Jason Wrobel’s Thoughts On Relocation Astrology

 

Moving is one of the most exciting yet tedious things to do, especially when picking a place to settle into. And with Jason Wrobel finally planning to move, he tries relocation astrology to understand better where his energy directs him. He discusses the places he is considering and feels the most attuned to, what he loves about each one, and what astrocartography has to say about his choices. Meanwhile, Whitney Lauritsen shares her thoughts about Jason’s picks and challenges his decision to move away from Los Angeles.

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Jason Wrobel’s Thoughts On Relocation Astrology

Over the course of this show, I have dropped a lot of teasers, not spoiler alerts. If you’re a longtime reader, this may be something that you are like, “I remember they’ve talked about this.” If you’re a first-time reader, then this is all new to you. Welcome to the show. The thing that I’m alluding to is my ever-growing desire to leave Los Angeles after I’ve lived here for many years. It’s something that I’ve spoken about to Whitney, my mom, my mentor, Michael, the key people that we’ve sprinkled about this show, and the most important people in my life. Back in October of 2020, I scheduled something called an astrocartography reading. From a macro perspective, I’m into astrology, but not super deep in it.  

I don’t get very much past what’s your sun sign, rising and moon sign. My understanding of astrology in general is not something that’s super-advanced. Although, I find it fascinating when people go deep, riff on it, and are advanced at being able to interpret your natal chart. The way that I can try to best describe what astrocartography reading is the means of reading one’s astrological chart. We’re talking about Western astrology. There are different kinds of astrology. There’s Vedic Astrology. I’ve never had my Vedic chart read. We’re talking about the more traditional Western astrology, where you take your birth chart. You look at the lines of where the planets and different astrological bodies were intersecting on the earth at the time of your birth.  

I’m going to go a little deeper into astrocartography. When you get your chart read, you submit the city where you were born, the exact time you were born, mine was 7:55 AM, and the time zone you were born. It pulls up this chart and then they transpose where your sun, moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, and all the major planets. They also look at where other astrological bodies like comets were passing by during the time of your birth. You can get a free chart. When I got started with this process, I went to Astro.com. If you type in the search box and put in astrocartography, you can plug in all of your information and it brings up an entire map of the globe where you can see where there are some interesting intersections like where there’s the sun and moon crossing, or perhaps a Jupiter and Neptune crossing. My interpretation of this is rudimentary at best, which is why I went ahead and found someone to do an astrocartography reading for myself and also my partner, Laura. Fascinating stuff came up and some unexpected places.

The purpose of doing this is I’ve been thinking about leaving Los Angeles and wondering, where should I go? I’ve been here many years and it feels like home, but I’m ready for a change. I’ve joked that it’s become a cliché how many Angelenos and New Yorkers are moving to Austin, Texas. I wonder if there are any Austinites or Texans reading this. If they want to chime in the comments for this episode or even send us a DM. It’s fascinating to me how many people are moving to Texas, specifically Austin. With this astrocartography reading, it was saying, “I want to know where are there harmonious aspects? Are there any crossings and intersections that are particularly potent in terms of creativity, community, career success, and conversely, where are some places we should avoid?”

There’s some wild shit that came up in here like stuff that I was like, “That makes sense. I’ve always been drawn to that particular place.” There were a few of those, but then there were others I was like, “I’ve never considered moving there in my life.” I’m curious to investigate a couple of these places that were at least out of the left-field for me like, “I never ever considered that place.” The reason that I wanted to do it with my partner, Laura, is my hope and intention that we continue to move forward in our relationship. I want to investigate not only the places on the planet that might be harmonious for me in different aspects, but also to see if there was any overlap for her, or conversely, if there was a place that was amazing for me but totally shit for her. It was a dual motivation in doing this. I’ve had a regular chart reading in the past, but I’d never gone super deep into astrocartography. I’ve got some interesting notes and I want to go through them. One place that both of us were feeling super drawn to is the Pacific Northwest. I’ve always felt a lovely, natural, grounded, and fresh energy up in Oregon and Washington. There’s something super unique about the lay of the land, the climate, and how lush the forests are there. It always feels calm, grounded and peaceful when I’m in Oregon and Washington. Laura loves that place too. She’s like, “Tell us about the Pacific Northwest.” It is full of community connections and food nourishment on multiple levels, and good for visibility professionally. That can mean a variety of things because I am shifting my focus away from food and chef exclusively to other things. Visibility professionally can mean a variety of different things. In the Pacific Northwest, the specific place he said where there are tons of energetic mojo was Vancouver Island. I’ve always wanted to go to Vancouver. I never considered Vancouver Island, but at the Western tip of that island which is Nanaimo, there’s a shit ton of positive energy.  

Isn’t that where Paul Jarvis lives and Dave Asprey?

I know Paul does. I don’t know if Dave Asprey lives there. I thought Dave lived in Seattle. Am I missing something? Did Dave drop that bomb before and I missed it?  

I could be getting him confused with somebody similar to Dave Asprey but I feel like that’s what Paul said.

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There are a few people we know that already live there. We have a great episode speaking of Paul Jarvis. He was a guest in a previous episode.

I looked it up and as of 2018, there are some articles that reference him living on Vancouver Island.

The excitement of investigating this was palpable because it was a left-field thing during this reading like, “Exotic, interesting, Vancouver Island.” At the time that we are recording and releasing this show, it is not easy to get to Canada from the US. There are a lot of restrictions at the border. As we go into 2021, those will be lifted depending on what happens with vaccinations and the lifting of restrictions. It’s one of those things that’s a little bit in the future in terms of travel because I want to go and investigate, I want to vibe out, I would love to see Paul, maybe knock on Dave’s door and be like, “Let’s make a smoothie.” Any Canadian travel is going to have to wait.  

