Sonya Belletti Moving a family and business from Miami to Tulum

In this interview with Sonya Belletti, a clinical social worker who moved to Tulum with her family over a year ago, we explore her journey of embracing a new life in this enchanting Mexican paradise. Sonya shares the powerful moments that led them to make the decision, the challenges they faced, and the joys they discovered in Tulum. She also discusses how she continued her professional practice while living abroad and her integration of intuitive approaches into her work. Join us as we delve into the allure of Tulum’s spiritual community and the transformative experience of the Belletti family’s move.

TRANSCRIPT:

so welcome everybody welcome back to Tulum magazine a show where we talk to movers and shakers people who have madea big move to Tulum and today I’m so excited to introduce you to Sonyabelletti have I said that right you did okay Sonya valetti whoum moved to Tulum how long ago a little bit over a year ago I would sayum 13 months 13 months and what you guysshould know is Sonya moved with her whole family you know she wasn’t one of those20-somethings who’s coming here to party or coming here to work remotely butum tell us about your family you’ve got how many children I have two kids welltwo human kids they know actually 12 a week from tomorrow and twins boy and girl and we have twodogs a Bernese mountain dog named Paxton and a Pomeranian named Leo and sincewe’ve been here we have adopted a cat named yogurtyogurt so tell me take me back to that moment when you told the kids we aremoving we’re moving to Mexico so like what what had happened before that that sort ofLED you to you and your husband to that decision so they were you know we weren’t eventhinking about moving so my husband and I always had a plan and once you know we raised our kids yeah they finishedCollege we would move and you know we’ve traveled to the Bahamas because we always thought it would be the in theBahamas okay always definitely Caribbean for us right and so we’ve seen many manyof the companion Islands um and so for my kids 10th birthdaywe didn’t want to have a party because we were still kind of like in you know on the tail end of or probably in themiddle of the pandemic and so we’re like don’t want to have all these folks home also I kind of realized doing that youknow 2020 here or that like a lot of our neighbors weren’t as nice as we thought they were right I really want to engageso we were like let’s go on a trip right um and so we picked twoyou know I don’t even know to be quite honest yeah I think we werejust looking we were looking at destinations yeah um you know so I should probably preface this to say thatand in 2018 or 2019 we had started this thing where like every summer we were going to take a big trip the first onewas just the kids and I and the husband was like I don’t want to be home alone yeah you know for two weeks um and so so this was going to be like atrip and we always so I like for us to go someplace that we have not been together as a family and to exploreand so um I really don’t even remember how it was Tulum because I feel we werelooking at Costa Rica yeah and we were looking at to go to some other island in the Bahamas and so we picked Tulum tookthe kids here for their 10th birthday right um and I wouldn’t say maybe about likeour third day into our seven day trip um I was just kind of like oh my goodnessI don’t want to go back I could do this forever yeah and my husband was like me too and I was like seriously then let’sdo it and he was like seriously seriously so the funny thing about this is that wewere not having one of those moments which I can’t imagine we were not on the beach yeah we weren’t like sitting downlounging you know drinking margaritas or anything we were in the car yeah onAvenue yeah and we were like what it was like might aswell say I saw a real estate office let’s go over there and see and so literally we started the processum and what what was it that you were seeing that said I could live here and Icould live here with my kids it was a likeness of being yeah I thinka turning point moment for us wasnice we because we rented a car and we were it was like two incidents that wehad one was the night they were coming back from Obama Central where everybody goes on Tuesday nights around salsa andas we were coming to the end of town they had one of the police stops set up and so it was my husband the kids are inthe back of the car and you know the police stops I it’s folks in fullmilitary yes police or the Marines they have machine guns they’re like the festival yeahand I remember like they asked us to pull over and I can feel my kids gettingreally tense and my kids were just kind of like okay what do we do we have big guns andI said to my kids I’m like it’s okay this is not like how police operate inAmerica and my kids literally like the tension left their body and they just went back to playing it yeahand that for me was just such a powerful moment about just the power of just being yeah right like they understoodwhat you meant they understood what I meant they understood what they meant and it was just a routine they checked ourdocuments yeah unless and the minute we were on our way right and the other incident was again like we we’ve beenparked in front of the hotel we were staying with for a couple of for a couple of days and thenrandomly there was like you know we were going out and they were getting ready totow our car oh and officers and my husband is fluent in Spanish andyou know my husband is talking to him and it’s there like that yeah and I hop in the middle