For the first eight months of last year, everything was going great. I felt good, this little travel blog of mine was doing better than ever and I was looking forward to all of our upcoming travels that we had planned. Then fast forward to the end of the year when I felt both physically, mentally as well as emotionally exhausted. I had never felt like this before in my life and even though I had heard about travel burnout and fatigue, this felt brutal as all my non-stop travelling had finally caught up with me after all these years. Travelling should be fun but I had become worn out without realising and when that feeling hits, it hits like a ton of bricks and it hurts.

All of a sudden I had tiredness like I’d never known before, I had no energy and felt constantly drained and run down no matter how much sleep I tried to get – and because of that, I started to catch every bug that was going around making me feel even worse. I could have been in my most favourite place in the world and yet, I had no interest or enthusiasm to do anything and did not want to move out of bed.

My little blog became the last thing on my mind as I completely lost interest (I had ideas but had no inclination to write) and the views I once had disappeared to nothing which made me feel even worse as it felt like all the hard work I had done which I was so proud of had gone to waste. Opening my laptop felt like an effort, I went weeks without posting anything and I struggled to even update social media and I felt bored by my own photos that I was posting on Instagram from a trip that I had loved.

I’ve always tried to put so much time and effort into trying to take good photos or write informative blog posts but I started to feel like why should I even bother posting them if they were not going to get any likes or comments even from people that you know in person. During this time, I continued to see badly written blogs full of wrong information getting out there and getting a lot of interaction and it just did not seem fair in the slightest and when you’re not feeling yourself, you take that a lot harder than normal and it sucks. My blog had always been my hobby that I did for fun but it stopped feeling that way for most of the second half of last year.

So how did I get to this stage? Well that can partly be answered by saying that for the last eighteen years I have been working full time for a long haul airline which is incredibly tiring work to start off with. Then several times a year whenever I went on leave, I’d go abroad and try and pack in as much as possible as I always wanted to see and do everything so I never really got a chance to stop and properly relax.

So it took a while, but it all eventually caught up with me. Despite working night flights and regularly losing sleep, I’ve always loved my job and I could never do a boring office job with the same 9-5 commute every day – I tried it once and hated it. However I completely ignored that I was getting progressively more and more exhausted on each trip. All of a sudden, just wheeling my bag through the airport or lifting it into an overhead locker felt like the hardest work in the world and once at a hotel, I started staying in my room and becoming completely anti-social as I just wanted peace and quiet and to do nothing.

Usually when away on a work trip, I never wanted to waste any time and I always tried to make the most of every opportunity I had wherever I was in the world. I’ve always been at my happiest when out and about exploring and I’ve always loved trying to find the most random places I could yet all of a sudden, I had no energy to do this anymore and I had no excitement at the thought of finding new places to visit and I felt angry at myself for not wanting to do anything.

The last piece of the puzzle and what was the wake-up call that I desperately needed was my last big road trip in September last year. I have done so many massive road trips like this one many times before but in wanting to try and see as much as possible in two weeks, it nearly finished me off. I knew what we had planned wasn’t going to be easy but I thought it would definitely be worth the extra effort of trying to fit a little more into our plans.

When I look back now at our 4500 miles across thirteen states, I’m not even sure what we were thinking. My goal of wanting to tick off every state in the USA made me not want to ever do a road trip ever again – that trip was a huge learning curve for sure. It made me realise that I cannot travel the way I once did anymore. My body is telling me that I need to slow down and that is not a bad thing in the slightest – in having too much of a good thing, I forgot to look after myself.

I know that I’m lucky and privileged to be able to do the amount of travelling I do for a living and I did feel guilty saying that I was going to these amazing cities around the world and staying in nice hotels (such a first world problem) but all I wanted was to be at home instead and not go anywhere for months. How could I be tired of living a lifestyle that most people dream of? I knew something was seriously wrong when I had absolutely no enthusiasm to come up with ideas of places to visit on my leave later this year.