The most potent place that we found during this reading for both of us was Vancouver Island. The guy who did the reading was over the moon about it. He’s like, “You guys got to check it out. You have to go there. There’s so much good energy there.” He said there are positive energy, unconditional love, and a massive Jupiter influence for us there. That’s at the top of the list. There’s a building energy, grounded energy, home life is strong, and connection to animals which is great. I would like to invite a few goats and maybe a pig into my life. There were a lot of things that I was scratching my chin like, “That’s an interesting choice.”

The other place that popped out at the top of the list of having good mojo is the Big Island in Hawaii. I’ve only been to Maui and Kauai. I liked Kauai a lot. That’s where one of our mutual good friends Ele Keats lives. On the Big Island, there’s a strong magnetic attraction of attracting people with strong personalities. It’s a center of growth, bounty and deep spiritual work. There’s a strong Pluto connection, which leads to major personal growth and a deeper sense of spirituality. It’s one of those things of like, “I definitely want to book some travel time to investigate the Big Island.” I’ve always wanted to go anyway. It’s one of those things I would like to investigate and visit all of the Hawaiian Islands.

I suppose the Big Island is a good place to make that reconnection with Hawaiian culture. I write down notes sometimes so quickly that in moments it’s difficult to read my own writing. I need to slow down when I do note-taking, but I get excited that I don’t want to miss anything. I’m having trouble reinterpreting my own notes at this moment. Another interesting one is I am obsessed with Japanese culture. My favorite cuisine of all time is Japanese food. I love the design aesthetics of the way Japanese artists design their knives, cars and artworks. There’s wonderful wabi-sabi aesthetic to a lot of artistry and creations in Japan that I resonate with. I wonder sometimes if in a past life I was Japanese or lived in Japan because I feel such a strong connection to it.

I brought up Japan during this reading. He was saying that there are specific places in Japan that as a country or island, it’s not like you just move to Japan and you’ll be great. He said that specifically in Sapporo Japan and Hakodate, there’s a warm, natural, pure energy, a powerful sense of aesthetics, lots of yummy energy and food. He said, “You’ve got to go to Sapporo, Hakodate, and Kyoto,” which is another city where I’ve always wanted to go to. He said that there’s a strong Neptune influence, which leads to a lot of magic and a feeling of home.

It’s funny because I’m getting this reading done and I’m furiously scrambling to write all these notes down. I’m thinking, “I need to set a travel budget aside,” because these are not places that are necessary all that close. Japan is a long plane ride. Although Big Island and Vancouver Island aren’t too far away. As I’m reading through this, I’m like, “Damn. I’ve got to set aside a travel budget for 2021.” For shits and giggles, I was like, “Let’s look at some of my lineages. Let’s look at Eastern Europe specifically Poland.” I also noticed in the chart that there were some funky, weird, and interesting intersections in Russia. I said, “What about Poland because that’s my mom’s side of the family? What about Russia because there seems to be some activity there?” He said, “You don’t want to relocate to Russia or Poland.” I said, “Why?” He said, “There’s a lot of trauma there in your family lineage. You could deal with it but you’re already dealing with enough lineage stuff as we all are. I don’t think Eastern Europe would be a wise decision. It’s going to be painful for you if you decide to relocate to Poland.”

 

That’s interesting.

He was super adamant about, “Don’t go to your birthplaces. In Puerto Rico too, there’s some heavy energy there for you with your lineage. I don’t recommend you go there unless you want to be focused exclusively on doing lineage healing.” If I’m going to relocate from LA, I don’t want to go to a place where there’s that amount of heavy lineage cleaning to do because I’m already focusing on healing and a lot of stuff around my dad and that side of the family. He was like, “You can visit but don’t relocate to Eastern Europe. It would be a bad idea.” There are some interesting things that popped out that I did not expect in this reading.  

I was excited about Vancouver Island, Big Island, and Japan. He then busts out, “Have you ever been to South Korea?” I said, “No, but when I see videos of Seoul, it looks like a cool city.” Although it hasn’t been in that same echelon for me as the kind of magnetism I feel when I think about Japan. He said, “Specifically in the Southern tip of South Korea, there’s a feeling of home for you. It’s similar to Japan but different. There’s going to be a strong creative community for you.” South Korea has never been on my list, but interestingly, the day before this astrocartography reading, I was watching a Netflix series and Laura was like, “You’ve got to watch this food series. This guy from New Jersey travels around the world and meets people in different cultures and tries their cuisine.” It’s like Anthony Bourdain’s style. The episode was about South Korea. The music scene feels cool. Seoul feels like a vibrant city. It seems like they have a lot of interesting plant-based food there. The next day he’s like, “You need to check out South Korea,” which I thought was interesting serendipity. You always laugh because you know what my face looks like when I do this. I’m like, “I don’t know about this.”

It’s like the emoji with the teeth-baring.

I have my version of that teeth-baring emoji. These were two that I was like, “Are you sure?” He’s like, “You should check it out.” I was like, “Go ahead. Tell me.” He’s like, “Virginia.”  

Why do you say it like that? I don’t have a negative mindset on Virginia. I stayed in West Virginia on my road trip and it was lovely. A hurricane was happening when I was on that part of my road trip, but it cleared up by the next day. It was incredibly beautiful where I was staying.

Would it be a place you would consider relocating to? Traveling through, enjoying the natural beauty, and community is one thing. Would it be a part of the country where you’re like, “I could see myself moving there?”  

It’s hard to say because I struggle with this too. I’m still attached to Los Angeles or being in a bigger city, but 2020 has changed so much that I don’t know if I would miss being in a city that much. I don’t know. This is another part of the equation. The difference between being somewhere temporary versus somewhere long-term, that’s my big struggle if I was ever going to leave Los Angeles. I’m sure the word ever is probably not the best word here because I don’t intend on staying in Los Angeles the rest of my life, but I do enjoy a lot of it. I remember when I was doing that trip and away from LA for two months, I felt a little nervous about coming back, and I wondered how I would feel.

