Trading Traffic For Trees

Zuri:   0:02
Laughter. Get there. This cannot be a two-hour episode. Homie. If so, I'm gonna have to edit your butt. I am Zuri and this is your invitation to be the beautiful you. Welcome to our podcast. My co-host and partner is expansion coach Mikey Star

Mikey:   0:39
and she's lifestyle coach Zuri star. And together we make the EmPOWERment Couple

Zuri:   0:44
We are the founders of the Omni-media organic lifestyle company. I am Zuri, and we've teamed up to bring you a healthy lifestyle podcast. Each

Mikey:   0:53
week we'll bring you either a special guest or a peek behind the scenes at how we're co creating our most beautiful life. Our goal is to energize, edify and elevate your day.

Zuri:   1:05
Walk with us as we chart a course to living your most beautiful life. This episode's gonna be about moving to Vermont.  

Mikey:   1:22
We're moving to Vermont.  

Zuri:   1:25
So we moved to Vermont from California, born and raised.

Mikey:   1:31
Big change, big change.

Zuri:   1:32
The reaction we usually get from people is like "what?" Why? We don't get it! And the number one answer that Mikey came up with shortly after we moved is what?

Mikey:   1:48
"We traded traffic for trees"

Zuri:   1:51
And that couldn't be more true. So, let's dive right in and talk about this adventure to the East Coast as the Californians. California. so funny beautiful factoid. It actually on that note of trading traffic for trees is Ah. Did you know that the population of the state of Vermont is just a little bit over 600,000 people, whereas California are our home? Stayed where we were both born, raised and lived until a couple years ago. Um, 39 point 6,000,000? Yeah, big state, but lots of people. Um, but specifically, we last lived in L. A county, and there's four million people. They're just four million. Just for me. A 1,000,000. So, I mean, we lived in a town in L. A county and that town I had about 800,000. Well, yeah, but, uh, surrounded by other towns, I had 800,000 and so on for threats so

Mikey:   3:12
that all those towns blended into

Zuri:   3:13
right. They're all like, one mega hub. Um, whereas we live in this little cute little town that has are you ready for this 2561 people. What? No traffic lights? Stop signs. Yes, but no traffic, Lee

Mikey:   3:38
And we have two covered bridges.

Zuri:   3:39
We do have two covered bridges. It would Yes. Um, but did you know that l A has the worst traffic in the U. S for six years running the worst? Here's off. Another beautiful factoid is that drivers in and around L A, which was us spend Ah. 102 hours battling traffic congestion during peak hours in 20 1702

Mikey:   4:09
with 101 The four

Zuri:   4:11
or five. The 1 10 605 five traveled the mall. Did you take sunset? And then Did you take Will share way poke a lot about the California because we are Californians and oh, we get made fun of quite a bit since moving here. Um, but also, we reference, like the SNL skit of Californians. If you haven't seen it, it could be your 10 minutes of laughter that we recommend every day. Um, but let's just talk about it. So diving right in. People ask us these questions all the time, you know? Were you thriving in L. A?

Mikey:   4:51
You know what I I wasn't thriving in the way that I knew I could write. And for me, it was that, um I'm a huge sponge, Right. I absorb everything that I see. And what I saw was, um, just a lot of mixed messages in regards to, um, happiness. Answer your question. I wasn't thriving at the level that I wanted to thrive. I was suffering more than I was driving.

Zuri:   5:24
And what do we say about suffering?

Mikey:   5:26
Suffering is for suckers. Now, when I say suffer, I'm not talking about suffering from, you know, you know, mental illness or, you know, disease.

Zuri:   5:38
You're talking about emotional suffering when you're, like, in a bad mood, not in control of your like your mindset. You're healthy. You're not being deliberate with your mindset in your emotional state, right?