because I’m like askingall of these more questions and I’m like but again it was this lightness of being yeah and not like I stepped in just tobe able to kind of figure out what was going on and there was no fear yeah that says a lot that says a lot and homefor you in the U.S was where Parkland Florida yes yeah understoodso because you know we I think a typical American family we were very concernedabout just like the kids education um we’re paying a bucket we’re not abucket I would probably say a whole grip yeah in private school fees and had a home we loved in Miami but the schoolsaround were not really great yeah um and I was driving a long way to take the kids to private school so we’re likelet’s move to a community that has good school we didn’t like the suburbs but we’re like we’re going to move to the suburbsyeah we spent five years in Parkland and there was not a single person that isthat is there that I still have contact with yeah so no opportunity to build that same kindof community yeah right that it’s just important to I think just a family thatwas growing up like my kids spent five years there in school and and not for a lack of trying it yeah right andinviting folks over that there are no friends that they left behindso did you involve them in this decision because you’re kind of making thatyou’re kind of making the decision while you’re here on vacation yes and they probably left out the fact that we wereall at the time my kids were being homeschooled I see I so we had an incident at the school and I had pulledthem out so they were a year and a half into being homes I understood and like you know my version or probably theywere still in the unschooling phase yeah my version of whole School homeschooling was always about World School like yeahwe’re going to travel we’re going to learn we’re going to do all sorts of stuff right so so they were already oriented in that sort of idea of yesunorthodox laugh yes because even for their birthday trip we were like okay dosome research come up with some things that you’re going to want to do right and somy my daughter was on board right away she was like yes I think it’s a great idea my son he was happy but he was youknow he was more into a lot of the stereotypes yeah and he’s like what ifwe get kidnapped what about the cartels what about the drug dealers what about stuff yeahwe’re gonna be okay like you’re here have you seen have you had any of those experiences since you’ve been here yeahhas anyone tried to kidnap you okay in fact there have been a couple of mornings that they were like oh we don’twant to go out for breakfast and we’re like okay we’re gonna grab something we left them in the hotel room they were fine yeah they were there yeah and soyou know but he had those other fears um we talked through themand I think they’re still into a process of transitioning yeah you know they have finished their first year of being inschool here um what has that been likewell again I feel like I’ve had so many powerful like life-shifting moments since I’ve been here soI re they they started school I want to say two days before my birthday and youknow like we love to we love all of Mexico and we had like in planning for our movie I traveled all over theYucatan Peninsula oh right like because we you know we had picked a lumen and we were like let’s make sure that we’re notjust like caught up in the Tulum Vibes yes to make sure that you know we knewwe were going to make the move but to make sure that that this was the place yeah um andso we went out for my birthday dinner and and we had actually been looking atbaccalark as baccala is beautiful like it’s like a must visit it’s beautiful andum we were talking and my my kids both were just kind of likewe don’t want to move to baccalar we love baccalar but we want to stay here and we were like because we want to goto our school next year okay I said okay I’m like so tell me what you like about your schooland my daughter was like well I don’t know she’s like it just feelseasy like they want me to learn but there’s no pressure I don’t have any anxiety about learning and she’s sayingmommy I don’t know how to explain it I just feel safe um wowokay close case close case soand and that I mean when your kid says I just feel safe like that’s a big deal itis a big deal especially since my kids six months after we moved to Parklandexperience the aftermath of the Parkland school shooter yeah you had shared thatso that sense of safety and no longer needing to worry about monthly or weeklyyou know active shooter drills all of those things or just being in a placewhere they can like reclaim some of their childhood yeah rightI’m sure like I can speak for myself that I know I’ve held a lot of guiltabout that that I feel like a lot of their childhood has been abbreviated right between having that experience ofgoing into lockdown and just the panic and hearing everything from the school shooting place in your backyardum to the active drills to active shooter drills to the pandemic andbeing locked in for two years right there’s so many childhood experiences thatyeah they had missed out on and for me it felt likelike totally felt like hell and when I say home I’m Jamaican by birth yeah I’m from Jamaicaand there’s so many things that are just parallel yeah to that experienceand one of the things that I value about like my experience growing up in Jamaicais that I had my early years to experience what it was like to just be ahuman being yeah right to not without any label yes to not be labeled and sothe opportunity to be able to give back to my kids just felt like wowthat’s that is something