Traveling sustainably from the Balkans to Bangkok, Meet Christen, Digital Nomad

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Christen owns and operates a boutique online English academy for family-based learning, with some freelance education writing and ESL consulting. She also loves helping other women travel the world solo through nomad coaching and travel consulting.?

She considers her lifestyle as slow, grounded, and low-footprint digital nomading. Her ideal time in a city is 1-3 months. However, Christen prefers to stay longer in places to have a more sustainable impact and invest her money in host communities. A great example is her newest campaign raising funds to educate about traveling more sustainably from the Balkans to Bangkok, Thailand.

You can find her on Instagram!

?? How do you take care of yourself when nomading?

Work-life balance in the nomad life isn't just about closing the computer. It's also building in non-working, non-adventuring time to rest and care for my body and mind.?I take care of myself by scheduling rest time and alone time. Every other weekend has to be a "home weekend." No trips, no itinerary. Just resting and doing boring things like laundry or grocery shopping. Every Wednesday is a "me date” with no technology, friends, or partners. Just taking myself to a nice dinner, walking around town and buying myself flowers, or wandering a bookstore. I also schedule my solid 8 hours of sleep every night as I would schedule a work meeting.

Professional support is equally important. I benefited a lot from therapy before traveling full-time and stuck with it abroad. Therefore, I have weekly video therapy sessions with a counselor, plus annual phone sessions with my hometown psychiatrist. I also use Safety Wing nomad health insurance and keep a separate budget for pre-deductible healthcare spending. The lower cost of living in foreign countries helps me to invest heavily in professional healthcare.

Finally, I keep some "rules" for what I put in my body to keep balance. There's a temptation to never cook when surrounded by affordable and delicious food in a new country. With my 50/50 rule for food, I ensure that I cook at least half of my food at home with healthy local ingredients. I also ensure that a maximum of 3 days of my week involve alcohol and that the other 4+ stay dry. The 50/50 rule and the 3/4 rule give me the flexibility to try the local food and drink in new countries without compromising my health balance and energy.

?? How do you find community as a nomad??

I find community in both organized and organic ways.

Coworks, coliving spaces, weekly meetups, Facebook and Whatsapp groups, conferences, and organized events are the easiest way to meet other nomads. For solo female travelers, FB pages like Host a Sister, The Solo Female Traveller Network, and Girls Love Travel can help you meet up with all kinds of women wherever you go.?

I also find the old-fashioned organic way of meeting people works well too. Think about the activities that can be done outside of the house. For example, reading a book in a popular cafe or lively park is more likely to make me friends than reading at home. Working from a cafe *without* headphones, doing laundry at the laundromat, eating at a restaurant instead of getting takeaway... you get the picture. The more I'm around people, the more chances I have to make friends. A smile, a compliment, and open body language go a long way!

?? How do you consider the planet and minimise your impact?

The world is vast and waiting to be explored, but it's also on fire. To reconcile these two truths, I'm currently on an overland expedition from the Balkans to Bangkok via the lowest-footprint land and sea transportation available. I'm forgoing air travel and raising funds for the environment.

I'd love to get other nomads to consider train and bus travel over flying, especially when moving domestically or regionally.?

Check Christen's campaign here.?

Then, the "little things" add up to big things. For instance, I use water filtration straws and bottles from LifeStraw and Grayl. These products help me eliminate plastic from bottled water in countries where tap isn't drinkable. I also use a bamboo spork and compressible food containers to avoid takeaway waste. Similarly, my soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and lotion are all solid bars in metal tins now. For nomads who fly, this is as good for TSA as it is for the earth!

??Connect with Christen Scalfano via her? Instagram and website. ??

…. Meet Mita Carriman in her mission to connect digital nomads with local communities and follow #DigitalNomadStories?

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