Mikey:   5:50
That and I felt like, um, suffering for me was not getting exactly what I wanted. Yeah, and what I wanted was more space. I wanted to take a nice, deep breath. I wanted to see, um, seasons. I wanted to, you know, feel

Zuri:   6:07
what it actually insurance felt like. Yeah, so And to be fair, you came from, you know, you came from that area. You lived in that area your whole life, and you traveled the world from being in the military. And, um, I also spent my whole life in California. Um, but I think at that point, we had raised our standards that we really had raised our standards and decided there were certain things that we wanted that we weren't gonna get there. Um, unless we had Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie type money to buy a compound. And, you know, I mean, even then it wouldn't have been are ideal place to, um, continue our adventuring. So, um, this is this is just, you know, I'm love with the little factoids, but the funny thing about Vermont is it's the Onley US capital. The only state that has a U S capital capital that doesn't have a McDonald. Whoa. Funny. Yeah, I know. I saw that. I was like, Oh, like That's hilarious. That's not something that I would have thought. I mean, we have McDonald's. I think there's McDonald's in the state, but yes, right. Well, maybe that's New Hampshire. I'm not sure, but anyway, we should look that up, but I know that we like just got a target in the state. And that was like a big deal. There's only one in the state. Granted, you know, you drive 10 minutes, you're in New Hampshire. You know, all the states air. Very a small back here,

Mikey:   7:44
they bleed into each

Zuri:   7:45
other. Um, and then the ratio of cows to people is really funny. Vermont has the greatest number of dairy cows in the country. And not Hillier, which is our state capital That doesn't have a McDonald's. They're the largest producer of maple syrup.

Mikey:   8:03
Now, I love maple syrup, but I am lactose intolerant.

Zuri:   8:07
Yeah, but that's okay. And, uh, and a lot of the dairies in Vermont are organic, and they are actually raising their cows. Um, on a pasture. And we a lot of them aren't too. So we can talk about that more in other episodes. But why did you move? Let's just dive right in there. Why did you move?

Mikey:   8:30
Well, I practice a ah. I did something. I practice what I call forecasting happiness right where I thought of all the things that I would consider that ah, lifestyle of happiness and the things that I didn't currently have. I forecasting the future. Is this even gonna be available to me like, Well, I have the opportunity to walk my dogs on a big piece of property. Or do I have to go to the local dog park and deal with, you know, all the you know, the dog poop and though, you know,

Zuri:   9:10
way and people,

Mikey:   9:11
the people who are just sitting at the dog park, smoking cigarettes Um, so you know and I used vision boards. I really kind of detail what it is that I wanted in my life, and I realized that it wasn't going to be made possible where we lived,

Zuri:   9:28
but to be clear where we lived. I mean, we paid a lot of money to live there. We had a, you know, three, almost four. Well, we had a four bedroom house, two storey, huge yard like we had a nice home, and by many people's standards, this would have been more than enough to feel like they could live there for several years and be happy. And it's more than a lot of Southern Californians have. So I want to just make the distinction that there was nothing wrong with it. But we changed. And so we had to change our environment.

Mikey:   10:02
Indeed, indeed. And when it comes to happiness, it is an individual practice, right? Right. So you your happiness isn't isn't based on someone else's views. Like I wanted to be able to go out in the woods and not see stucco homes all around.

Zuri:   10:20
Yep. And it's like the things that we like the most you couldn't you couldn't do, right?

Mikey:   10:26
So why did you move? What? What? What was what was spurring you?

Zuri:   10:31
Well, so for me, I felt like I I couldn't really walk my talk. You know, I I grew up on a farm. Um, I was raised with a lot of consciousness about my father. Was ah, you know, organic Farmer. My mom was like a yoga instructor, and there are a lot of people who fit into those categories in Southern California that are interested in those things. But I wanted to be able to grow my own food on a level that I had, like, a huge garden, and I wasn't renting or subjected Teoh what my neighbors were spraying on their garden like I I had a different idea in mind of what I wanted for myself. And, you know, I want, you know, you can't deny the effects of pollution. You can't deny that we're living in a place where they pump all their water in. There are just too many things that I had built a business. Um, And then, you know, we built a second business that we couldn't We didn't have to live there, you know, granted, every single time that there's something going on in California, I'm gonna have to fly back and carbon footprint. You know, there are tradeoffs for sure, But

Mikey:   11:53
whole families there

Zuri:   11:53
Yeah, and our family with stare. But it was like, Let's I wanted to walk my top, mark me talking like, have a home and have property and have a garden and have, ah, a different adventure. Maybe not permanently, because nothing is permanent, but really, like, just see what it was like. So that's that was you know what? The core of it, but also financially, we were wasting money on rent. Um, you know, our families own properties and stuff like that, but where we wanted to live, it was extremely expensive. Were living in like, you know, a $1,000,000 home. So you've been paying their mortgage. They probably bought the house for 450,000. Or actually, we know they did. But you know that just the prices were going up so much and like our quality of life just seemed like it was diminishing. More and more people were moving in next to us. They're starting to be more crime. It just it was There were things that were telling us. Lobster is what I would say. I'm looking at you and we both would look at each other and we're like lobster. And so you wanna touch on that

Mikey:   13:03
well every day at three o'clock, no matter who it was. Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday says that way would be blessed with the sounds of leaf blowers and, um, you know, lawn Moors and just it was just this.

