Why I gave up travelling – The importance of taking some “me-time” once in a while

The life of a travel blogger does not just mean laying under palm trees the whole day. This is just a tiny little part of the life, shared on Social Media. But behind every picture, every article, every video is a longer story, than the one you might see in the end. This life can be indeed quite intense, sometimes exhausting, overwhelming and definitely not what most people would expect it to be. Don´t get me wrong, I really LOVE what I am doing, I know that I am fucking blessed and therefore I am unbelievable grateful for all my opportunities. Normally travelling to a new place makes my heart beat faster like a little child on Christmas. But stepping off my last flight from Berlin to Rome in October something has changed. I did not feel the ultimate happiness anymore, that i was normally feeling. I was burnt out, so I needed to make a decision. I will gave up travelling for a while! Not an easy decision, but I think the right one for now.  It´s just that I needed some kind of me-time. You want to know why? Keep on reading!

My ultimate breakdown and the reason why I decided to take a break

Have you ever felt overwhelmed, stressed, mentally depleted or just tired of how life is currently taking advantage of you? Even if you completely love what you are doing, no doubt, but you just feel kind of empty inside. As we all know, life can be crushing & busy, especially when you are performing on a high level in your work and personal life. We feel motivated and driven to always provide the best value we can give to others, we set high expectations on ourselves and sometimes act like we are not stoppable or vulnerable at all. Maybe you know this feeling as well? Our full packed schedules, to do’s and to be’s seem to claim all of our time. But life isn’t  linear, it’s like a roller coaster with ups and downs. That doesn’t mean that these downs have to be considered as something negative. There is no up-time without down-time like there is no sun without rain. There is also no learning without letting it sink into your brain properly. And for this, we need to give ourselves time to reflect, to make a pause, to simply just be.

According to that, we need to understand the importance of setting ourselves fixed times for self-reflection, as this has just so much more impact on our mindset and emotions than you might think. So why don’t we allow ourselves to actually step back for a bit and take a deep breath from time to time? Why don’t we schedule one evening per week for example just for ourselves, to enjoy some high-quality “me -time”?  

“Rest and self care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” ― Eleanor Brownn.   

The life of a travel blogger and its dark sides, nobody sees

During my travels in the past two years, I always worked full time as a freelance Social Media Marketing Manager and blogger for a variety of companies, while living the digital nomad dream-life. I had a lot of fun, shared experiences and unbelievable moments with amazing people from all over the world. Even though I was able to combine traveling with working, which I absolutely love doing, there are definitely also some downsides of this lifestyle.

It surely comes to a point when you just feel tired of all the different challenges you face and impressions you gather over time. Your relationships are difficult to handle when changing locations all the time and you have to take full responsibility for your finances, your clients, absolutely everything containing your business, but also for basic living things like where to sleep or eat etc. The boundaries between work and personal life begin to blur. Besides that, even easy things like packing your stuff and living out of the suitcase, organizing the travel routes and waiting on airports way too often, started to become so exhausting. And I have to admit, that this time I had my first kind of homesickness. I just wanted to lay in my OWN bed, the whole day, in a weird pajama and being HOME somewhere. Especially I just wanted to be surrounded by my loved ones. 

Authenticity is my Prio value, so here is the full truth  

Was it an easy decision to say out loud that i am about to give up traveling for now to go back to Germany and finish my Master degree? No definitely not! I can tell you, i am still 100% into the location independent lifestyle, i even write my Master thesis about that specific topic. A subject that i am wholeheartedly passionate about. But there was one question i had to truly answer for myself, before i would continue travelling:

Will it be alright to share this super personal message as well as my feelings with my community when all i was representing the last years was to travel, be free, independent and happy, even though i was just not feeling this anymore?

I have decided for myself, there is nothing more important and powerful than being authentic, true to yourself and to others. So yes, I shared now with you what has been going through my mind in the past weeks! I happy, that i took a healing break from all that pressure and stress, that mostly was self-made.The big problem here are my super high expectations on myself.

As many of you might know, I posted a video in my Instagram Story 2 months ago containing exactly my thoughts about this. At first i was scared to share this message, but I realized i am not alone. It resonated with many of my followers, I got loads of captivating responses and I realized, this topic is one i need to talk about more in detail.

Raffael, one of my assistants, is currently on a three-months travel through Southern Africa, working location independent and studying remote work. Facilitated by a program called “The Nomad MBA” that brings young individuals together to accelerate their personal and professional growth, he was courageous enough to leave his old life more or less behind to follow his dream like I followed mine, when I started for my own back in the days. Sounds good right? So far, so good.

In one of our conversations he mentioned, that he is facing big challenges right now. While combining all these things and putting hours and hours of work into his dream, he realized that if you don’t allow yourself to rest sometimes, you are not able to provide the best outcome with clear focus anymore. Then you are losing the fun in it slowly step by step. Same here! Within this MBA program – he told me – they also have a “Tuesday Self Reflection Evening”, as a sheduled “me-time” event, every week! I personally love that concept and really want to implement it to my own weekly routine. Super recommendable to put a fixed date for your own needs.

What I want you to understand, to avoid my mistake

One urgent reason why I summarized my thoughts in this blog post is to engage you to actively listen to your body, heart and even more important to your mental state of mind. The key is to really feel what is going on inside, allow every single cell of you to reveal and express whatever there might be inside. For now and in the future I will implement more information and strategies about mental well-being and personal development in my blog and on my Social Media accounts. And the good thing about this personal break is, that you will come back so much stronger than before. I already can feel that my travel fever is coming back and I am already planning some new trips for 2019. And then it will be fun for me again and not a annoying. This is what I am totally sure about. After a calm winter I can be excited again for another big adventure and feel strong enough to start again, physically and mentally.

For sure, it can be hard to execute on this topic, but you will realize soon that this is the way to find your blockades and the causes, why you might be tired in the one or another situation.  If you really feel connected to your inner strength again and finally released from pressure, all these exhausting things begin to make fun again. A lot of benefits like enhancement in space for self discovery, productivity, deep thinking and relationships come with it.

And what does self-care actually means for us? Exercising, sure. Eating well, yes. Then, of course, there is the need of sleeping sufficiently, meditating and doing whatever other relaxation rituals work for you like, taking a bath, going to the Sauna or getting a massage. Well, it’s also essential to make time to simply just be with you, to give yourself some love.  Let’s call this the lovingly “me time,”.

Let these words encourage to give your inner voice the change to speak up, then take the time to listen to it. It´s soo necessary to give yourself the time to breath again, no matter how hard life is right now for you. Stepping back and pressing the “PAUSE”- button can change your situation immediately. If you are still curious about that topic or have some further questions, hit me up for a 1-on-1-LIVE-coaching session via Skype or WhatsApp-Call to discuss your urgent needs regarding traveling, online work, healthy time management and mental well-being.