Why I Have Absolutely Nothing To Share From My Three Solo Days in Puglia

Aka: sometimes you really need to take an actual break

I’m very guilty of not being able to switch off. Every time I plan a ‘holiday’ work somehow manages to creep into it. Take my recent trip to Sweden: what started as mine and my boyfriend’s summer holiday turned into two magazine articles to research, shoot and write, plus three mini brand shoots. Or my upcoming trip to Greece in early autumn — I originally planned to visit Athens and Hydra to celebrate my 40th birthday with two friends, but I’ve bought a one-way ticket and will be fitting in a few shoots and articles while I’m over there (I still need to book my flight home — note to self). As my writing and photography work grows and evolves, I’m finding that it’s encroaching on my personal travels.

That’s not to say it’s a bad thing — I love that my work centres around travel and that I’m able to travel so much for work. But every now and then, I need an actual break. My body tends to react quite badly to stress, and I need to get better at learning when I’m juggling too much and to just slow down or completely stop. From Easter up until last week, I had back-to-back shoots and writing assignments, and honestly felt completely burned out. I wasn’t listening to my body and just wanted to say ‘yes’ to all the opportunities that were coming my way.