Zuri:   13:18
This just sound just constant chaos. WiFi, You know, like you go over the Logan and your WiFi. There's no turning it off When you live in the city or suburbia. It's like you're just your neck and neck with people. It's trading traffic for trees. I mean, we did have trees around us and we lived in a canyon. So is beautiful

Mikey:   13:41
was it was pretty, but great mountain biking,

Zuri:   13:44
right? There's so many things that we could say That's great about it. But anyway, let's continue about, um, parenting was obviously we're both parents, and, um, to a daughter that was starting to enter into that middle school age. So just ahead of that, we were thinking like, Hey, I grew up on a farm and I know you didn't, but you grew up in an area that had ah lot of nature around it. So you grew up in a farming community, you were able to experience nature. And you know how that played a role for you in your life and on, I really felt like, you know, my California family wasn't farming anymore. So my grandfather had retired. I wanted to live somewhere where they were farming and, you know, she could be on a farm and know where food came from and also grow our own food not just our tomatoes and lettuce and stuff in the back yard, like we were doing, but like yeah, you know,

Mikey:   14:45
like and unfortunately, most of the farmlands that surrounded my house that I grew up in. Or now, um, housing tracks,

Zuri:   14:53
right? So her upbringing, like I wanted her to have major instead of materialism all around her. And here's another factoid. Vermont doesn't have any billboards.

Mikey:   15:06
Say that again. One more time.

Zuri:   15:07
Vermont. It is illegal in the state of Vermont to advertise with a billboard on the side of the road.

Mikey:   15:17
So therefore, when you're driving, you are seeing hills, trees, lakes, rivers. You're not seeing any signs talking about, um, prescription medications

Zuri:   15:32
are plastic surgery

Mikey:   15:33
or alcohol

Zuri:   15:35
who are get so big Mac at McDonald's.

Mikey:   15:38
Or you have to buy this so you could be like this

Zuri:   15:41
for we could go on all they all day long because if you live in that part where we lived, it was all advertising. And, um, you know, just what what effect is that having on your child's mind? You know, if they're looking to be like their surroundings, which we are, that's just their growing your modeling behavior for them. Um, and you know, she went to an amazing school. She had amazing piers. Everything about our friendships were great, but it's just the environment. We felt like this would be a really great time to let her experience more nature versus materialism and kind of where we saw you know, that age range going And you

Mikey:   16:28
could always come back to the city totally. But we wanted her to given a We want her to grow up amongst the trees.

Zuri:   16:35
Yeah, and and have, you know, here there's academies And then she could get a private school education. There's, ah, high focus on, um, intellectual ability. And, um, you know,

Mikey:   16:49
small classrooms.

Zuri:   16:50
Yeah, because you know, so that kind of for us was a no brainer. And she said yes, she wanted to. She wanted to adventure. And if she had said no, then we would have figured out what we were gonna do instead. So as a family, we decided, Hey, let's adventure and and see what it's like living in Vermont and Y Vermont to obviously, is that my dad has a firm here. Ah, that he has co managed for the last 20 years. Mike and I got married on the farm. Um, it's a organic farm has been certified since 2003. It is an educational center. They have organic coffee shop. Amazing C s a like a a team program where you can swipe your card to get organic produce. And like I said, education center And they have, ah, you know, a kitchen. And they also have a program called Willing Hands that helps people who can't afford to grow their own food. So, I mean, I could do a whole show about your circle fireman. We will have people from the farm on our podcast. And I thought, you know, I worked on the farm. Mike worked on the farm at different times. Zarrell took her first steps on the farm because we lived briefly in Vermont for about six months during one of their growing seasons. And, um, you know that that kind of sealed it like, Well, let's go back by some property, be around my dad. My dad's in his eighties, and you think he's in his sixties, cause he still who was, you know, doing all medication. Yeah, driving just Yeah, he's pretty awesome. So, um, he will be on the show quite a bit. Um, but so we had made up her mind, and then it came timeto Oh, crap. How are we gonna do this because Mike and I had moved a lot in California. Of course, if you're renting your moving every year every two years, you just far. Unless you're in some type of rent control which almost doesn't exist and or you're living, you know, at a place where you know, you grow and then you outgrow places, right? So So we had moved a lot, but from you no one place to one place with the U Haul truckers, you know, with a moving company was not across the entire United States. So how do we move? Oh, with a lot of funny stories. And I think you should tell maybe maybe the 1st 1 but ah, I don't know. Do you want to talk about how the movers came over?