that we can’t take for grantedyou know and there are going to be some some children who don’t know what it’s like to live in a place where theyaren’t labeled yeah yeah you know yeah so that is a big deal yes so theyfinished one year of um schooling yes how has that been foryou as a mom as a professional what have been some of the difference just in terms of Lifestyleand the aspect of yeah and that has been a journey for me because education is super important tome the school doesn’t tell me anything right and I actually forgot to pick up reportcards yesterday so I have no idea how my kids did in school this past school year there were no grades I think theyprobably got homework maybe three times reallywhat do you mean they’re just being kids are you kidding mewhat do you mean I don’t need to know what you’re working on so I can hammer it into their heads when they come homeso you know that’s been like that’s been it’s been really interesting just to seetheir growth yeah because I think it was an adjustment for them because they had to take out a lot of like that personalresponsibility yeah of just making sure they have what they need and taking careof their things when they’re at school like yeah school was like it is their responsibility right right if somethingneeds to be done and them having projects and me trying to help and they’re like I’vegot it I only need you to print this for me or I only need you to get me this particular thing and they did it rightlike they figured it out hey amen they figured it outum what about um the other parents is it is it aninternational school that you’re at is it you’re schooling the kids with with other locals what has that been like soit’s it’s not an international school it’s definitely a local primary school but they do have some Internationalstudents so the kids actually learning English and Spanish andum I think the other part that has been I don’t want to say challenging but different is just like how you makeconnections right I’m so used to the requests for play days yeah and that’snot you know that’s not exactly how it works here and I know you know yeah they’ve been invited to a couple ofbirthday parties and in one of them like you know they just told my son and they’re like and my son came home andhe’s like I need to go over early to play video games before the party and there’s a sleepover and I’m like saywhat now I don’t know I don’t know this kid’s parents I couldn’t even pick this kidout from any other kid in your class [Laughter] was that that’s great that they’ve madefriends they did make friends absolutely no it was but it was just a different way of how you know like thisinteraction of like just the kids being able to be mature and thekids being able to like just engage and make these plans and there was the follow-through andum so yeah so that was that was very different right there was no there’s no class list right yeah I don’tget the classes with all the mummies and the daddies in the class yeah or any interaction or any of that stuffso yeah so um what about you as an individual becauseSonya you uh you and your husband obviously um you know need to continue to make aliving uh you have a professional career as a psychologist yeah well clinicalsocial worker nickel social worker okay uh maybe you know there’s gonna be a watching this who are wondering you knowwhat’s the best way to continue let’s say they are in a Consulting service orif they’re in the mental health sector how do they continue to run theirpractice while they’re living abroad so most important thing is to find outyour state laws yeah right there most of the states though your clients need to be in the state you don’t have to be inthe state which is why you can have multi-state license right so like I could be alicensed in multiple States and still see the clients via Telehealth and so myclients are all florida-based and I do also now and I branched out to kind of like I’ve had it as a thought yeah butthe move has made me also shift into also doing coaching so I also have some coaching clientsum and I think it’s just understanding the rules around what your state allowsyeah um you know for where you’re able to practice andI one of the like the commitments I made to myself professionally when we were making this move my husband has alwaysbeen an entrepreneur so he’s you know always been a business owner yeah andum actually the last business we started got tanked by the pandemic because it was a gym and so you know we were likegetting ready to figure out what the next step was going to be yeah and so um when we work it out we work it out ina way that like we recognize that we’re going to we want it to live asimpler life yeah and just basically created thelike the path for that yeah right um so like downsizing or changingcertain things yeah and and also I think for us one one of the things because we already knew wewere planning to like you know migrate from the us like we didn’t leaveanything behind so we did not do one foot there one foot here yeah like all of our life is here right besides ourfamily that we still have state size like all of our life is here yeah right so like the only U.S bill I pay is myphone bill what was it like telling your familyfamily come back from vacation is like we’re movingum I mean so I am the youngest of six yeah so can you just imagine from a Jamaicanfamily right all of us born and raised in Jamaica um you know andsay like what’s going on they were like you’re not serious like my my sister wholives in Miami and so her and I were always kind of like super still very super close yeah but you know she’s theone