Why I am currently hiding
Secret hidey holes for the win
Did you ever make a fort as a kid and hide in it? Maybe you once created an elaborate or simple blanket fort, or a spent time in a rickety tree house, or discovered a secret cubby hole in your house?
I remember the thrill of posting a note on my childhood door at some point: Secret Club. No Entry!
I’m currently doing an adult version of a blanket fort, a kind of happy running away from home, a sneaky, secret getaway.
My location is turned off in my phone.
Bye bye, dear ones!
As a very public person - who is also an introvert - having hidey holes is a must. This year has been all about sharing a new book, meeting people, touring, traveling, and teaching. It has been a tremendous joy. I’ve driven coast to coast (over 11,000 miles in two months) met hundreds of people, and been to multiple countries and states.
At this moment I’m in an airport somewhere in the world, waiting on a very delayed plane. I’m not telling anyone which airport, or where I am headed.
It’s a secret.
Why am I keep secrets?
Because it is fun.
Note: Of course, some people do know where I am going. Like my mom. Hi mom!
Having a secret getaway makes me feel mischievous, free, and open to anything. I don't need to be anywhere at a specific time. No one is relying on me. I get to reset.
On the agenda over the next week of my solo adventure: One knitting class. One special sauna. Visiting a couple of friends. Learning how to use my new wireless microphone. Sleeping in. Staying up late. Going to bed early. Waking up in the middle of the night and reading. General puttering. Getting lost on purpose. Finding new paths to walk.
And whatever else comes my way.
My flight is delayed four hours due to a storm and guess what: I don't care! I have no where to be! I'm eating fancy pizza and drinking a cappuccino and writing to you!
It helps that I am a weirdo who loves airports. I think because I spent so much time as a kid in them. We flew someplace around the world at least twice a year: Spain, Germany, Austria, Egypt, Nepal, India, Australia, the United States, and then home to Hong Kong or Singapore or Thailand, depending on where we lived at the time.
I feel a sense of calm and ease in airports (unless I'm about to miss a flight and I'm running between terminals. That definitely sucks.) I love the comings and goings, the energy, the possibility. As I look at the flight board or walk past gates I imagine I could get on any flight and go anywhere. What would it be like to get on that flight to Portland or Prague or Panama?
It was even more powerful before 9/11 and TSA: when you could watch the teary celebrations as people got off planes and into the arms of their loved ones right at the gate, or witness the sorrow of people saying goodbye to family before they boarded. Humanity in all its colors was in full display: reunions and goodbyes, tears of joy and tears of sorrow. There was always so much emotion on raw display it would shake you awake and remind you of how tender, and beautiful, it is to be human.
I love traveling because it is a time to remake myself, to shed old skins and put on other lives, other experiences, other realities. Being at 30,000 feet above the earth clears my head and helps me see a bigger view of my own life. Being in a new culture reminds me of how varied and fluid “reality” is.
I'm also planning to cry some good, cleansing tears over the next few days. There is a level of holding I've been doing for others that is beautiful and such an honor and is also accumulatively exhausting. I am gently putting everyone down and feeling what this tender human being needs and wants. I'm resourcing and resting to prepare for what is to come. I'm wondering and listening. I'm making space.
I’m traveling light, with one backpack and my computer bag.
I know that I am in a rare and privileged place that I can disappear for a bit and recalibrate. Many of us do not have that option or ability. But we do all have access to creative hidey holes and tucking into secret nooks. That might be a five-minute break in the bathroom, or a four-hour walkabout in your local park. Your personal hidey hole might be cooking a nourishing meal or spending an extra hour in your comfy bed.
Or perhaps you really do need to build a blanket fort and to get your flashlight and a silly book that will make you giggle into your hands.
Or book a journey someplace.
My invitation to all of us is this: instead of doing something familiar and more numbing than energizing (like scrolling on social media as a way to get an unconscious break or calling a friend to complain about something or another or hiding to stay safe) why not plan a mini-adventure? That might be: doing art, walking someplace in your city you haven't been, taking a knitting class, or waking up early before the kids/partner/roommates and having a private dance party in the kitchen wearing your favorite outfit and your headphones.