Mikey:   19:35
Well, the every part of the process was a ah practice of letting go. Right. So we had this This spot, we're going to that our move is going to go a specific way. And it didn't. It went. It went the way that it went.

Zuri:   19:54
It went the way that it went.

Mikey:   19:55
So we went from having movers come in, pack up our house.

Zuri:   19:59
We had this idea we're like, this is gonna be so easy. We're gonna hire these movers. They're going to come in, they're gonna pack our stuff, and then they're going to drive it across. We'll meet them there and let me just tell you that that is not how it works out. I now have, like, watched enough YouTube channels and research enough to know that those don't exist. Mind you, we looked, and it was my birthday in April. We were looking for a house in California. My dad came, he planted a little seed about Vermont. Then we were like and then we started looking at houses in Vermont, flew to Vermont, looked at houses, fell in love with a house, put an offer they accepted. And then we were in escrow and we were like, OK, we have to pack up our entire house for four bedrooms

Mikey:   20:56
to call drugs.

Zuri:   20:57
You know, I think like 2300 square foot house we had we had to pack it all up and we had been, you know, accumulating stuff for the less 15 years.

Mikey:   21:08
We had a nice front.

Zuri:   21:09
Yes, we have lots of stuff. Um, but so we looked at things and we had to do the whole Murray condo. What sparks joy. And there's certain things that I was like that doesn't make any sense. And then, you know, once we got here is like, why didn't we bring this? And so we made a lot of silly decisions because we didn't have. Movers are movers showed up. They did a bait and switch. They basically told us one price and came over with the's shady people walking through our home almost as if they're gonna come back the next day and steal it. Or they were just gonna put on their truck and you'd never see it again. And it was so shady, they were like, holding open the door. I was literally forcing them out of the house like you cannot be in charge of our move. Ice had bad juju. My mind you might cycle Well, what if we get rid of them? What the heck are we gonna dio?

Mikey:   22:07
And that was moving day. Yeah, that was moving on. We went from that. That was early in the morning and, um, our after they left, I was at the local U Haul and I managed to get a what?

Zuri:   22:23
A 32 foot travel

Mikey:   22:25
30 to put truck and a trailer cause we want to bring a Prius. So I went from flying with two dogs and two cats with With you in Israel. Teoh, Um, literally driving a huge U haul, Which biggest truck driven, pulling a trailer. Never pulled a trailer with two dogs in the cab. You know, not not a backseat cab. Just a cab. Yeah, And, um and I could and I can drive no faster than 65 miles an hour.

Zuri:   23:04
And this story is hilarious for a lot of reasons. I'm not gonna interrupt, Mike. I'm gonna let him just go. But we do have photos of all the So be sure to tune in to our website where we have a blogged and a little slide show about all of this because, you know a picture, Cecil. Well,

Mikey:   23:24
all I can say is day two, I'm driving through, um, Utah, I believe. Right,

Zuri:   23:30
s. So this is the summertime was

Mikey:   23:33
below Salt Lake, and this massive storm rolls down this huge mountain range that was driving past. And, um, it was literally pushing my truck to the left so much so that I had to counter steer to the right, right, some counter steering, ministering. And I'm looking at my left rear view just to make sure they're not going over my line. And lo and behold, I see this big blue kayak flying, you know, behind me, just landing on the road and almost falling into pieces. And I'm like, Oh, snap, there goes my kayak.

Zuri:   24:13
So we had a two person ocean kayak strapped to the top of our vehicle, which is on the trailer behind us Truck does for clarity. He once he saw that gone. There's no stopping and pulling over in the middle of, Ah, lightning storm, right?

Mikey:   24:30
That and it's a you know, it's a major trucker highway. So, you know, I'm doing 65 miles an hour as I could go on. No, no faster. There's a governor on it. All the other semis we're doing 80 90. If we'd gotten passed by a semi going that fast, it's frightening.

