I took a solo trip to spend more time alone

for over a year now I had this idea to go on a solo trip somewhere to spend a week by the sea in a cabin and do nothing but read brainstorm and right in other words I wanted to go on a think week life has been a complete roller coaster this year and lately I've been craving some solitude it's also been a really long time since I've traveled somewhere by myself so I think it's time for me to experience something like that again this idea has been on my radar for a long while but I could never ded

icate the time nor resources but after finding the perfect Cottage in a Seaside town on the east coast of Canada I knew it was finally time to bite the bullet and [Music] go to be honest I had no clue how this week was actually going to go we got our rental car but in my eyes sometimes you just need to take a leap of faith trust your instincts and see where it takes you [Music] finally I found a place where my TR F away in the world outside my door can't come in found a little piece of in my own

[Music] skin day one of my solo trip and my think week got my coffee here got my banana bread yumy I got in late last night and it was just a full day of traveling my heart is very happy that I chose this place let me give you guys a room tour honestly the light that comes into into this place is crazy I chose this place because it was small like perfect for one person this is the kitchen many shelves and kitchen supplies a nice seating area where I can do some writing or eat my dinner alone th

is flow is from Colt because I came straight from New York and this is the other side of the cottage did you not I had the best s of my life on this bed last night I slept like a rock there's a bathroom in there then comfy cozy seating area where I can Journal banana bread and drink my coffee that was the room tour so my plan for the rest of the day is I'm going to go and journal a little bit more set my intentions for this week got my notebook here my pen and my second cup of coffee [Music] Ess

entials the purpose of my think week was to dedicate time solely to my craft to ruminate on complex ideas and questions and and hopefully by the end have some answers to leave with coming here I was feeling a bit stretched then and felt like a million things needed my attention at all times and while it's normal to have the distractions of everyday life I felt like maybe I just need some time to zoom out and think grocery shopping now it's funny doing stuff like this at some points I'm questioni

ng all my decisions and the next I'm feeling like I'm right where I should be I also knew this would need to be done on my own which I quickly realized is a whole different aspect in [Music] itself said that the growing pains won't end it's the little WS that'll keep the ti at Bay got my coffee got my oatmeal it actually took me longer than I thought to settle in just cuz I have to drive all the way into town and get groceries and all that but at least I did it and now we're set so I got up late

r than I wanted to today I guess in my head this whole trip I wanted it to be like perfect routine and d da but alas I cannot dwell I also should say that I deleted my social media apps off my phone so I really only have like you know other necessities for my apps but I deleted Instagram and my YouTube Studio going into the strip I didn't really think of it as like a dopamine detox or anything like that cuz usually I'm fine like I don't really go on social media apps like too often actually on m

y phone only really when I'm uploading but for some reason ever since I came here I've been opening the apps more than I thought I would and I'm like what the heck is going on so this morning I woke up and I deleted I deleted all the apps it didn't have to come to this but it did I first came across the concept of a think week when I watched The Bill Gates mini docu series on Netflix twice a year he goes to a cabin for a week reads a ton of books and focuses on complex ideas something about this

intrigu me and I figured that someday it would be possible on a simpler level for me to execute we live in such a connected world so to me it's important to step away from external influences whenever I'm trying to ideate arguably you can do all these things at home of course but we're way more prone to the distractions of the day and sometimes we just need a reset here I'm off my emails off social media and my obligations end with whatever my essentials are and the less distractions that I hav

e the more I I can give space to this process I wondered how it would be spending so much time with myself but so far it's been nice to be able to be on your own schedule and not worry about splitting an itinerary I can create the routine that I want to with no pressure to do anything else and to this day I still think that learning how to be comfortable in your own company is one of the best things you can do for yourself one thing that I'm really happy that I did for this week was incorporate

meditation into my routine meditation is something that I picked up around 6 years ago I was curious about Stress Management and mental Clarity and that led me to meditation luckily I was able to partner with headspace for this video which is a little bit surreal because I have been using their app for ages now actually their app is the reason why I was able to keep up with this habit for so long head space has many guided meditations you can choose from from as short as 1 minute to as long as 2

0 minutes they also have exercises on breathing before bed managing distractions and more personally I started out using their Basics course and to this day it's still my favorite so sitting comfortably just taking a big deep breath throughout my meditation journey I noticed how important it is to have some sort of app to guide you along your way to help you understand what meditation is and why you're even doing it in the first place and even if you are familiar with meditation the app is a gre

at tool to introduce you to techniques for focus that you may have not known before I love starting my days with meditation it sets the tone for the day sets the pace I feel like I can do everything else if you want to see how headspace can be helpful for you you can try completely free for 60 days when you sign up with the link in my description thanks headspace and back to our think week good morning good morning so today we're going to go explore outside I have been holed up in this little co

ttage for a while so I thought it'd be good for me to go outside for a bit in NOA Scotia I've never been to Nova Scotia a lot of the touristy sites are a bit farther away from where I'm staying so I'm just going to try to check out some local spots it's been a while since I've been somewhere new and exploring on my own it's be a fun day also I'm pretty sure it's freezing outside so I'm trying to bundle up as much as possible all right ready for a day of [Music] exploring windy roads here I found

this local cafe near the beach that I want to go to let's get some lunch I thought since it had been so long since I've traveled by myself there was a tiny part of me that was a bit worried I would feel lonely I'm going out to places by myself in an unfamiliar place did make me a little nervous at first but only in the beginning it's honestly not as bad as we think it is and often surpasses what we think it would be if we give it the [Music] chance it's interesting because I came here for a thi

nk week but I think coming here alone was a bigger aspect than I thought it would be and I was surprised at some of the things that I started to reflect on oh wow there's a the first time I ever traveled alone was a few years back when I dropped out of school and booked a one-way ticket the furthest my saved up money would take me at the time I was lost I was running away from problems and I had no idea who I was or what I want to do with my life and so now that I'm back solo traveling for this

week it's interesting to look back at that time so much has changed since then no longer running or searching feeling a little more sure of myself and I can't help but feel a little grown up what I'm trying to say is if you're wondering if it ever gets better it does it's good to spend time with ourselves there's a certain freedom to it to see who we are when we're not around anyone else in a place that no one really knows [Music] you over the course of Our Lives we'll want to experience so many

things and maybe sometimes we won't have someone to do those things with but that's okay I still think we should do those things [Music] anyway another day I ran out of coffee overall this week was a much needed reset I didn't film much of the working process because most of the time I was literally on this couch for the first half of it my think week was about absorbing and brainstorming I read books journaled and reflected and wrote down as many questions that would come to me and by the time

the second half rolled around I was able to find some clarity and was fostering new ideas by the end of the week I truly loved the Solitude being unplugged and having the space to focus so intently was something I needed coming here most of the time I was able to work for hours with minimal to no distractions I can't believe I wanted to do this 2 years ago and I finally did it and honestly it was over way too soon well I can't believe it's my last day my last evening here at my sweet little cot

tage I'm so so glad that I decided to go on my think week and also do a Sol trip wasn't as scary as I thought it would be I'm so glad that I didn't let it stop me and I would recommend it to anybody who needs a little solo Retreat the past week has been pretty [Music] magical