2020 has reminded people that everything is always unpredictable. Click To Tweet

The same thing happened that happens to me every time I’ve left Los Angeles for an extended amount of time, which is I come back and I immediately reintegrate. I’m like, “This is the city.” I don’t come here and I think, “I can’t believe I live here.” I never feel that way about LA. The only time in my history of living in Los Angeles that I felt that was when I moved to San Francisco for a year. I was contemplating living in New York City. This is in 2010. I wanted to move to New York City because it had always been a dream of mine. It makes me a little sad thinking about it because back then I was thinking of leaving my car at my grandparent’s home in New Jersey. It was sweet because my grandparents were incredibly supportive. I didn’t want to get rid of my car and I was thinking like, “Where would I put my car if I moved there?”

My grandparents lived an hour outside of New York City. We had this temporary plan that I would park it in their driveway and I can come back and visit them and use my car whenever. That never happened. Instead, I moved to San Francisco because I started dating the guy that lived there. After doing seven months of long-distance, then I moved there. That was the only time that I wanted to leave. I remember, Jason, cut to 2012, I came back to LA because you and I started dating. That was a big push for me. That wasn’t the only reason. I’d already been considering it, but then you and I got interested in each other, so I made that decision that it was a good time to move back here.

I remember coming back to LA after that extended period of time away and feeling excited. As much as I love San Francisco, it wasn’t a fit for me. What I kept thinking about when I was there from 2011 to 2012, I was like, “This is a great city,” but it’s not a fit for me and it felt too slow. To answer your question about Virginia, if San Francisco felt slow to me, I can’t imagine living outside of any major city but that was several years ago when I was living there. That was my only experience moving away from Los Angeles and it didn’t last that long. I’m curious for you because you talked about it so much that if you feel similarly, LA is constantly changing just like any city is. It’s tricky when you’re used to being in this type of environment. There are drawbacks to being here. There are times I get aggravated by the hustle and bustle. It’s nice to leave, explore nature, and all of that. At a certain point, I start to yearn for more of that experience of having so much access.

A great example of that is I was messaging a friend of mine. Two friends have raved about Grocery Outlet, which is a store I haven’t been to in a long time. For the readers, if you have a Grocery Outlet in your area, which is most of the West Coast, a few spots, and other parts of the country. It’s such a great store. I’m amused in less than 24 hours by two big conversations with Grocery Outlet lover friends of mine. I’m like, “I’d love to go to Grocery Outlet but it’s far away.” It’s 5 miles away from me. I’m like, “That’s so far.” I don’t know if I could live somewhere where a vegan restaurant or a favorite grocery store is that far away from me. To your point, would Virginia be a good fit for the long-term? I’m sure you’ll find other things, but do you want to live in an area where you don’t have access to restaurants, grocery stores, and things like that? I’m genuinely asking you. How would you feel about that long-term?

My desires are changing as I go on in the sense that maybe 2020 has in many ways forced us to get creative, not just in doing this show remotely because, in the beginning, we were doing this exclusively in person. Whitney and I would only record episodes in our studio and have guests over the studio. In the framework of pivoting or adjusting to these changes, I miss concerts and going out to dinner with a large group of friends. You and I were doing this with a group at Pura Vida semi-regularly. We go out and have a meal.  

I miss certain things but at the same time, I’ve learned to live without them. The question that keeps coming up for me is, why am I staying in LA? For most of the time I’ve been here, it’s been clear that the benefits of being here, or at least my reasons for being here outweighed the irritations or the frustrations that I would feel. That’s flipped because the cost of living of being what it is here for me, the traffic, the density, the air quality, and all the wildfires, I don’t want to harangue all the challenges of being in Southern California. We know what they are. It’s a wonderful place but it’s also has a ton of challenges.  

In my mind, the advantages or the mental benefits for me of being here have decreased while the things that harangue me feel like they’ve increased. When you take away the concerts, the music scene, the ability to go out to eat with friends, the gatherings and the clubs, you take away a lot of the aspects that make Los Angeles interesting to live in. It’s been so much less interesting to be here when those things aren’t available. Those are some of the things that I love about being here and having access to. Now that they’re completely off the table and have been off the table for several months, I’m like, “I’ll go live in the woods then. Bye.”  

To your point, maybe I would move to Vancouver Island, live in nature, and be hankering or wanting to have the city experience. My vision is that I want to be more in nature and away from a city, but not so far away from where it’s like, “Do you want to go out to eat? Buckle up. It’s going to take an hour.” I don’t want to necessarily drive an hour to go out to eat whenever that becomes available again. I also know that having been in big cities most of my whole life like Detroit, Chicago, New York, Bay Area, and LA, I feel like I’m burnt on cities. You and I are in totally different mental space in that regard where you’re like, “I’m back in the LA groove,” and you’re feeling it. I’m like, “I’m ready to go and I’ve been ready to go.”

 

The only reason I haven’t left yet is I’m not clear yet about where I want to go. Hence, this astrocartography reading, which I want to consult with someone who can give me a little deeper insight into maybe where there’s some interesting energy for me. I have been to Virginia and West Virginia. I thought both of them were beautiful, but it wasn’t an energy of, “I need to move here.” I remember when I was doing the Wanderlust Tour in 2017, and one of the venues that I got booked to speak at was in West Virginia.

The way that they were structuring the Wanderlust Tour at that time is they didn’t have shuttles or vans that would pick you up from the airport. They would reimburse you for a rental car and you would drive from the Virginia airport to the destination. It was a 2.5-hour drive. I got to see a lot of rural Virginia and West Virginia on that trip. It’s gorgeous and beautiful but not my flavor. When he said Virginia, I head scratch like, “Maybe I haven’t seen the right places in West Virginia.” He said, “Look at Blacksburg and look at the Blue Ridge Mountains.” I thought, “I’ve never been to the Blue Ridge Mountains.”  