Zuri:   24:48
Yeah,

Mikey:   24:49
that was my whole trip, and I went through at least four major storms. You know, you get out in the open highway in the in, you know, in the grain. The grain belt. We're going, Um, and my goodness, I I was I was sweating the whole way. And then, of course, my dogs were whining and farting and fighting with each other. I've of a puggle in a, uh, boxer, Very a puppy boxer. It was madness. It was?

Zuri:   25:19
Yeah. You were Trooper made you. It made you tough. And every night when he would finish, kind of like getting close to wanting to stop, you know, for the day Stop driving. He would call me and be like, OK, find me a hotel. So, I mean, he really he put in the time Brinley Hotel. Right? So the other side of what was happening on my end is I who was ah, picking up my basically just traveled with a suitcase. Everything else was on the truck, so and two cats, one was a kitten that we had just rescued. Long story about that, but yes, we were crazy. We rescued a kitten knowing that we were gonna move. Um, and we had another rescue cat. That was pretty much when we got him wild and kind of never really tamed himself. Like he he's an outdoor wildcat. He would challenge a coyote like he's very aggressive and big and did not. Didn't really have a lot of fear. So I decided to bring that cat with me because it wasn't an option to take him in the truck with the two dogs. So he came with me and, um, in a mesh cat carrier, because that's what the airline required, which I thought, cash, That seems like a mistake. How is he not gonna, you know, go crazy and there Because it has if it underneath your see. And I thought this is just bizarre because this poor little guy hates being enclosed in anything he won't, even when we had to have a window open for him to get in and out of our garage like he will not handle staying in one spot, which I knew going into it. So I was like, What am I gonna dio? And the vet that we had gone to was like, Oh, give him some kitty Prozac. Look, I'm not gonna drug my cat. Um, I have these, like, little calm. Choose with ash Lagonda and, you know, like herbs and yeah, he plowed through a couple of those, but by mid flight, the cat was on my lap had chewed out of its case. Thankfully, the person sitting just to the left of me because I had a window. See, he, uh, actually and my daughter I had a window seat when my daughter was sitting on the window. And so thankfully, he hid the fact that the cat climbed out, chewed out and then climbed out and was on my lap, and he was a cat lover. Otherwise, I don't know what would have happened. Maybe they would have landed the plane. I mean, in my mind, I'm just thinking, Oh, my gosh, this cat is on my lap. I have no way to carry him out. And I, thankfully, had an extra carrier like another MASH carrier simply because I got two and one was smaller than the other. So I had to put him in the smaller one, and I had to ditch the other one because I was like, I can't carry three carriers and, um, anyway, and so the kitten was fine, and, uh, I was able to get them both safely to our new house, but not without having a I mean, I had scratch marks and bite marks all in my leg. He wasn't mad at me. He was just freaked out. And, yeah, so

Mikey:   28:45
you ended up, um, chewing on some of those kitty choose, didn't you?

Zuri:   28:48
It was like, why didn't I get the kitty? Prozac knows Getting No, I didn't. But, you know, a lot of deep breaths, and I I was in such a zone during moving about, you know, getting it done, that I didn't allow myself to get really caught up in the cat drama. I was just, like, Okay, I can get through this and helped that. I didn't have somebody who is, you know, really awful next to me. Yeah. So tell me. I think what would be interesting for listeners is is, um, you know, we talk a lot about cord cutting and what that means, you know, for both of us, the importance of being, you know, weightless. So releasing attachments. And we've we definitely had our moments after removed. Like, where is this? You've got rid of this. I mean, a lot of things got given to our neighbors from, like, brand new refrigerating to my cheese board. They still haven't found, you know, all of our succulents. I mean, just so much was given away. But if it were allowed, it allowed us to really not only gift things to people that we loved, but also to kind of release attachment. So we did a lot of cord cutting it. And you want to say more about that, but

Mikey:   30:13
yeah. No, You summed it up beautifully There. There were things that, you know, might that mountain bike that I gave up. I'm still missing it. I You know what? My first mountain bike a had a lot of joy.

Zuri:   30:25
Who got that one? Um, the neighbor, Our neighbour? Yeah, they got a lot of

Mikey:   30:29
stuff. He came in and

Zuri:   30:30
we had a lot of neighbors and they had a lot of kids, and we we made it really nice. You know, Christmas birthdays, We cover the next five years of their lives.

Mikey:   30:41
I do miss those neighbors we had. We had the type of neighbors who showed up just to help us move.

Zuri:   30:46
Yeah, they're good people, lots of good people. We definitely attract a lot of good people. So tell me what's beautiful about living in Vermont.

