Hannah Goes to India

Here I go.

I’m sitting on the plane with a stack of letters and photos from the care package that my family sent me off with this morning. My heart is so full I barely know how to hold space for it, and I’m on my way to India — kicking off the beginning of my 6-month adventure abroad.

The first two months of the trip will be spent at Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm, nestled in the valley of the Himalayas outside Dehradun city in Uttarakhand, Northern India. 

Navdanya is an international movement and organization founded by Dr. Vandana Shiva. The farm was started to both embody the strength of biodiversity conservation as well as provide education and seeds for farmers across India to support them growing organically. It is hub for seed saving and resources for biodiverse agriculture practices. The farm has mango and lemon orchards, farmland, a seed bank, a medicinal herb garden, a soil laboratory and utilizes solar energy, water harvesting & recycling, sustainable building materials, and MUCH more. 

As described, “it is a place to learn from nature” — which is my favorite kind of place.

I will be staying on the farm as a “Bijak” - which translates to “a sower of seeds”. I will literally be sowing seeds while working on the farm (actually I’ll mostly be harvesting since that will be the focus while I’m there in March & April), but I will also be working in the education center, seed bank, cooking in the kitchen, and more. Those that live on the farm are a community — each help to maintain the communal spaces, clean, cook, and live by the guiding principles of Navdanya, many of which are rooted in Ghandian philosophy. 

There has been so much leading up to this moment. I have actually been dreaming of this for quite some time. I have followed the work of Dr. Vandana Shiva since I was in college and dreamt of both meeting her one day and stepping into the work that she is doing. It wasn’t until a few months ago (during my 2-week Ayurvedic Immersion through Kerala in South India - post on that coming soon!) that I learned about the opportunity to live and work on the farm in Northern India.

And I had one of those moments  — where I realized that an experience I was deeply hoping would come true, but hadn’t quite yet believed in its actuality, was both real and within reach. All that was needed was for me to say “yes”, and take the necessary action steps in order for it to come to life. 

So, that is exactly what I did.

I quit my job, I sent in my application, I moved from Asheville, NC (where I had been living for the past year) temporarily back to my parents’ house in San Diego to ground and store my things. I’ve researched my butt off, I booked a one-way ticket to India, I said goodbye to friends and family, to places, to previous chapters of my life and to old ways of being.  

I’ve moved through an immense amount of fear with every one of these steps. And there is a fullness in my being that has opened up on the other side of each one.

More space has been created within for the light of my spirit to come through - for all parts of me to come online. I feel more embodied in my essence - more vivacious, more spirited, more expansive and expressive and present. More rooted in the truth of who I am. I feel the me that knows exactly who she is and exactly what she’s doing — because she’s being guided by the call of her soul.

Taking leaps is not something that feels new to me. 

But this one is a bit different — because it is a radical choosing of myself that is steeped entirely in the essence of JOY. 

And it turns out, joy is immensely vulnerable. It requires the space and presence to open up your heart wide enough to hold the frequency of love that believes you are worthy of receiving that which brings you to tears and terrifies you to your core — because it is exactly what you want.

So, here I am — in the midst of living out one of my dreams. 

I am intentionally creating space for magic to unfold, moving hand in hand with my soul and sharing stories along the way. 

I know this is only beginning. And I’m so ready.