I drove through there. I didn’t talk to you about this, but that was a part of my journey from West Virginia down to the Asheville, North Carolina area, which is another area I could see you living in. Did you have or have never been to Asheville?

I’ve only been to Charlotte.  

Asheville is nice and I loved being there. I was so excited to go back there because I visited my mother’s cousin who I hadn’t seen since I went to Asheville for the first time on a business trip in 2014 or 2015. I had dreamed of going back there. When I did my road trip, I thought, “I’ve got to go back. I’ll go a little off of my route. Coincidentally, my mom’s cousin was able to meet me and I kept in her driveway in my Tesla. Before I camped overnight, we met up in this tiny town outside of Asheville. I didn’t end up going into the downtown Asheville area, which was fine because I liked going somewhere else.

It was the sweetest little town, and being there made me feel so at ease. There were tons of vegan options at the restaurants. There are great little stores, and it was sweet energy. To come back to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I had seen them on a map and read about them in some must-see places for road trips. It wasn’t quite in-your-face amazing as I thought it was going to be, but it was great timing because it was fall. There were few cars on the road. I don’t know if it was the time of year or because of COVID. I was the only car for stretches, and it was at least four hours of this part of the drive. I didn’t even do the entire thing.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are remote. It depends where you would live. It’s the middle of nowhere. I would say looking somewhere at the Blue Ridge Mountains where they come close to Asheville. I don’t know if they end there or not, but the end or the beginning, depending on your perspective is somewhere around Asheville. It’s a very feel-good part of the country. After doing my drive, I got to see so much of the country and feel it out energetically. Out of all the places I went, that was one of the areas that I felt the most at peace and comforted. Comfort is a good way to describe that part of the country for me.

Asheville has been on my list for so long simply because I’ve heard of the great food, the co-ops there, and the independent musicians, and that is beautiful. We have two friends, Jay and Joy, who have a cool brand called the JingSlingers who have relocated to Asheville. I haven’t caught up with them in a while and I’ve been meaning to. They’re a set of friends that I would love to visit. We have some friends scattered across the country in different parts. If anything 2020 has taught us, it’s we don’t know shit. We don’t know what’s going to happen. I would like to set a gentle aim and intention to have 2021 be a year of very intentional travel, going to specific places and knowing exactly why I’m going, and going there for a specific reason.  

What keeps someone in a certain place most of the time is the people and the community. Click To Tweet

Some other places, Whitney, I’m curious if you stopped and if you want to jump in at any point of any of these other places. I gave the astrocartographer a cornucopia of a venerable plethora of places. There are a lot of places you and I have been on our road trips and places I’ve been by myself. I was always curious, going back to this conversation of it’s nice to visit, but what if I thought about living there? Nashville is a place that’s been coming up a lot because one of our previous guests and good friends, James Kyson moved there with his wife and his family. He loves Nashville. He’s raving about Nashville. I know there were a lot of Detroiters and people from the music scene when I played in Detroit who have relocated to Nashville because the music scene is strong there. I’ve heard the cuisine and the people are great, and the weather. I put Nashville on the list and he’s like, “It’s unsteady for you. It’s going to be similar energy to Detroit,” which I thought was interesting based on the sheer number of people from Detroit that I know that have relocated to Nashville. The energy in Nashville is similar to Detroit in certain ways. Maybe that’s why Detroiters are drawn there. He’s like, “Don’t go to Nashville. Visit but don’t live there.”  

I don’t have any major experience in Nashville. I drove right through it on my way to Memphis. I was surprised because I have been hearing a lot about Nashville over the years and never felt super drawn to go there. It’s because it’s music-oriented and that’s not my focus. It sounds cool from a creative standpoint. It would be neat, especially for you, Jason, given that you have so much passion for music, but then the problem is it’s like LA in a lot of sense where if you work in the entertainment industry, it feels like you’re a small fish in a big pond. Energetically, that might be challenging. On the other hand, you’re connected to many incredible people. There are opportunities left and right to collaborate, learn, and to stretch yourself. In terms of the energy from photos and social media posts, Nashville feels cool and appealing to me, but when I drove through it, it felt incredibly hectic. Granted I was on the highway, but me being very sensitive energetically, I distinctly remember being like, “I cannot wait to get away from this area.”

It was so intense. It was one of the few places where I felt uncomfortable driving. I did not expect to feel that way. I’m not going to make a whole assessment of Nashville based on that twenty minutes experience I had. It’s still something to pay attention to if you’re sensitive to something versus other areas I drove through and it was a breeze, and it felt nice. It also surprised me. I thought maybe driving through it wouldn’t feel that way. I perceive Nashville as feeling a little bit gentler, but the energy did feel like Detroit. That makes sense. It felt like any other major city. With that said, given that you have lived in Detroit, Los Angeles and neither feel like a fit, then I could see why Nashville wouldn’t feel fit for you in that sense.

Speaking of not being a fit. I did bring up Texas. I know I’ve joked about it, and keep joking about it. I do because it’s becoming so cliché. No disrespect to any of our friends. We have had many friends, acquaintances, and associates that have moved on. Your choice is your choice. It’s almost becoming a meme how many people are going to Austin and Dallas specifically. I digress. I said, “For shits and giggles again, let’s look at Austin.” I also noticed on my chart that there was some interesting stuff around Fort Worth. He said, “There’s a lot of rage there for you.” He used that word specifically. He said, “You’re going to feel a lot of aggression there. Your instincts about not going there even though there are different reasons because you see many people moving there. Your intuition is spot on because there’s going to be a lot of angry, rage, and aggressive energy there for you.”

I had a different experience in Austin when I was there on this road trip versus other times I had been to Austin. It changed my opinion of it a bit. First of all, energetically driving into Austin, I got there late at night, so it was fine when I drove in there. I did drive around various parts of Austin that I’d never been to before. It’s a lot bigger than I always perceived it in the past. Talk about intense energy on the highways, there are a lot of people there. It felt big, which was not what I was expecting. On the other hand, I did spend time in areas that are technically part of Austin, but not in the downtown. I didn’t even know those places existed and they were cool.

