4 weeks in the van - uk wide! The good the bad and the ugly.

The truth is I used this month as a month of fun and adventure with the intention of a “reset”.?

When I had the idea of going away in August 2 out of my 4 weeks were already booked as a holiday anyway.?

Kinda handy!?

It was like the timing seemed perfect and the universe saying “Go on then. What are you waiting for girl?”

So my thinking was “ok I have starlink, I can easily work with my clients online that way. The rest of the time I have holiday booked anyway - you want this right? You have no excuse other than fear stopping you make this happen”.

So I went upstairs. Brainstormed what I needed to pack, booked my first night away and was out the door 7 hours later.?

In the next four weeks I traveled to:

Gloucester

Coniston?

My folks home in the Lake District?

Nottingham?

Frome?

Cornwall

Weymouth?

Cardiff?

East Sussex?

Back to Bristol?

I don’t even want to add up the total mileage. ??

The best parts:

- Seeing family and besties on route and finding random places to lake swim and dog walk.?

- Festivals with amazing people.?

- Getting an unlimited amount of time on my own where I was able to reflect on life and life’s decisions.?

- The freedom of absolutely nothing more than spontaneously choosing where to go next and then just doing it without a second thought.?

- 4 weeks grounding - walking barefoot on grass. I am convinced this natural Mother Earth energetic connection fuels the natural human energy we all have.?

- Louie (my staffie cross Rottweiler) is soft as sh*t but if anyone comes too close to the van who’s not ‘in our pack’ he soon lets them know with a few barks to back off until they have Mummy’s permission to get close. Poor other happy campers. ???? I don’t try train this out of him. It helps keep me safe when I travel solo.?

The worst parts:?

- The storm that nearly made my family size awning take off like a kite - had this have happened it literally would have run the risk of it killing someone or causing some serious damage. (I’ll never stop appreciating the old man with a hammer who came to help in that crazy weather).?

- The heat wave was great for me but terrible for my dog Louie. Peak heat often left us van-bound, sat in the shade with Louie draped in wet blankets to stop him from over heating. Poor little fella ?? Not an ideal situation when the sun is out.?

- The angry lady who came aggressively banging on my van window at 1am because I missed the campsites closing time and parked close by the entrance ready for them to open at 9am (more to come on that).

One thing I can say is, I learnt a lot this month.

I think when we all live in such a fast-paced society, we all have jobs, responsibilities and a routine; we don’t individually stop to reflect enough.?

We don’t stop to take a breather to make sure that whilst we’re running, are we definitely running in the direction we really want to or are we simply just on life’s treadmill and all that running isn’t actually getting us any further ahead. ?

It certainly opened up some thoughts that I doubt I'd have been able to connect with if I’d have been in my usual fact paced ‘home’ routine.?

Finally, like most humans are forced to contend with at some point in life - I also had some very difficult private news at the enf of July.

Nothing outside my ability to cope with, but it definitely took the wind out my sales for a little bit for sure.?

Perfect timing as when I got that news, I had that week booked off anyway.?

The best part is I’m stronger for it now. ???? Every experience is a lesson right?

I also have a reframed mindset if this should ever unexpectedly happen again.?

I love these moments of transformational awareness. You just feel it in your inner core that what you have just experienced has grown you as a person.?

And I say this reflecting on the entire month (not just any bad news).?

It’s been a while since I felt I had a noticeable personal growth spurt. ????.?

I accept it’s not everyone’s cuppa tea to gallivant around the uk in a campervan on their own but I do recommend finding the thing that fuels your soul and one way or another doing it (in a small or big way).?

Because personally I:?

~ I love feeling alive?

~ I want to live - not just exist?

~ I’m alive to have experiences?

~ My life experiences will include happy, fun, exciting, joyful, sad and difficult moments all in different periods of time. I embrace them all.?

The more experiences I have the more enriched my live becomes.?

By the way I recorded a spontaneous 11 minute video about my personal 4 lessons in 4 weeks on YouTube. It’s a bit more personal than this post.?

It won’t be of interest for all who have read this far - but it is available to view if you happen to want to watch it.

So that’s basically a wrap.?

Thanks for reading.?

Keep smiling. ??

******

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