Shake things up. Build in hidey holes that are not to remove you from the world, but to disconnect you from who you have been so you can discover who you are now.
Cocoon. Melt into goo. Then burst through with new colors and wings.
Tell me below about a favorite secret from your childhood or a secret wish/reality of an adult hidey hole. I'd love to hear!
Big love from my secret location on planet earth...
Ash
P.S. In December I’ll be sharing my free 7-Day Anti-Resolution Challenge. I usually share this Challenge in January, but decided I want to share some extra support earlier. There will be 7 days of short teaching videos on the strategies and how to get unstuck from pleasing, controlling, isolating, or distracting; an exploration on how to focus mindfully rather than push or force; and I’ll also be doing lots of lives on social media. I’ll let you know when we have the registration page available.
P.P.S. I’m currently offering a 20% discount on a couple of adventurous events for 2025:
🔥For you fabulous early birds: register by November 30th and you’ll receive 20 percent off select Warrior Goddess / Wild, Willing, Wise offerings (no coupon needed)! Applies to all payment options.
20% OFF EARLY BIRD 2025 SPECIALS:
* Seasons of Self: Ritual and Ceremony | Winter Solstice 2024 through Spring Equinox 2025
Join HeatherAsh and the Warrior Goddess team in a container of healing and hope over the darkest time of the year. Over 90 days, starting December 21, we’ll delve into the foundations of shamanic journeywork and the beauty and healing of creating ceremonies for self and others. Seasons of Self includes an online intensive Winter Solstice retreat and weekly live classes on Mondays, all recorded. All genders and levels of experience are welcome.
Click here to get vital support through the holidays.
* Firewalk Instructor Certification Training | Jun 20 - 27 in Teotihuacan, Mexico
For all leaders, creatives, and healers: a week-long training with fire as your main guide and ally. Besides learning the specifics of how to bring a firewalk ceremony to a community or a motivational firewalk to a corporation, you’ll also be immersed in the most transformational tools available: arrow breaks, rebar bending, glass walks, and powerful group exercises. All genders and levels of experience are welcome.
Learn more about the firewalk certification training here.
* Warrior Goddess Wilderness Weekend | Sep 5 - 8 Sangre de Cristo mountains outside of Santa Fe, NM
With Wilderness Guide and Warrior Goddess Mentor Sarina Harz-Tolbert, LCSW
Join us for a witchy weekend curated to support you in disentangling from the busy, overwhelming modern world and enter a sacred place where you feel connected to the earth and fully held in our Warrior Goddess community for rites of passage work in the great outdoors. This event is open to all women and non-binary folks. This includes (but is not limited to) trans women, genderfluid folks, genderqueer folks, femmes, etc.
Get wild, click here.
* Ancestral Healing / Day of the Dead | Oct 28 - Nov 3 in Teotihuacan, Mexico
We are often living cut off from one of the most vital and loving relationships of our lives; our relationship with our beloved dead. Whether you are mourning the passing of someone close to you, wanting to connect with your lineage of ancestors or beloved dead, or have been yearning to celebrate the Celtic cross-quarter day of Samhain / Hallowmas, or the Mexican holiday of Day of the Dead, in a traditional way, you are welcome join us in this seven-day, all-inclusive retreat.
Together we learn how to let the Angel of Death become our greatest ally, how to talk to the dead and heal old wounds, create altars to honor the dead, and follow the ancient initiatory path of the pyramids of Teotihuacan. All genders and levels of experience are welcome.
Learn more about our Ancestral Healing retreat here.
Not sure which program is best for you? Have a question? Reach out to Sarina or Annika at hello@warriorgoddess.com for guidance and answers.
Download our digital version here or fill out this form with your snail mail address so we can send you our 2025 postcard with the sun/moon cycles and the Warrior Goddess / Wild, Willing, Wise schedule of events. Yay!
*Mailing is open to US and Canada only - we must receive your address submission by November 30th to be included in our mailing.
Blessed renewal to you!!!
Sending you all my love, dearest HeatherAsh♥️ This is wonderful Self Care for the soul😘 Take good care!