I didn’t feel any desire to move there after spending two and a half days there, and after going there on previous trips. I’m still perplexed as to why many people are moving there. I don’t understand the draw either. That hectic energy with lots of people there, I could see how that would give you some rage too. I don’t know what would appeal to you about living in Austin. I don’t know what that would benefit you. How would that be that different from LA, given many people from LA are moving there? You’re going to have a lot of that same human being energy. The weather is intense at times and I don’t think you would like that, especially the heat. That would drive you crazy. I could see how you get a little rage from living there and maybe annoyed. I don’t know if you want to live somewhere that’s cliché.

I don’t want to live somewhere that’s cliché. This whole conversation of visiting a place and resonating with it versus living there is a quantum leap. The two times that I’ve been to Austin, once was back in 2015 when you and I did the Vita Vegan Con. I loved that trip. That was a fun road trip.

I forgot you drove out there with our friends, Jeff and Vince. I flew out there, but I do agree that that trip was fun. I loved that experience of Austin that time around.

 

It was like, “I like the vibe here.” I remember us walking a lot, investigating downtown, all the live music, the great vegan food, and the community. I went back again in 2019 because I had the blessing and it was amazing to get invited to speak on a panel at South by Southwest. I’d never been to South by Southwest. When I was playing in bands years ago, it was one of my dreams to be an artist at South by Southwest. It happened differently. It didn’t happen through music. It happened through wellness. It was a pseudo dream come true in the sense of, “I’m finally making it to South by Southwest and I’m going to be a speaker here.” It was a magical experience. Being there for South by Southwest, the number of bands and musicians blew my mind. Even people on the street that would set up outside of a bar. I remember thinking, “How are there many good musicians here? It was incredible.”

The food was mind-blowing. I stayed in a tiny house while I was there and I got to be in Austin for nine days. In that time, I took big chunks out of the city, in the sense of trying new things, meeting people, making new contacts in the wellness industry and the music industry. I thought, “This is a phenomenal place.” I had a deeper experience of Austin than I had back in 2015 when we went there. I started thinking, “The music and food scene here is huge.” Some of the restaurants were unbelievable. We have colleagues there. The cost of living was much lower. Angelenos are going to change that shit as they do.

There’s a great tiny house scene there. I thought, “Music, food, community, and tiny houses, maybe I’ll do Austin,” but it shifted in the sense that there are many fucking Angelenos and New Yorkers moving there. It’s going to change it, it’s going to, it has to because the flavor of Austin and what makes Austin unique and weird is going to change with that many people going. If the flavor of Austin was kept intact, that would be one thing. I’m hedging my bets and saying with that many New Yorkers and Angeleno’s moving there, it’s going to change things. For the better or for the worse, who knows?  

One thing that would be appealing for you and one of the reasons one of my good friends moved there is the pricing. You can get so much bang for your buck there. That could drastically change due to all the people moving there. It was challenging for my friend to even find a property to buy and build a house because it was being bought up quickly. They were fortunate, she and her husband, to find an amazing place to build a home. They get to construct it from scratch. The cost of that home, including the property, is going to be about the same price as their home outside of Los Angeles, but they get to do it completely custom made and much larger.

To them, that was a huge perk of it. One of the things that you often complain about with LA is the cost of living. It’s true with New York, San Francisco, and a lot of those cities where it’s expensive to have the quality of life that you want versus a city like Austin, you get a lot more. I still think it’s worth considering, but I also agree with you that it might take some time to even know if that’s a place that you want to be, and where are you going to go in the meantime? Do you weigh it out in Los Angeles?

This brings me back to still being unsure about why you want to leave LA so badly. That still feels a bit unclear to me. Now that we’re going through all these different places that you could live and weighing all of them out. If you’re trading LA for Austin, you’ll get more bang for your buck in terms of where you live but if the people are similar, there are similar types of restaurants, and all this other stuff, it’s like my friends say, “There are two main difference between Austin and LA. The positive difference is less money, but the negative difference is that you’re not by the beach.” Other than that, from what I’ve heard, that’s like how you would describe Austin versus LA. I wonder, are you okay with that trade-off? If those are a wash for you, what’s the big draw in moving away from LA?

I’m not seriously considering Austin for the reasons I mentioned, but it is interesting getting that pragmatic feedback of, “It’s less expensive but we don’t have the ocean.” Fair enough. It’s that I could justify the cost of living here just like I justified the cost of living when I lived in New York, Chicago, and the Bay Area. Other than growing up in Detroit, which is still incredibly affordable, I have chosen to live in some of the most expensive cities, not just in the US but in the world. I know that for me, at least in the past, I was willing to do that because of the desire to find connections to have a TV show, be more in entertainment, build my brand, and boost my career.  

It felt like living in Chicago, New York, Bay Area, and LA were the places to build those resources, connections, and experiences when I was in my 20s and 30s. I’m 43, and I feel like my priorities are shifting. I don’t necessarily see any stopping technology and digital media being decentralized the way that it is now in the sense of having virtual auditions and making money by posting content on social media. You and I finally figure out that we can do this show in some ways more efficiently and remotely than we did in person. It comes down to me asking, are my reasons for being in LA justifying the cost of living here? In the past, it was absolutely, that’s why I stayed. I don’t think that that’s the case for me anymore. I’m not pursuing an acting career. Although it’s nice that I book a few commercials a year, that’s cool, but I’m not hardcore focused on it.

It takes time to meet people. Click To Tweet

I’m not hardcore focused on getting another TV series. If I look at my income and I look at the revenue generation, a very slim margin is dependent on physically being in LA. What keeps me here? The familiarity and my community. The group of friends and people that I love like family here are what keep me here. I have different goals now. I want to buy a property, have land, grow my own food, have a homestead that I’m going to set down roots in. Pragmatism being what it is, I was hoping that COVID was going to tank the market in LA, but it’s done the opposite.  

