic loaded, mistreated and just raised for pure profit.
MY HEALTH AND HOW THE FOOD AT THE FARM IS HEALING ME
In the past 2 years I gained almost 30 pounds and I know it's not because I eat unhealthy, but because I was super stressed, I'm going through the premenopausal years, I'm hormonally out of wack and gaining weight is all as a result of that.
I have blood circulation problems, my ankles gets really swelling and hurt, I had leaky gut, felt tired and without energy all the time, even in the morning when I just wakeup. Had constant migraines and upon waking up, my body was hurting like if a truck had run over me while I was sleeping, and even tho I know I'm not fat or super overweight, 30 pounds to my small frame of 5 feet tall, makes me feel very uncomfortable within my own body.
Getting my health back on track and loosing weight was and is a priority for me coming here. And you know the first thing I noticed? how incredibly different the food tastes here! In Miami I will shop at whole foods, spent so much money on organic food that truly didn't taste nothing, but here? OMG what can I say, the food is so fresh and so delicious!
I walk to the barn and get fresh eggs daily. The color and flavor of the eggs is something else, just so so good! I haven't drank cow's milk or eat meat in over 20 years + but here I'm having some cow's raw milk, goat's milk, and even started eating some meat, which I haven't had for the pass 20 plus years. Why did I started eating meat after so many years and what do I think about it now? I guess we can say that's another big change for me, but I'll share more on that on another blog post;-)
So what about loosing weight, how is that going? lol so far not really that successful because the stubborn weight doesn't want to go away, plus I can't avoid to eat some of the baked goods my sister makes here. The smell of baking fresh bread and the cookies is almost impossible to avoid, and so I'm enjoying all these delicious and super nutritious foods. I may not have loose the weight yet, but I have so much energy now, I never feel tired like I was in Miami, the swelling and pain in my ankles has tremendously improved, same thing with my migraines and overall, I know I'm getting much better.
SO HOW IS THE BUSINESS DOING SINCE I'M HERE?
To be very honest, the business since I left Miami and stopped selling Crystals, have basically stopped. I'm not having really any orders but I also know this is temporary;-) I haven't put much attention to my business (creating new jewelry and things) or been active on my social media @CrystalhealthGoddess (IG & FB pages) because I have been super busy working on creating a website and online shop for my sister, so she can have an online presence and can sell her farm foods, sheepskin fashion goods and other amazing products she creates herself.
Plus I have been helping a lot here with the work at the farm which is so hard and so much daily work, I tell you that I have a much better understanding of what means to grow your own food, taking care of hundreds of animals and feed your local community with the products she makes and sells at the Cooperstown Farmer's market.
So my "vacation" time has turned into working at the farm and helping my sister with the business, but it's so fulfilling to me as I know and hope that what I'm doing here, may help bring more business to her. She works so incredibly hard!
Then once I finish here with all the things I'm doing for her, I will get right back to my beloved business, create new jewelry designs and focus more on promoting my amazing skincare products and skin remedies.
SO IT'S A VAN LIFE OR A FARM LIFE
It is actually both;-) When I came here I told my sister that I just wanted to park my Van overlooking at the Green Hills and I won't be staying at the house, and that's exactly what I'm doing. I love my van and it feels like a charming tinny house. I'm not far from the main house so I go there to prepare my meals and taking my morning bath. For 18 years living in Miami at an average temperature of high 80's degrees it doesn't make you feel like wanting to take a hot bath. lol but here? Ohhhhh how I'm enjoying taking an early morning hot bath overlooking at the hills, it's also helping my body easing the pain and inflammation.
But after taking my bath and making my herbal coffee? I go back to my van on the hills and just work on things on the computer, and on the farm and around 7:30 pm when the daylight starts to dim, we go to the Van until the next day.
By we, I mean me and the kiddos which by the way are having an absolutely amazing time here on the country side. They love watching all the farm animals, specially the curious Emus that came close to the van once I open the doors early morning.
SO WHAT IS NEXT FOR ME?
I really have no idea and right now I'm ok with that and just living one day at a time, focusing on my health, helping my sister here and enjoying the tremendous peace that living in an isolated farm on the country side brings you. I'm loving learning how to grow my own food, how to wake up every morning and instead of going to the supermarket, I just grab everything I need from the garden or the barn and make my meals with the ingredients from the farm.
I'm enjoying taking long walks barefoot, getting to the top of the hills and overlooking a this precious land, I go see the highlanders and the horses.
My sister have 5 dogs and three of them are some huge great Pyrenees and it makes me feel like I'm walking around with 3 polar bears. lol it's also good in case you get across a bear, thankfully I haven't seen one yet but my sister says they're somewhere and could see them maybe one day? I hope she is joking for so far all I see and want to see are the lovely deers! lol
Overall, I'm feeling much better here right now. The stress I was feeling is totally gone, my health is getting better, I'm reconnecting with my inner power and working daily on myself so I can feel balanced once again and inspired to create the next chapter of my life. I truly feel that when they say that " The best is yet to come" that that is a true statement, but only if we are willing to make the necessary changes to make that happens. Most importantly, we must continue working to better ourselves, get rid of what we don't want or doesn't make us happy, so we can work on what we want, even when we don't know yet what that maybe. But that's the exciting thing about life isn't it? That we can create what we want, when we want it, if we are just willing to go deep within ourselves and do the work.
As a single mother, I have spent the past two decades focused on being the best mom that I could be for my son, solely providing for everything, manifesting living on the beach and in a safe neighborhood, getting him to the best schools and making him the center of my universe. As a mom, I'm very proud of the work I have done and the amazing child I have literally raised on my own. But now that he is on his own doing his life, and me not having so much responsibility over my shoulders anymore? it's time for me to focus on myself and work on writing the next chapter of my life, more relaxed, inspired and motivated to create new adventures and experiences for myself.
So that's it for now, I know this post maybe quite long but it's been almost two months since my last blog post and an update was in order;-)
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and if you would like to follow me on my personal IG page where I post a lot more pictures and updates of me here at the farm you can do it at this account @Ana.Satya
Sending you all my love and gratitude for all your support, love and positive energy.
In Light, Love & Healing
Ana Satya