So often we are so busy with our lives – work, partners, family and friends that we forget to do something for ourselves. I am as guilty of this as anyone else. Since I stepped out of corporate life three years ago, Your Soul Family has been with me on holidays, festivals and family time. I have never been strong with defining my boundaries and I needed to take a look at how I was living.
At the beginning of July my husband suggested a trip to France to look for a new home. France is a large and beautiful country. On previous trips we had narrowed down the areas we were interested in. At the last moment we decided to go camping, something I have not done since my 20s. We bought some kit and the tent only arrived the day before we left. We had no time to practise pitching it before we needed to do it for real to sleep in it.
My husband assured me he had looked at the instructions and the tent only took 15 minutes to pitch, so if we took four times that it was still only an hour. We arrived at the camp site in the late afternoon and set about pitching the tent! I did not find the instructions very helpful and it felt like we were doing an enormous jigsaw puzzle. We considered giving up and hiring one of the cabins but that felt like a poor start to a hunt for a new home. Two hours later after much perspiration and having to view YouTube, the tent was finally up!!! Hooray, success.
The location was magical and more than compensated for the effort with the tent. We pitched under a willow tree for coolness and there was a river flowing on two sides of the tent. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to be in Nature. As a child I was an outdoor girl and stood with my wellington boots in hand at the door on a rainy day waiting for the rain to stop.
Mother Nature soothed me again and time seemed to slow. There was very little mobile phone signal so I was not able to do my usual video broadcasts, an activity I find quite stressful. I had no choice but to settle into the arms of Nature and just ‘be’, wonderful. We discovered that the sun set over the river and there was a seat under a tree where you could watch the sun go down. The ducks slept around our tent and you could hear them moving about and quacking in the night. Bird song woke us in the morning. Five minutes walk away was a place where you could swim in the river overlooked by a little restaurant that served great French food and wine. It is a long time since I have felt so content and calm.
What surprised me was that when we came home, I found it hard to go back to living in a flat. Everyone was amazed at how much I loved the camping and thought I would miss life’s luxuries. However what I missed on my return was the close connection with Nature. It has certainly made me re-evaluate how I should be living, prioritising taking breaks much more and walking in Nature to re-capture that closeness. From my time in France my soul feels revived but my heart longs to return to the countryside. Roll-on our next visit.
If you relate to this article and need some more help and guidance in your life Get in touch with Alison. Here are her contact details.
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Tel: +44 7966 137568 Email: alison.wem@yoursoulfamily.com
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