I was reading in LA Times that the median home price in Los Angeles County is over $700,000 for the first time in history. The way that economics are going, that’s a sizable down payment. That’s a super sizable monthly mortgage. A baseline of $700,000 is no joke. For some people, it might not be. For me, that’s not a realistic proposition. It may not be a realistic proposition. Even if I had the money, would I want to spend $700,000, $800,000, $900,000 on a two-bedroom in Silver Lake? Whereas like you’re saying your friends in Austin, I could take that same $700,000 and get acreage somewhere, land and have multiple structures. It’s a whole different ball game. What I’m saying is the price of living here, not to mention the 13.8% personal income tax. I’ve mentioned the fact that I get taxed four times here, economically, it’s making less and less sense for me to be here. It’s that simple and that pragmatic.  

Investigating places as we go down this line talking about Texas and Nashville, there are a few others that you’ll be like, “That makes sense.” There’s one other dark horse that I was like, “I think a road trip is an order.” The other obvious ones that you might shake your head at is Colorado. Every time I’ve been to Colorado, I feel like it is a breath of fresh air literally and metaphorically. There’s something about the water, air and the energy of Colorado. Not even the major places like Denver or even Boulder, but driving through Colorado, which you and I did a couple of years ago on our road trip. It was like, “This feels good being here.” There’s something refreshing about the energy in Colorado.  

I asked the astrocartography about it. He said, “It’s decent. There’s a strong Neptune line that runs through, which means that if you go to Colorado, it’s going to influence your ideals. It’s going to strengthen your sense of ideals that you have in your life. You may have high magical experiences,” that doesn’t mean on drugs. He said. “There’s going to be potentially magical experiences there. It’s going to amplify you chasing things.” I said, “What do you mean amplify chasing things?” He said, “If you’re trying to disengage your ego from chasing material things, Colorado will amplify your desire to chase material things,” which I thought was interesting. The other place that was right on is Northern California.  

Let’s go back to Colorado. In 2020, especially during and after my road trip, I was reflecting on like, “Out of all the places I’ve gone, where could I see myself living?” That was part of the draw to doing a cross-country trip. I’m always fascinated to see if my heart is being pulled to a new place, and Colorado was definitely the place that activated me the most. I’m not sure that I would want to live someplace with snow again. You and I have both gone through that in our lives. It’s not super pleasant to me, but the places that I would live would probably be Boulder, Denver or someplace around there.

It doesn’t seem like the snow is as big of a deal as it is in Chicago, Detroit or Massachusetts, and places that we’ve lived. Maybe that’s not as big of a deal. Denver and Boulder both have a lot of the things that you and I enjoy about cities like Los Angeles. There are great people there and there’s access to all sorts of restaurants, grocery stores, and all that stuff that we like food-wise. You have the benefit of nature and it feels like a slower place. A lot of the things that I’ve enjoyed about cities like Austin, Portland and San Francisco. A lot of them, I felt in those areas. It doesn’t quite have the hectic feeling of Los Angeles or New York City. I’d be thrilled if you chose Colorado. That’s a place that I could see myself moving to and being a little bit pulled there.

That is an important thing to note. It didn’t occur to me quite strongly until this last road trip. I remember when you and I drove through those areas on our 2019 road trip. This 2020, I was excited to drive through the highway that brings you through the mountains in Colorado. There’s this beautiful moment when you come out of Utah, you go into Colorado, and suddenly the trees change. It’s still magnificent like Utah is, and getting a slightly different way. Do you remember those towns that we drove through when we were taking the Tesla to go charging? One of our favorite charge stops was one that had the hiking trail and the little garden that you could walk through.

It was like, “How is this a charging station?” It was magical. I went back there on this road trip and it was exactly like I remembered it. The hot springs. Do you remember that sweet little town where we had the best water of our entire road trip when we couldn’t get over how great the water was? We had so much fun in Boulder, Denver, Red Rocks. All those places are magical and they have been time and time again. That is something to pay attention to. It’s interesting if this conflicts with some of the recommendations that you’re getting.

 

It does in the sense that I mentioned there was a contrast between my chart and Laura, my partner’s chart. Whereas Colorado looks favorable to me, except for the stickiness of chasing material things. For her, it was unstable energy. It’s exciting but not stable and that she would potentially have trouble in her profession and finding grounding energy there. For you dear readers, if this is piquing your curiosity and you have a partner, boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other, it could be interesting to do this jointly and see what comes up.  

Do you feel at this stage in your relationship with Laura that you want to base where you move on her? Especially if this might be a long-term decision for you because you guys have been together for less than a year, you’re not engaged, and you’re not living together. Does it make sense for you to make a decision based on being perfect for her? It’s nice, but for you at this stage, given your relationship status, maybe you need to make a decision on your own, or am I wrong on this? What if you move somewhere with her, you broke up, and now you’re like, “I have a one-year lease, I need to stay, or she’s got to stay?”

To be honest with you, I haven’t thought that far ahead because what I’m trying to do is get clear about what’s super resonant for me. I mentioned that there’s one final secret place that I was like, “Interesting.” If I take this list and this reading, not as gospel. It’s not like astrocartography and Western astrology is the gospel. Some people believe that it is. I’m not that heavily invested in it. I did this more out of curiosity to see if the places that I resonate with on a gut level were reflected in this reading. For Laura too to see like, “Are any places that you feel on a gut level attracted to resonant for you?”  