Mikey:   30:54
Well, I finally had the opportunity to decompress. So born and raised in California, I knew nothing else but California. You know, I

Zuri:   31:04
travel traveling, right?

Mikey:   31:05
I traveled with, you know, in the military. I saw, you know, all kinds of cool places. But for the most part, I always felt like I had, um, like like, I was in a, um, an overcrowded, um, elevator. Right? And I just really needed to get out and needed to get out. And once I moved to Vermont, um, I spent a lot of time outdoors mowing lawns, trimming our, you know, trimming the bushes that, you know, we got got here. That property had been overgrown for good two years, and at the time I was thinking like, Oh, my goodness. Oh, my God, do all this work. But I loved it. Yeah, I had my hands in the soil and and I really allowed myself to let go of a lot of pent up irritations. And, you know, like I said, it just I didn't know how stressed I was.

Zuri:   32:04
Yep. And and, you know, for me, I didn't realize how certain things that we were dealing with on a daily basis were making me feel, um, stressed to like WiFi. You know, I mentioned that leaf lowers you mentioned that traffic crimes, you know, stuff. And just the general buzz and consciousness that you feel if you are a sensitive tuned in person, you feel you feel that right? And I didn't bother me, and I wouldn't have said that until we moved here. And then it was just like silence, you know, or the create. We have a big creek on our property. The sound of the creek on it just I think it healed me in ways that I didn't know I knew to be healed and watching fireflies or shooting stars. There was just like things that I feel like we were only kind of doing on vacation. Not to say that we weren't. We were hiking and we were watching sunsets on the beach, and we were doing all the things I missed the ocean. I stayed all the time. I miss my family, the ocean and our friends. And that's about it, you know, like, oh, I Miss Erwan, which is our organic store that we lived very close to. Um, but you know, we re birthed a little bit. Here is what I noticed that we spent a lot of time, especially in the winter, because we had time to just be indoors together, sitting by the fire that we really, I think, like, let go of a lot of stuff. So that whole we did. You didn't end up touching on it, but lobster, like there's this theory. Well, it's not a theory, but lobsters basically. Do you wanna touch on this? I can, but we'll give them the video of where this came from. You've probably seen it on social media, but it's just the analogy of what lobsters do is. They outgrow their shell and they go and they, you know, sh left off their shell and then they have a new show. And what we felt like is that we had outgrown our shell and the video that were referencing, as you know, if when you feel pain like your in your comfort zone and then you feel pain from growth that most people will go to the doctor when they fill, you know pain. When they're discomfort right, they'll they'll look for a pill or they'll look for something to help them Alcohol, drugs, right? Right. T happen, you know, toe detach from the pain or to check out whatever you want to call it. Um, but if we just go through the pain of changing that, we actually, that's where you know, the the change and the pain secures in the pain, right?

Mikey:   34:57
Pain is the medicine.

Zuri:   34:58
Pain is the medicine. And that that if we air denying that all the time, then we are really growing in the way that we're supposed to, as humans were not involving in the way that we're supposed to. So, you know, we do that with, like, watching TV, whatever. So I feel like moving here. We we had to kind of deal with those changing shells. Um,

Mikey:   35:22
well, let me ask you questions. Who are you able to be now that you were not able to be living in California?

Zuri:   35:33
I felt like I didn't have the ability ability to, um, commit to my true purpose. I felt like there was a lot of noise that I wouldn't again have said when I lived there that there was noise keeping me from being fully in, you know, my space or in my lane are fully available to be successful. I felt that there was noise and clutter in my life that I I wasn't able to fully go there. Whether you know, my song writing career, my singing career, you know, as a recording artists or my lifestyle company, the social media. Like I have my hands and so many things. But there is a lot of noise. I think that external noise that comes from living in a city, that it didn't allow me to fully commit and live my true purpose. And like I said, walk my talk like, I I want to live the most beautiful life. And I want to lead that by example and where currently was living. And there are beautiful places in California. No, dis. I'm sure we'll live there again at some point. Um, even if part time of the year, whatever. But it where we currently were, I couldn't do what I wanted to dio. What about you?