that I saw more often because yeah in the same state and um and so she was just kind of like shewas really in denial up until the very last minute yeah and she’s like you’re not really doing this she’s like you’renot doing this is this just a thought it’s just an idea I have two older brothers those of whom like you knowtook the time and they sat down and they were like let’s talk about this why are you making this decision and they wantedto just make to make sure that like I was going into this with like an open mind yeahum and just to be able to make sure that this wasn’t like something that I feltpressure to do or something like that yeah because interestingly enough they all thought it was my husband’s idearightyeah it’s like and were you did you have any doubts or any fears like what youknow what did you you know over the course of the planning was there any point where you were likeokay maybe when I’m like what am I what am I doing I think those doubts came like the firstweek I was here yeah I’ve already done it yes you know thefirst week I was here when like you know because we’re renting a house and the house was like I want to say jungleadjacent yeah that it was outside of town right but like on the highway butthe house had been sitting empty for a while well empty with humans yeah there were a lot of Critters oh boy and so Ithink that first week you know like we come in and we are you know we had water like water was getting pumped from theearth and the Synology waters are cold right and there was no hot water oh boyand you know it got real it got real I was fighting for my life I was like there was scorpions there were pregnantspiders you know geckos lizards like big four inch Lotuslike like Locust things that I’ve seen have you seen those cockroaches that fly yes yes so it waslike okay I have definitely changed into a different lifestyle I’m in the jungleyes I’m gonna have to adjust you know so then after that you kind of settle inyes yes you know I think once I got some hot water I was good yeah you know likeI was good after I got some hot water and went to the store and started to like navigate my way aroundlearned that these eco-friendly bug sprays do nothing so the secret sauce is the Ajax the Ajaxthey also kills everything oh Ajax as an Ajax the powder no they have a spray ohreally tip yeah okay and I’m sorry for all the insect loversoutside we’re not I’m I’m fine with all living things but my role is that once youcross the threshold into my house it’s fair game you know if I open the door you don’t want to go outyeah you’re gonna get it you’re gonna get it you’re gonna get it um so Tulum is known forum an aspect of it is known for its sort of spiritual communityum Wellness Community um so many different sort of modalitiesand practices around mental health Etc what has your impression beenof of Tulum and have you experienced any ceremoniesum have you participated have you integrated any of that into your practice how do you think about all ofthat because I think worldwide it’s it’s an area that there’s more interest inyeah I guess since the pandemic but it has definitely beenmore entrenched into Loom I’ve found I’m curious your thoughtswell so I I do consider myself to be very intuitive in my work yeah and so Ido talk with my clients just about things in your birth chart and maybe things as it relates to numerology orwhatever may be happening astrologically yeah um I would say in terms of like steppinginto healing spaces I have been extremely cautious um and just simply because I I thinkstepping into that kind of spiritual realm when you are not clear about who’sholding space for you yeah um can be can be dangerous right yeah uhthere are people who may be able to open up things within you but the other part of that is also being able to integrateright I know as a clinician when I am diving into a client’s trauma yeah Idon’t just talk about their trauma and say ah you’re going to cover it and leave it there yeah I have to help them integrate it yeah back into theirday-to-day living and I think it’s the same thing with any kind of spiritual practiceum so it’s not enough to just sort of attend a ceremony or orum you know have an engagement with some sort of new practice it’s more about what happens after exactly exactly andwhat I find here I and I’m not saying everyone yeah I find that there are alot of folks who will host the same kind of um healing spaces yeah uhcontinuously and have the same people coming in yeah and to me it’s like if Ihave a headache and I take a Tylenol if I have to take Tylenol every single day or every single you know like on aroutine basis then I need to go deeper to understand what the roof is right andso to me then it no longer because it looks like a healing space it’s more like a this is just something that I’mdoing and that means there’s no integration of what is being uncovered hmmthat’s so interesting because I hear a lot about it’s not something that I have a lot of experience with but myobservation is that you know there’s this um category of practices that have beensort of labeled as medicine and definitely you know people say theyhave sort of profound experiences and and feel like they are on a journey tobe healed but then it’s like is there a beginning and an end to theprocess or or are we continuously healing or youknow what I mean so how do you so for example um mushrooms have become a big deal hereAyahuasca is a big big deal here Camboum and it’s hard to how do you detect like who are sort of genuine practitionersversus not like how do you uh what do you look forfor me personally um and this may be coming