Colorado is a place that I feel there’s some interesting energy and there’s a magnetism there. When I wanted to move to New York, I was clear I wanted to move to New York. When I moved to Chicago, it was like, “I’m moving to Chicago.” When I moved to LA, “I’m moving to LA. I don’t give a shit that’s where I’m going.” I know that wherever I’m going next and if we do go together, it’s going to be this energy of like, “We’ve got to trust our guts.” No matter what this says or the experts say, our personal intuition has to be the thing for me at least that I listened to. The places that I have felt super juicy were Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

I mentioned Canada and Vancouver Island being a real major power center. That remains to be seen. I got to travel there but the places I have traveled to for some reason like the Pacific Northwest feels super good to me, being close to the ocean, having a ton of nature, lower cost of living, and being close to Canada. Is it chill for you there? Sure. Is it massive crazy snow? No. On a gut level, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest so far are the places where I’m like, “Yum.” I briefly texted you that two of our closest friends, Michael and Ariana, who live in Philadelphia were like, “You’ve got to move to Philly. There’s this house for sale on our block and it’s amazing.” I love Philadelphia. I don’t know if I would live there. I have to spend more time there but whenever I’ve been to Philadelphia or you and I have been on our trips to the Natural Products Expo, I dig Philly. As far as an East Coast city, Philly is dope.

I love the experience that I’ve had and I’ve always been a bit surprised by that because Philly wasn’t an area that I thought to go to much until I was introduced to Mike and Ari through you. We’re going to be naturally brought there assuming the Natural Products Expo still continues. It is completely shut down. Thanks to the pandemic. I believe it’s still on track for continuing. The intention is for it to be in Philadelphia once a year. I’d be thrilled, but who knows when that’s going to happen again. It’s not like you can wait around for that moment. Philly does combine the best of all East Coast cities. It feels a bit like New York, Boston, Baltimore, and all these places that we love combined into one place.

You’ve got some incredible people there. That is one of the keys is thinking about who lives where. I know you are into the Pacific Northwest. You’ve talked about that a ton. I hear that Vancouver is incredible. That’s one place I have never been that I’m eager to go to. I kick myself for the opportunities I’ve missed to go there. There’s something about it energetically that I’m like, “I want to go there badly.” I’ve been to Portland a few times and Seattle twice, neither one of those cities calls to me. I feel strongly for some reason about you not moving to Portland. For some reason, I get this intense intuition. You would go there and maybe you’d be depressed.

That’s another question, do you know anyone in Portland that you feel super close to like you do with Mike and Ari in Philly, Jay and Joy in Asheville, or maybe some people in Austin? Having close people is important to you. You’re an extroverted person. Once you’re able to socialize more, that’s going to be important to you. You love to go to parties. You love to be out and about and socialize. That’s a huge consideration. My question is, do you know anyone that you’d be thrilled to connect with right off the bat? As we know it takes time to meet people. This was one of my biggest challenges when I lived in San Francisco. I knew a few people there and I was there with my boyfriend. Overall, it was not easy for me to make friends the way that LA is.

Pay attention to your feelings when relocating. Click To Tweet

When I came back to LA, I had this cliché thing I would say all the time which is I have done more things in one month of returning to Los Angeles than I did in the entire year I lived in San Francisco. That’s because of all the people that I know in LA, plus LA as a social scene is different. Even for me as an introvert, it was such a relief to be able to socialize again versus San Francisco. There are a couple of people that I’ll hang out with, but the vibe socially did not fit me. With your mental health, that would be challenging for you. Also, on the mental health side of things, would you be okay with that weather, going back to weather considerations? I don’t think you will do well in any extreme temperature, whether it’s snow, rain or intense heat. All three of those would trigger you. Given that a lot of the Pacific Northwest is known for having a lot of rain, a lot of fog, and these gloomy days. Do you think you’d be okay with that frequently?

I would appreciate the contrast. LA keeps getting hotter and hotter, the wildfires are batshit crazy here every year. It’s dry as fuck. I don’t mean to be an LA hater. There are parts that I love about LA but I’m craving something different.   

It’s clear that you’re craving something different in contrast, but I’m serious when I asked that question about the weather. Do you think you could handle that much gloomy weather a year?

Maybe there are places that have more sun. As an example, I was researching Oregon and a place like Bend seems to have more days of sunlight than a place like Portland, or a place like Ashland seems to be sunnier than a place like Portland or Vancouver. It’s like this intuition of getting in a car, going on a road trip, and feeling these places out. There’s the theoretical examination of like, “I wonder what it would be like to live there.” You don’t know until you live there, but spending a good amount of time investigating is the next step for me. Maybe there are cities within the states that have more sun or more hospitable weather than other cities. I’m sure that’s the case.

I’m still very much in the research phase of all this of collecting information. The ultimate thing is trusting intuition and trusting the gut. As much research and advice from an astrologer or astrocartographer as there can be, it’s got to be this strong feeling of I know I’m meant to move to this place. Basing that on the places I’ve moved in the past. As we get closer to wrapping up this episode, I did want to throw two other places. One was Northern California, apparently around Wilbur Springs, between Mendocino and Mount Shasta. There’s this high visibility of a sun and moon crossing where it’s going to amplify my creativity, my visibility professionally, increase my emotional fluency, and hone my intuition.  

That’s a cool combination of things. Northern California is not necessarily less expensive than LA. There’s also a shit ton of wildfires there. I love the energy in Marin County, in Sonoma County. I’ve spent a ton of time up there, and I love the vibe. The cost of living and weather, I’m not sure, but there were some super high vibes there energetically in terms of astrology. Here’s the place that I was teasing that was a way out of the left-field that I want to take a road trip to because I’ve never been to this state. I’ve been close in Colorado but not really. Wyoming had some major mojo. He said, “Look at Cheyenne or Laramie, Wyoming because there are tons of community waiting for you there. There was a lot of magic and material abundance waiting for you because there’s a Neptune and Venus crossing.”

