160 acres hosted by Shelby F.
3 lodging sites · 3 RV/tent sites
Off-leash friendly
Pets can be off-leash at some sites.
Azhen Sanctuary was founded and built by two brothers.
With the help of family and good friends.
Jaymie and Shelby Friesen were raised in the construction trades and started their first business at age 13.
One might have described “the Friesen boys” as overly rambunctious as they grew up getting into trouble and having a little too much fun – or is there such a thing?
Through pain and laughter their paths have lead them here and given them the skills to create a better way of living and to offer those teachings to others.
Here are their stories.
Get to know Jaymie…
At 10 years old Jaymie was sweeping floors on job sites and grew into building custom homes from the ground up with his dad and grandfather.
Though a valuable skill, it also lead him to see a trap in modern society – working a job you don’t like to pay off the student debt that got you there, and to afford the house you hardly spend time in; running through life unconsciously.
This made him dream of a better way to live.
Jaymie experienced fights with depression and rivalries at school until dropping out in Grade 11. He spent a year reading, meditating, doing yoga and building the philosophy by which he would live his life.
He dreamed of and planned to build a homestead filled with good community, which was the basis of what has become Azhen.
Ironically, the people that were once rivalries became friends and co-owners of this sacred place… such are the beautiful things of life.
Jaymie walked his path as usual, founding several businesses and travelling the world, until some bizarre incidents uncovered his dissociative disorder caused by childhood trauma.
This was a mental health issue that had both haunted him and saved his life during the rougher moments of his upbringing.
With the help of his brother, his healing journey led him back to his Indigenous heritage, ceremony, and meditation.
These days you can find Jaymie roaming through the forest smiling at life.
He swears the aliens will come take him home one day.
Get to know Shelby…
As a kid Shelby was shipped off every summer to work with his uncles.
This was the beginning of his mastery of the metal trades and his talent for making you laugh until you cry… or just cry.
He spent the beginning of his career helping build custom $15-30m homes in Whistler, BC, and working as a boiler maker before starting RYD Motorsports where his design skill and attention-to-detail garnered national attention.
A mix of partying, crappy food, lots of sugar, and the normalization of an unhealthy lifestyle combusted into severe anxiety and depression.
Shelby was bed-ridden for months and couldn’t work for almost 2 years.
At first he thought he could walk into a doctor and get fixed up with a pill, as most of us have been led to believe. This was the opening of his Pandoras box when it came to understanding the many broken systems in society.
His journey led him to nutrition, fitness, breathwork, mindfulness, community, and ceremony… and even believing some of the “conspiracy theories” Jaymie used to tell him about.
These days you can find Shelby in the kitchen creating wicked beyond organic meals, out on weekend adventures, or training for his next half-Ironman.
Shelby swears if the aliens don’t take them home one day they’ll solve anti-gravity and build a ship of their own.