from a place of bias and I know that I look forpeople who have indigenous roots um and that is not to say thatthe the medicine doesn’t come to anyone who people who are not like indigenous ofthe land or things like that but yeah I I think someone who has beenborn into like that practice and has been doing it for generationsand you can see it in your family lineage feels safer to me rightum and also what I’ve noticed and the difference with how they practice is that there is the integration and thereis no continued upsell there’s no marketing butright yeah there is no marketing of oh now you do this to go to the next level yeah we’ve created a space we’ve tappedinto whatever you’ve asked us to tap into we have integratedand that’s it and that’s for me is what the difference is like I think if someone is like continuing to hey comeon come to do this again yeah do this again that means that there is no integrationpeople want to feel good and so to answer that first part of your question yes healing is a journeyand I’ve been refraining healing as transformation right we’re transforming at each stage in our lives right andto me that’s continuous because I am not the same person I was a year ago yeahfive years ago 10 years ago and I hope that next month or next year I’m not the sameperson I am today I hope to grow I hope to learn more I hope to have more experiences that are going to be solenourishing and enriching yeah and so you know just to learn about different levels of myself butit’s but I also believe that on the other side of that people can become addicted to Healingyeah right because they go and it becomes almost like a drug I get the fixin the moment I feel good at the moment yeah but I don’t do the work I don’t do the integration right so in my practiceI give homework and I tell my clients because if you’re sitting with me for an hour hour and a half per week you needto be doing something with the rest of the time yeah to implement to apply exactly yeah rightyeah because my goal is for my clients to transform to shift to actually youknow get better if we think about like if you get a cut and we want that cut to heal we don’t go back and keep onkeeping up the same cut right yeah the idea is that itwe take care of it yeah we take out all the yucky stuff we don’t so it’s notinfected so it’s not bothersome anymore yeah maybe it leaves a little scar but yeah you know we don’t go back andopen up the same rooms yeah that’s a that’s a really good way to think about it and um so it’s it’sinteresting I guess the story is still to be told you know about where things will go as far as the spiritualCommunity here what about just socially um how has it been to integrateum into this community have you made friends localsno I definitely have and that’s actually been one of the things that has been heartwarming for me is that in I thinkin less than a year I have like already formed a really strong like sense ofcommunity and friendships with people yeah um which has just been something that’s really different for me yeah right Iit’s never been easy for me really no it’s never been easy for me to make friendships and you know like I havelike I have my close friends and they were yeah lifelong friends but I am definitely not the person that has likea collection of people that she knows I understand that she hangs out with and stuff like that but like I in this inless than a year I’ve been able to create that hair yeah yes yeah it’s it’s so interesting I don’t know whether it’ssomething that’s a byproduct of us all having gone through the pandemic I thinkpeople are more open to finding connection and finding Community whatever that looks like you know it’sit’s been super interesting um so part of the audienceum are Taurus who are coming to Tulum and want to know some local placesfavorite places so um what is your favorite place to getcoffee for Bakery I don’t do coffee but okay so what doyou do tea juice tea and juices okay so umeveryone at the menu knows me okay the menu shout out to the menuI spent a lot of money there and a lot of time there because I’m always in the bakery and uh so that is like handsaround my favorite thing and now it’s around the corner from you it is around the corner for me yesum you know I don’t really know it’s really sad that I don’t really actually know the names of all the places rightlike I know like really close by here there’s a little fruteria that I love and I go there to get my juices but I IMarket the one okay seven yes yes I know exactlyoutside yes yes they know me there because I go there all the time squeezedjuices yes okay and what about um restaurants any favorite restaurantswell we’re a big fan of Canoga for Italian food okay um we also well yeah we eat a lot ofItalian food yeah I’ve now gotten my thanks to you myfamily is now obsessed with going to Layla for burgers oh yes you can’t can’tmiss Layla yeah it’s constant for me it’s kind of like MediterraneanMoroccan food yes really good stuff very good um do the kids have a favorite ice creamshop they love all those yeah for me it’s Campanella oh really yes there’scampanilla oh they have like three of them so there is one like that I could tell you where it is yeahthere’s one of the uh a block down from the the um bus station on the main roadand it just actually open up an Aldo’s directly across the street from it and then there’s one at hunov center rightoutside of Aldi azama yeah and then the original one is inside of Augustana oh I see I see so Campanella do they havegelatowhich is chocolate with hazelnuts is like my favorite okay my favoritewell folks you heard it um let’s talk