Mikey:   37:03
Well, um I felt like since we have moved here, um, I have been able to heal And, um, and by hell meaning that I didn't, um I no longer have to get used to carrying pain around while doing my creative endeavors, right? I was able to heal for my pain. And now I can just focus on my creative endeavors, which is beautiful. I I highly recommend finding a way of letting go of some of the baggage that we carry on a regular bases. The other one is that it gave us a chance to travel more so they

Zuri:   37:48
have, like, seasonal lives. You don't have a seasonal life if you live in Los Angeles, Really. I mean, maybe the holidays or seasonal, But the rest of your life is like, Go, go, go, go, go,

Mikey:   37:59
go, go, go, go, go, go.

Zuri:   38:01
And, um, you know, if you live on the East Coast, your very close to a large part of the world that we hadn't really explored, So the dream was like, OK, in the winter will explore in trouble. And we have,

Mikey:   38:14
Yeah. I mean, if you want, if you live in l. A and you want to go to Europe, you're gonna stop off in either Boston or 19 year or new work or Philly. You know, one of the East Coast cities Stay for another, You know, our to lay over and then you're off, whereas now

Zuri:   38:32
or your home the plane for, you know, 12 15 13 18 hours, depending on where you're going on,

Mikey:   38:38
you know, Now we have, you know, we are. We're Stone's. Throw away from Europe or California. Like its way we're gonna hit either European wearing the same the

Zuri:   38:50
same. Yep. Yep. So our families not probably crazy about it, I know they often complain about it, but, um, we do. We do spend quite a bit of time in California, too. Um, but, you know, really, I feel like it would be important for us to touch him. Moving is change. And, um, what happens if we don't change? You know, like, I want to touch on that a little bit.

Mikey:   39:16
Yes. Well, change is hard, right? People don't like changing. And, you know, if you're listening to this story yes, it's a wild story. You know, going from east coast to West coast, on the west coast, to east goes right? Yes, total different weather climates and, you know, population density and this and that. And what I'm saying is is change doesn't have to be that drastic change could also be changing out of a bad job out about relationship. Um, you know,

Zuri:   39:51
because it really forced us outside of our comfort zone, which made us grow like you're meant to grow back to the lobster. You know, conversation like you're meant to grow. You're meant to really experience change and go through it so that you aren't stagnant, right?

Mikey:   40:08
Exactly. I mean, if if the caterpillar were so afraid of change, he would never become a butterfly. Yeah. So if you find yourself in a situation where, like, man, I wish I just need to change. Listen, if we could could travel or we could relocate our family. What? How many? 3000 miles over 3000 miles. You can You can change whatever it is going on in your life. It's It's

Zuri:   40:38
It's hard. It's difficult. Poses the question. What's beautiful about adventuring outside of your comfort zone? What? What's been beautiful for you?

Mikey:   40:48
Um, well, this side of the side of the struggle, um, is great. I mean, I look back at some of the things that I was dealing with back in, you know, my home state, and they no longer exist.

Zuri:   41:03
Yeah.

Mikey:   41:04
You know, some of the health things that I was dealing with no longer exist. And, um, you know, you're wearing your environment by mental emotional body spiritual body are so much more tuned in because I have enough time to actually breathe and be happy. So again, change doesn't have to be drastic. But if you know, you need to change

Zuri:   41:30
yet don't hesitate. Yep. And you know, it goes back to Maria Condo. What sparks joy. You know, what do you need to get rid of? Do you need de clutter? How do you need to organize your life so that it really feels delicious and beautiful And, you know, you're thriving, not just surviving. And I saw that a lot around us. Just people kind of like, um, you know, surviving. So, Michael, are you up for game? I'm gonna pretend you said yes. We're gonna play a game called What would have therapists say? Nice. That was, like, impressive eso That's a couch music, right? Yes, I just So, uh, what would a therapist say about us moving to Vermont?

Mikey:   42:23
Um, maybe they would say change is

Zuri:   42:30
good. That's how you got. I don't know. I, like, hasn't been inasmuch therapy, as I have clearly fired all. My third thing clearly didn't work. OK, so, uh, what I think a therapist would say would be like So do you think you might be running for something? Do you know, when you get there, you'll still have the same problems, right?

Mikey:   42:58
You know what? I was actually thinking that, but I wanted to say something positive,

Zuri:   43:03
but doesn't know what a therapist. I

Mikey:   43:07
I'm thinking of a motivation.