I was like, “I’ve never thought to visit Wyoming.” Although I’ve wanted to, there’s a handful of states like the Dakotas I’ve never been to. I’ve never been to Idaho. I’ve never been to Montana or Wyoming. Those are the states I’ve never gone to. I was immediately curious because I thought like, “Wyoming is close to Colorado. It’s right on the border. Maybe I could have a semi-cool city experience living in a place like Cheyenne but I don’t know.” What I’m saying is in 2021, there have got to be some road trips because I want to check these places out. That was one of the dark horse choices like, “You don’t say Wyoming.” He’s like, “You’ve got to check out Wyoming.” I thought, “Add to the list.” Have you been to Wyoming?  

Yes, I have. I’ve only driven through it and it was on this road trip as I was going to Mount Rushmore. It’s right above Colorado. You go up through Fort Collins, Colorado, and that leads you into Wyoming. Leanne and I drove through the entire east side of Wyoming from south to north because that leads you into South Dakota. That part of Wyoming is hard to judge by. That’s the only part I’ve been to. I’ve never been to Yellowstone where I want to go, but it felt like the middle of nowhere. That was the sense I had. It was a lot of flat land and the same thing is true with South Dakota as well, except for Mount Rushmore. There are a lot of mountainous areas there. It’s hard to say. I wouldn’t rule it out. People rave about Wyoming. It sounds like a cool state. Cool could be literal as well because there’s snow there too. What part of Wyoming was suggested?

 

He said to specifically look at Cheyenne or Laramie. I went on Zillow and Trulia and was looking at house prices and how much land you get. You get a nice amount of land and some nice houses for 50% of what you would pay here. That’s an appealing thing. For me, getting more land, getting a house, and having a grounding homestead feels good, especially for half of the price of what I would pay for something smaller in LA. 2021 is going to be a year of road trips. I don’t know how much plane travel, we don’t know. It’s still cool to jump in a car and go. It’s going to be a year of investigation and experimentation. Legitimately, I’m open to being surprised.  

I’m keeping an open mind to a place like Wyoming that maybe will blow me away. I have no idea. Keeping an open attitude about all of this and a curious attitude is the best thing. This has made me curious about places like Wyoming, Big Island, or South Korea. There have been these dark horses out of the box places through this astrocartography reading that I thought, “I’m going to visit and check it out.” I’m not in a rush. I’m not like I need to get the hell out of LA right now. I don’t want to make a rush decision. I don’t want to make a decision out of desperation. I want to visit a place and have that feeling of I know this is the place I’m meant to go next. When I have that deep gut feeling, I’m going to trust it.  

Those places that you were recommended to check out are areas I’ve been through. Cheyenne is right past the Colorado border and not that far from Fort Collins. I’m trying to look up some pictures to see if I have any visual representation. I don’t remember what Cheyenne was like. That is a little bit of a question mark for me. It was snowing when I was driving through there even though it was the beginning of September. There was a freak cold front and I was in a ton of snow. I feel like I went to a charging station over there but it doesn’t look like I took any pictures in Cheyenne, which is not that far from Laramie. I do remember that I was planning on going through that area. We were going to camp over there. Thank goodness we didn’t because the weather was nuts. My pictures from outside of Cheyenne was far North. Once I started taking pictures again, it’s all super flat. You have to be okay with that. We did drive through Cheyenne. I don’t know if we stopped there to charge the car at all. I don’t remember anything about it. You know how I have all these memories of how I felt driving through different parts of the country. I have zero recollection of what it was like to drive through Cheyenne which is interesting.

It’s like an unremarkable date you went on years ago and be like, “That guy.”  

I’m like, “Did I stop there to charge my car?” All I remember from that part of my trip was that my car felt like it was falling apart because the weather was bad. There was a part of the base of my car that was falling apart not in a dangerous way, the undercarriage cover. That’s an issue that’s common for Model 3, especially in bad weather. Rain and snow start to degrade it and it rips easily. I don’t know exactly how it happened. My memory is driving through that part of the country, the crazy snow that I was not expecting coupled with the fact that I was overcome with frustration that my car felt like it was falling apart. I could hear the piece underneath it, flapping around the winds. Perhaps it was not a good time to assess that part of the country because all I remember is feeling a lot of anxiety.

That’s the thing you’ve got to pay attention to is how you feel. I’m very much a feeling person to tie this episode back up in a bow. I’m watery in my astrology. I’m a Cancer. I have a Pisces moon. I have many planets that are in water signs and I feel deeply. As we’ve mentioned in other episodes, I’m a sensitive person. I’m in touch with my emotions. What it comes down to is you’ve got to see how you feel in a place and that’s one reason why I’m looking at leaving LA in 2021. I don’t feel as good being in LA. I feel sad here now. I’m not blaming LA but I don’t feel like the things that made me joyful being in LA or the aspects of LA are bringing me joy other than the people.

The people are the big reason why I stay. This is an ongoing exploration. It’s another reason why I’m not making a rush or desperate decision like, “LA is going to hell and I need to leave now.” I am intentional and mindful about feeling my way into this situation. For you dear readers, if you are curious about astrocartography and astrology readings, a lot of the resources we mentioned digging deeper into this, I’ll have information about astrocartography, where I got my reading some different research resources for you to dig in and find a little bit more about it. If you’ve been considering relocating or making a home in a different place from where you are now, getting an astrocartography reading is fascinating to see if your personal astrology lines up with your gut feelings about a specific place.  

In summary, I’m hoping that 2021 is going to be a big travel year, lots of road trips, some plane travel, and hopefully, you and I, Whitney, are getting back to doing a lot of the festivals, conferences, and things that we have loved and missed doing from the past several months. With that said, dear readers, go to our website at Wellevatr.com. If you want to email us directly, maybe you’ve got some interesting insights or you live in some of the locations we’ve mentioned in this episode, you can shoot us a direct email to [email protected] or shoot us a DM on our Instagram account, which is @Wellevatr. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and all the big social media platforms. Although we’ve got the mojo flowing on Instagram in a big way. Whether it’s email, DM or commenting, we always love hearing from you. Thank you for getting uncomfortable with us and exploring all of these random beautiful aspects of life. We will be back soon with another episode. Stay tuned.

 

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