about beaches cenoteswhat’s your favorite um water activity or water platesI love the beach yeah right part of it is also because I get to be near the ocean I love the Ocean Air even if I’mnot a strong swimmer I can go I can like get a sunbed I can grab a bug yeah andplay with the kids I can take a nap yeah absolutely so important yes yesmassage on the beach just being outdoors is there a beach club you guys like to go to or do you just do public beach wehaven’t found a new one that we’ve settled on yeah um you know I think initially when wefirst came we used to go to Cinco a lot yeah and kind of shifted when Highseason came and then on the like it’s so crazy so yeah yeah and then on the umand now like on the what they consider the public beach side right with just the entrance we’ve been like it’s socomplicated so we have just been just there the other day I’m like yes so apparently they’re building a JaguarPark there’s a whole National Park plan and they’re they’ve already started building like um when my my sister wasvisiting like a week and a half ago so everybody who comes to visit I take them to my my I call him my Mexican brotheryeah he’s a tour guy so okay everybody gets to meet Arturo and because he’ssuper knowledgeable I’ve learned so much about the Mayans and just like doing tours with himum and so we went to the archaeological site in Tulum and they’ve already changed the entrance they’ve alreadyshifted how you go in and just how you access it because they’re building yeahthere’s a lot they’re going to turn it the one thing that is good apparently that’s going to be very walkable yes sothat’s that’s apparently up there and I’m hoping that walkable and accessible toto people yeah right and to locals yeah and I don’t mean local like myself yeahI mean to the people who are indigenous yes but yeah I get it like I have a goal with this because I saw it happen in myhome country where the best of the land all the beachfront land became owned andyou couldn’t you can’t yeah you can’t you can’t access the beach and like it’snature it belongs to everyone and so yeah while yeah we plan our days so thatwhen we’re going to the beach we can have breakfast or we can have lunch the idea of you know to go to the beach Ineed to go to the beach club and I have to spend a certain amount yeah just to be one with nature is really interestingyeah it is crazy it sounds like they’re trying to at least have the public sideof the beach yes accessible we’ll see but that brings up a point like how doyou feel about um have you have you had any tension orfeedback from locals about being hereor um I haven’t but I feel I’ve been also very Mindful andintentional right like I I try very hard not to refer to myselfas an expat yeah I call myself an immigrant I’m an immigrant to their country yeahum I I make sure that I’m learning I’m not here trying to recreate what myexperience was in the United States such a good point I am here in this country and I am honoring this land and honoringthe people that are here yeah so even if it’s taken me some time I practice my Spanish I’m making sure I’m not and youknow I make an effort and when I make an effort people give that back to me yeah right and so I’ve experienced peoplejust being super generous like if I’m talking in Spanish and if I say something wrong I’m gently correctedthey’re willing to teach me new things um you know we moved to town we liveamongst the locals yeah right like you step outside my housethey get these big 40 ounces of beer and then every Sunday morning I get serenaded by the drugsand in right so we’re literally but that was also really important to us yeah right like that was one of thecommitments that we made was that we were not going to come here and live inan expat Community behind walls yeah it was not going to give us the experience that we wanted like we you knowwe didn’t we actually didn’t enjoy living and like gated communities yeah yeah in Florida and Hawaii recreate thathere exactly well I love your house it feels very umvery much a part of this community what was the process like of finding realestate you guys have also purchased right yes yes sowe so of course we had Big Dreams coming here yeah we’re gonna buy land yeah Billwe’re gonna build our house and um and everyone of course was like thelearning part is that you know everyone tells you yes even ifthat yes is really a no and so when we were looking at this process and folks would be like yes youcan build your house in 10 months yeah it took over a year just to get the land right it was supposed to be super quickyeah um it was not and then we started to like once we’ve made connections withthose we were like understanding that building is really not that quick and easy yeah getting things off energy butit’s just because there are other infrastructure things that um get delayed yeah and so so we do havesome land um you know out in the jungle and then we actually ended up getting anotherplace in town because when we realized that we we’re not going to be having the dreamhome in a time frame that we wanted it was really important for us to like really get the kids rooted yeah and wewanted them to be able to have a space um and so we like miraculously found a place that was already built in town anddid some Renovations and now we have a home in town no necessarily in thejungle yes and so you what are you guys thinking about the place in the jungle you kind of take your time with withinour time we’re taking our time but also because we have no choice like we we’re gonna say wesigned for a technically owned and pay for it back in March we just got the paperwork