Even as a native Angeleno, Los Angeles continually surprises me. For a city that gets a bad reputation for being superficial, you'd be surprised to find that L.A. has a lot of depth hidden beneath the surface. There is no better example of this than the annual Mercado Sagrado, a two-day event (Nov. 4th + 5th) quietly tucked away in hills of Malibu Canyon that offers an array of workshops, lectures, and activities intended to inspire grounding, creativity, self work, and community. Workshops include everything from learning how to grow your own food, read tarot cards, tie dye with indigo, and activities like sound baths, breath work and meditation, and a kava ceremony. With speakers like Shiva Rose, Josh Siegel, and Olympia Auset, you can learn about love and numerology, biohacking, holistic living, clean beauty, and the intersection of spirituality and social justice. With so much going on, you hardly have time to explore all of the many unique and like-minded vendors in their marketplace.

Sedona is one of my favorite places on earth. My family goes twice a year and I'm lucky if I can make it with them once every three years. As a family, we've been going to Sedona for as long as I can remember. When I was little I used to wade through Oak Creek and watch, mesmerized by the life underwater, studying carefully the fish, tadpoles, and algae existing together in harmony, in between hopping on big red boulders placed carefully on the creek like little islands. I remember there was nothing as lovely as drying off in the sun on top of one of these warm, sun-soaked red rocks after coming up from the water.

I'm older now, yet my love for Sedona still remains. It's one of those places where time seems to stand still. In Sedona, everything is easy and life is peaceful, not to mention there's no escaping from the awe-inspiring beauty of its land, which, if you choose to remove your focus from even one second, makes itself known in other ways. The town itself is about as touristy as it gets, but with everything from cactus shot glasses to red rock jeep tours, to aura photos and crystal healing, it's well worth exploring for an afternoon.