In an attempt to try and feel like myself again and get back to doing what I love the most, I started with making sure that I got the rest (both physical and mental) that I so desperately wanted and needed as I was tired and miserable for weeks after that road trip. I still continued to travel for work every week but no matter where I was in the world, I did not allow myself to feel guilty if I did not do anything whilst overseas. Sitting in bed looking down over the streets of New York or San Francisco and relaxing with a cup of tea (I always have a travel kettle, teabags and my own mug with me) and watching Netflix on my iPad or listening to a podcast felt amazing and on a trip to Seattle, I felt triumphant and like a new person after sleeping solidly for fourteen hours straight. Early nights and late lay-ins are seriously underrated.

I started listening to what my body needed and it worked wonders. I even stopped taking my camera away on some work trips as I always felt obligated to go out and use it – I figured that if I see something I want to take a photo of, I always have my phone with me.

Gradually my mindset of needing to do a lot on every trip eased and when I started doing small bits of exploring again, I both looked forward to it and enjoyed it immensely. I now make sure to find the time to do the things that I love doing the most – an example of this was on one of my last trips to Hong Kong when I spent the entire day at Hong Kong Disneyland watching all the Christmas shows and parades and meeting all the characters which I absolutely loved. It was a chilled day with no pressure (or feeling that I needed to be off exploring somewhere new elsewhere), I treated myself to a nice meal and it was exactly what I needed. Just the memory and the photos that I have of that day brings a smile to my face.

As for travelling for fun in my time off from work, I now finally realise that I have to change the way I’ve always travelled and I have to accept that I’m not the person I once was and that is okay. My brain still tells me I can do everything I used to do in my twenties and more but I now know that I have to be realistic and listen to my body when it tells me that it cannot do that anymore and it is a new and strange feeling to have.

I used to try and fit in as much as possible into a short space of time but I don’t want to do that anymore. Now the thought of spending more time in one place that I really want to go to, being able to relax as well having the time to explore at a slower pace is much more appealing to me. I think it’s a case of needing balance – yes you can have a crazy day but then you also need to have a relaxed day in return. It will be a new way for me to travel but I’m looking forward to it. There are still a lot of trips that I want to do (including my goal of visiting every US state – only six more to go) but I know that now is not the right time for them but it will be at some point in the future and then I’ll be able to enjoy those trips with the right frame of mind.

Travelling this way will definitely be new and different to what I have been used to over the past few years. Now I know that if I do not manage to see everything somewhere has to offer, that will be okay and there will always be another chance to go back and the random photo op that I wanted will always be there. On our recent trip to Lisbon in December, I do not feel bad that I did not get to see and do everything that is always on everyones lists when visiting the city and I am fine with that. Knowing what is best for you counts and on the last night of the trip, we were both tired after a long day and did not have the energy to go out for dinner (as much as we wanted to) so instead we grabbed food and snacks from the supermarket and had a chilled night in our hotel room and it was exactly what we needed.

This one is not a completely recent thing but in the last two years, I have also found that I now actually want to spend the extra money on each trip to stay in nicer hotels and pay for better seats on flights and that has been one of the best decisions ever. My priorities have definitely changed and these small changes are helping to make travel fun and something to look forward to once again. I want my trips to be relaxing and not exhausting and having a better sleep, a nice breakfast and an easier and slower start to the day helps immensely. Life is too short and it needs to be enjoyed.

Another thing I’ve learnt in the last few months is if you need a break, get off social media – that in itself works wonders. Make yourself a priority as the amount of followers you have means absolutely nothing – the people who want to hear from you will always be there and when you realise that, nothing else matters and it is a wonderful feeling. I also started to read my old blogs again and look through my favourite photos from my travels around the world – some of which I’ve posted on this blog. I will never ever regret going to any of the places that I’ve been to over the years – the happy memories I have are wonderful and make me realise why I love travelling as much as I do.

Dealing and coping with travel burnout during the last few months is something that I never thought would happen but I’ve finally started to feel like myself again (but a newer, happier version) and I can honestly say that I’m now looking forward to all my upcoming travels this year wherever I go. Planning a trip is half the fun of travelling for me and what we have planned for this year feels so good and it feels right – I think we finally might have figured it all out!

After struggling to write and ignoring my blog for the last few months, this has been the easiest post I’ve ever written as I have not been stuck for words once. I did not put any pressure on myself to write and the words just flowed. I hope this continues as it feels great.

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