last weekoh my God it’s really on Saloon time um but you know I have to say it hasbeen it’s been good yeah because you get toslow down you get to breathe you get to think through things and like realizethat we really don’t need to hurry yeah right yeah and it’s like like and it’slearning I’m learning this lesson in a different way when I moved from New York to California I was like very New Yorkwalking out of you know the Streets of San Francisco you know I would get to a curve I’m looking and I’m stepping out to trafficand I’m like I’m the only one jaywalking everyone’s looking at you know right like I’m like I was crushing mypurse to my signs oh yeah and now I feel like interludeI’m like sinking deeper into that breath and sinking deeper into that release just you know so true I literally tellmyself so many times in a day I’m not in a rushnot in a rush like there’s no long commute there’s no like rushing foryou take your time if you had to give advice to a familythat’s thinking about making this move what are some of the things that you’re like oh Michelle you know I thought ofthat or or would do differentlyum say like the way that we buy five weyeah we wanted to have like the beach being close by yeah um and the school was important for usright because of the kids so we wanted to make sure that their word choices for schools yeah that and it was close rightthat we weren’t going to be living in one area then we’re gonna have to drive like you know 15-20 minutes to schoolyeah that would have been the case that would have been the case for sureand I would just say just and again I’mcompletely biased in this but like if you’re going to commit to like migrating outside of the U.S commit to it yeahbecause when if you have one foot there and onefoot hair when things get tough it’s going to be easy to hop back into what is familiar yeahright yeah and just recognize that it’s not always going to be easy like youknow it’s been over a year my stuff my kids you know still complain yeah littlethings here and there yeah there’s the little things that they’re just kind of like oh you knowyou know to Mexico but yes we’re here and you know you’rehaving an international Cosmopolitan experience exactlyum and yeah and the kids will be okay right the kids are always going to be okayum but do your research right think about what’s really going to be important to you yeah like we did ourresearch like I said we like we we push part they pass the the feeling that wehad that we were into a little yeah just to make sure that they this was real this was real so we checked out PlayaDel Carmen we went to Merida we went to a progressive gone to Meredith yeswhen I say we travel yeah you know we went to El Julio yes we traveled aroundand so what was the thing about Tulum that was like okay I think this makessense like we’ve been to Playa we’ve been to because those places were probably more affordableso what what was the combination of what was it you were looking for well eventhough Tulum is brewing and growing rapidly it still had a small town yeah but it still has it’s a small town yeahthere’s still that small town feel um and just the things that we need we can get to itin like an hour for that you know if it’s not here yeah but now I feel like there’s so many things that when we first move that we couldn’t find thatit’s here yeah available yeah um sort of adapting in real time yeah because I’ve always kind of like I’vealways liked being big city adjacent yeah I would like being in the middle of the city but close enough that I canenjoy all the things at the city yeah and then get back to a quieter Paceexactly yeah I think someone would totally see that exactly so let’s talkabout your coaching what are you thinking how can peoplework with you what areas do you uh want to focus onwhat areas do you focus on so I have dubbed myself as a soloalignment coach basically what that means is just likemy goal is to help people to be to be connected to themselves I think just the way we have allexperienced Humanity it has been in a way of um starts in childhood where you know Ithink traditionally parenting has always been like kids are accessories and we need to make them shiny and pretty andwe need to shave and mold them and so like we start to lose that connection with ourselves very early and what Ihave found like and as I’ve been a clinician now for over 20 years and what I have found with a lot of my clients isthat when they actually start to connect with themselves to start listening to theirown voice versus the voices of their parents the caregivers and othersoutside of them that they’re able totruly step into they were meant to be yeah right justliving freely um where we can be loving to ourselves rightbecause there’s nobody wakes up they’re thinking oh man I don’t grow up I want to be so hard on myself yeah so criticalyeah that’s all the download that we have gotten throughout life right yeah messages the way we and not evendirectly but even just how we interpret our world because traditionally nobody talks to childrenso my goal is just to be able to help folks be aligned with who they truly areto be aligned with their Spirit to learn to find their voicekind and loving to themselves and just to live in curiosity withoutjudgment s love that so how can people get in touch with youhow can people work with you so I am on Instagram my tag issongability coaching I have a website which is sonyability.com andum so thank you so so muchum I hope that you guys have learned and been inspired by Sonya and her family’slife they’re courageous move to Tulum andum definitely connected her on Instagram