Coming Home To Sun Valley, Idaho
How do you define home? Oxford Languages defines home as “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.” But in the age of remote work and nomadic living, do we still define home as a place with four walls? Is permanency a necessary requirement for home?
In this mid-Covid era, it’s easy to find a reason or a season to live in a new place. However, that doesn’t inherently mean you are home.
The first time I really felt home was on a solo roadtrip in July of 2020. Jobless and searching for what my purpose in this life is, I packed up my car and took my wondering on the road. It was a Friday morning that I drove into a small town called Sun Valley, Idaho. It was my first time in Idaho and as I drove onto the Main Street of this quaint town, I was excited to explore. Only a few hours into being in the Sun Valley area, I was jumping off cliffs, opening myself to old and new friends, and mostly reconnecting with my inner strength and confidence.
It only took 48-hours of diving into the community, culture, and opportunities to be sold on Sun Valley. It filled me with a feeling of connection, adventure and integration with nature that I had never felt before. I couldn’t quite describe it, but there was just something in the water that made me feel at home. By the time I had finished my roadtrip, I was sure I was going to move to Idaho. On December 7th, 2020, a mere 5 months later, I rolled back onto the Main Street, but this time with an apartment lease and excitement for my new home.
On Friday June 10th 2022, I made that familiar drive back onto the Main Street in downtown Ketchum and felt an immediate sensation that I was home again. It was a very fitting feeling as I was headed back to attend the 25th Anniversary of Sun Valley’s Wellness Festival with the theme “Coming Home.”
As stated by the SVWF, “This year’s theme, Coming Home, explores how social health & well-being define the foundation of our collective wellness, illuminating what it really means to be a community.” And it was so much more than that. Throughout each movement session, workshop, and speaker series, there was a clear red thread connecting all participants to “Coming Home.”
There were 40 different sessions spread among four days at three different venues, which were all conveniently walking distance in the downtown area of Ketchum. The integration of the gorgeous mountain backdrop grounded the participants and allowed for the energy of each session to flow into one another. These mindful workshops provided attendees with a safe space to lean into meaningful and open conversations amongst the larger group. Subjects of these sessions ranged from Living Your Life’s Purpose to Building the Future of Psychedelic Therapy, and everything in between, allowing for the participants to dive into new ideas and expanding boundaries on what they already know.
For the venues, the Limelight Hotel hosted workshops, the Argyros Performing Arts Center highlighted speaker series, and the Festival Meadows provided movement classes, the Experience Park, and a labyrinth. Each space and class provided the Wellness community with multiple opportunities to dive into our connection with ourself and home.
Here are the 5 things I took away from the Sun Valley Wellness Festival:
Simply, home is what you define it to be - person, place, feeling or thing.
Home is a sensation of feeling safe, whole or complete. It can be very easy to forget that this feeling is within your own mindset and it is not dependent on the love or experience of others. It is important to remind your mind what your body and heart already knows as home.
You are the author of your life. You are the creator, curator, shaper of your story and journey. It is your responsibility to be the main character and actively participate. You choose the dreams and things you’re seeing. You’re able to control and impact that.
Home is not permanent. It flows as easily as the tides of the ocean. Being in power of your own life allows you to choose when a home no longer feels that way to you. By being the author of your life, you are in control of when home is no longer what you want it to be. You provide consent in your life, which is an ongoing action, and when you decide you no longer consent, you are responsible for change.
The goal of this life is to be present, to not lose awareness of everything happening around you. In a time where numbing your mind is so easy, it is your responsibility to ground down and remember the beauty of the world right here in front of you. This is key to finding and continuing to feel home.
Overall, my experience at the Sun Valley Wellness Festival was incredibly uplifting, eye-opening, and impactful. What I learned was that home was always within me. Disguised by my search for purpose in 2020, I was really searching for alignment from my head to my heart to my body. But how lucky to be in a place like Sun Valley to find that connection again. Sun Valley Wellness Festival brought light to what I already knew - I am always whole and home within myself.
Find yourself home (and so much more) next year at the Sun Valley Wellness Festival, digitally or physically in Idaho. With incredible movers, creators and storytellers, it is a weekend for you to dive into your own well-being and find your home.
