Ever more my father’s daughter| #40

Having the type of realisation the younger version of me would not have comprehended

Hey all, I am writing this on a train to Berlin after having spent a few days with some clients.

Contemplations while being under-resourced

After a work dinner in a small German town, I opted for an hour-long walk instead of a ten minute cab back to our hotel. It was probably the best ‘opt for slow even though it doesn’t make sense’ decision I have made in a while. The sun was casting a low orange glow as it descended over the wheat fields. There were hardly any cars and despite the night falling as I walked alone barefoot, I felt safe and incrementally more human.

I came to understood that sometimes when I feel disembodied, it isn’t just the lack of rest of routine but that I hadn’t given myself enough time to recover from many things happening or because I hadn’t had a chance to unwind from the day. If our life is by fundamentals rushed and packed, we will never get to feel the height of well-being as a human. And yes, it doesn’t matter how many yoga classes, sound ceremonies or meditations you do — the societal normalisation of pushing our bodies beyond natural and healthy limits means this feeling of being strained is unfortunately quite normal.

Work and personal travel has been taking me out of my morning walk and morning pages routine as well as my ability to cook my food, where I sleep and what material I sleep on so I have been feeling under-resourced. This made the walk more significant. I finally understood why all those years ago my dad chose to move his family to a sleepy Australian town.

Alas, I am ever more my father’s daughter

When my dad decided to move us to Perth, he was hoping for a quiet life. But growing up the daughter of a go-getting entrepreneur, I often felt frustrated that my expansive potential and the notion that the world is my oyster was geographically limited. Perth is factually the most isolated city in the world. I went to the local university but found ways to study abroad - three times! I learnt foreign languages, landed in London and am hitting my tenth year there. In those, I was seeking more, I was seeking answers. I felt like the world had more to give me and I was hungry to take.

My brain thirsted for stimulation, for interesting conversations, for brains that could spar with mine and little did it find in Perth. I was also on the search for community, to feel less alone in my desires to see, understand, feel and engage with the world. I needed to leave Perth to come to appreciate it again. This countryside town I walked through was not too different from the quiet feel of where I grew up. And here thousands of miles away after decades of search, it was like the light bulb that went off for my dad finally flickered for me.

I have an inkling that when he made the move he was so to speak ‘done’ with hustling. He wanted to do something small and quiet and to live a normal life. I feel like my path is intersecting with my dad’s now. I am understanding more and more the choices he made and I wonder if someday in the future I might find myself making extremely similar ones too.

Please share your tips for less stressful travels!!

Despite being a regular traveller, I don’t seem to have efficient packing or storage processes. Sometimes I am organised enough to ensure that my carry-on liquids are already in a plastic bag, other times, I have to open up various bags to ensure it is all in the same bag at security so causing a delay.

I often pack my toothbrush but not a toothpaste in my carry on bag, I sometimes forget where I put my earplugs, or have them but in my check-in or not in an easy to access spot in my carry-on luggage (e.g. in a carry-on suitcase as opposed to my bag)

Do you have an efficient packing process especially for hand-carry items? What is the process? What are the tools or bags or storage containers/pouches you use?

Despite travelling to hundreds of cities and over forty countries both for work and personal travel, I still feel like I could do a better job with packing. I tend to throw things into a bag in the weeks leading up that I plan to bring, then in the days leading up do a ‘draft’ pack, and then the day or night before do another pack. Then on the day I fly, I tend to tip it all out and do a repack, for fear that I have packed too much or too little or missed out on additional things.

Do you have a check-list or a way of ensuring each time you pack it is not as stressful as my process? Interested to hear from neurodivergent folks especially!

One thing I want to try is to be strict about keeping to my routines such as walking 10k steps a day, doing morning pages, going to yoga and finding places where I can eat well.

What else helps you as a traveller, especially those travelling frequently for work, feel more grounded while abroad?

Thank you, ever grateful and keen to become a stress free traveller!!!

Caryn