Hello from Sri Lanka (and a bandaged together Ellie) 👋🏼

I’ve been travelling for 3 months now and mostly it’s been pretty much plain sailing. Yes we’ve had ups and downs, things haven’t happened as we’d planned and we’ve had to miss out or not do things that we thought. There’s been the occasional missed bus or train, running through the airport to catch flights and spending too much money on food that made us ill.

That’s what travelling is all about!

However, it’s seemed to come to a head here in Sri Lanka. After 3 weeks in India of not feeling quite right I think what’s accumulated over the last few months has caught up with me. My body is yelling at me and can I really blame it?

I’ve been non stop for the past 12 weeks – hiking, trekking, catching flights/buses/trains, swimming, snorkelling, lugging 20KG worth of bag on my back, all in temperatures that in the UK we wouldn’t dream of seeing. The heat and strength of the sun on the equator is not something to be taken lightly.

After one of the funnest surfs of my life last week my body had finally had enough. I felt weird, my balance was all over the place, I fell into the road and cut all my arms and hands. I woke with such pain in my ears I had to go to Galle by tuk tuk for an appointment with a specialist who diagnosed me with a tropical ear infection.

For the past week I’ve been on 2 different types of antibiotics, a host of other drugs and painkillers and not been allowed to get my wounds wet or dirty. For someone who is so used to running around and constantly doing something, staying put and trying to rest is sooo difficult.

But I’m learning to slow down. To take time for my body to heal and know that just because I am travelling and in an amazing place, I still need to remember that if my body is telling me to stop, then I need to listen.

Look after yourself from the inside out.

When you’re not physically well it affects your mental health too, these both go hand in hand and I know that I’ve been feeling very wobbly and emotional for the past couple of weeks…I should have listened!

It can be frustrating especially when you’re away or on holiday and you want to make the most of your time and experience everything, but it’s so important to remember that there is no time other than the present and if you’re not feeling good right now READ THE SIGNALS and change accordingly.

You can always come back to that place again! But your health and mental wellbeing are not so easy to mend if you don’t look after them.

This is true wherever you are in the world and whatever you’re doing. Take a second to assess how you’re actually feeling – is your body trying to tell you something? No one should know us better than we know ourselves.

So, here’s just a note to say – it’s time we start properly looking after ourselves. Physically and mentally. Don’t WAIT for something to go wrong, look after yourself so that is doesn’t. It’s easy to forget to take regular care of yourself and find balance in everything you do but when we take the time to rest and look after ourselves properly, we can do more and have even more fun in the long run 🙂

Love yourself first,

everything else second,

E

what are your favourite ways to slow down and give yourself some love?