Zuri:   43:08
Thank you. Yeah, No therapist. Well, they probably would just sit there and, you know, scroll. Yeah, scribble right while you're paying them a lot of money, swipe. Right. But I think a therapist would say something like that. Or they'd say, um, you know something about our Are you just going Teoh get there and then decide that it was a mistake. You know, maybe you aren't seeing this fully through something like that. Okay? But I just have to tell those therapist that they be wrong because I'm super happy And, um yes. So my I

Mikey:   43:49
grew quite a bit since I've been

Zuri:   43:50
here. Yes, OK.

Mikey:   43:52
Not the belly, but in the

Zuri:   43:54
mind. Just in case you wanted people to know that you weren't growing something in your belly. That's correct. Okay, good. Yeah, that's into that game. Good times. You had this great thing that you said the other day about comfort zone, and I don't know if you wanna end with that.

Mikey:   44:13
I say that comfort zone is really a fancy description of a ditch right comfort zone. I mean, you went you get yourself in a ditch or rut if you want to call it, and, um, it may it may be like I said, Ah, job or ah. Or ah, um, way of thinking or what not. But if you are, if you were so comfy in that zone, you don't have the opportunity to grow. You're not growing. If your if your comfort your only you're only growing If you are uncomfortable. That's that's the love of nature. Yeah. So you put that's like, for instance, if you have you working out, if you're working out, you're stressing your muscle, making your muscle feel uncomfortable, so your muscle strengthens itself. Right? So if you were in your comfort zone, I see it as a ditch and get out.

Zuri:   45:07
Yep. I love it. Well, we hope this inspired you. Teoh make changes in your life that help you walk your talk, help you feel like you're not suffering, cause suffering is what

Mikey:   45:20
suffering is for suckers.

Zuri:   45:23
And we hope that you create your most beautiful life. We obviously air here to help you with that. And, um, you know, if you want to trade your traffic for trees, there are many beautiful places you could do that. We chose Vermont. And, um, we hope this was interesting and fun. And one last little story that I will tell is that we didn't know anything. And I want to share this with you because just for perspective, do you remember it? So it's like November, December and we ran out of fuel oil. We ran out of oil, and we're like, I'm in the shower and in California, everything central air and heat. You don't think about any of that stuff, right? So you have, you know, propane for whatever, like everything's automated. You're paying a couple bills a month and you're not thinking about that. Your homeowner and on the East Coast, where you don't have central air and he that just doesn't exist taking a shower. And I'm like, what? And we have our own Well, so, like, you know, not kind of really don't even know how all of the stuff works in the house. And we hadn't been here that long and wouldn't have hot water. And I'm like, that's weird. We have a huge, um, you know, system downstairs. That's supposed to give us, you know, hot water all the time. Like that's one of the perks of the system. And, um, we go downstairs and were like, looking at everything, and I can't figure it out. And then it occurs to us that how the water is heated is through a boiler, which I didn't even know what that was. I had to google it mean, So we really didn't know crap. Like, you know, we didn't know whatever. We didn't know shit. And we were really like the very comical neighbors you know to have. You are our neighbors make fun of us on the rag. And and I I laughed with them because I just didn't know anything. Like, you know why we have oil that heats up the water that goes leads up the like boiler and like, Well, we have propane, like I didn't know any of that stuff. And that's not because I'm not intelligent. I just didn't grow up that way. I didn't grow up with that type of system. So, you know, it's middle of winter. We don't have any oil, and the oil is heating a section of our house. You know that I wasn't even aware of what our water to include our water and to include the, you know, our first level of the three. And so I didn't know that I didn't know, you know, and we laughed and our neighbor laughed at us. And, you know, the people who came and delivered oil laughter, that us kind of. But they, you know, were slipping down our driveway because we live on top of a mountain. So, like, let me just say that Be brave, like be, you know, be the village idiot. No, just getting were not the village idiot, But our neighbour does call us like you know, we stick out. You know, we we aren't necessarily the norm around here. Absolutely s so much so that he tells his friends when they ask about us that were in the witness protection program? Because we look so you know, whatever a city, um, and I don't care. I think it's funny. And I just embrace that. Hey, we came here to adventure, and we're adventuring. And if that means that we make some really dumb mistakes, you know, um then who cares? Like this is like, it's made us grow so much and have a huge smile on my face Just thinking about all the funny things we could talk for hours about him. But I just want to leave you with that. Let last, you know, like, be brave

Mikey:   49:21
and be able to laugh at yourself.

Zuri:   49:23
Yeah. Yep. And have fun and love your most beautiful life.

Mikey:   49:30
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Zuri:   49:41
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