Resources 🗞️ Slow News Day #65

Hey,

About being a digital nomad, this much I know:

• I get to enjoy a huge amount of novelty. Places, people, cultures, landscapes, lifestyles.

• Planning, enacting, and navigating that novelty requires a lot of resources.

Primarily, these are mental resources. I can (and may well in the future) write about the practicalities and costs of living as a digital nomad, but that’s not my focus as I write this.

Rather, I want to talk about what’s been going on for me recently. Frankly, I think my mental health is the worst it’s been for about four years. I’ve had a huge spike in anxiety since getting back from France, culminating in some pretty awful anxiety attacks and physical issues, and I think a lot of it came from overloading my capacity for ‘stuff’.

Moving from place to place every two, four, or six weeks takes a lot of:

• Emotional work (leaving people, places, and freshly established routines).

• Mental energy (for planning travel and accommodation).

• Physical effort (packing our stuff and travelling for multiple hours over a few days).

My lifestyle, I’m realising, has put me at full capacity by default.

In the three weeks (exactly) since we left France, I’ve had to (plan and) attend a stag do, then a friend’s birthday, then my granddad’s funeral, and then view some houses. On Sunday, we drive five hours up country for a ~month in Yorkshire.

When I lived in our old rental, each of those things would have felt easy and joyful. Well, maybe not the funeral. Now, I feel like a car with a dashboard full of fault lights. I’m still moving — and, for what it’s worth, I did find a lot of joy in those events — but I think I’m doing some damage.

I need to change pace. Lifestyle.

None of the fixes are quick, or easy, or cheap; but what’s the point, otherwise? I can’t be this unwell as my default.

Bex and I are having some amazingly honest, caring, and nuanced conversations about it all. I’m so grateful for her trust and love, through all of this.

I’m coming to understand: perhaps I need to trade some of my other resources (financial and time) to top my emotional/mental resources back up.

Slow down guide

Need a little help moving slower?

Ease your way out of Friday afternoon with this newsletter, a nice cup of something, and a little background music. Steal my setup if you aren't sure where to start.

After I press send, I’m going to finish this banging cup of tea. It’s a bit late for coffee, I think. Clipper is my brew of choice and I’m pretty ardent about it. If you don’t know, get to know now.

The perfect song for this edition of Slow News Day has been in my head all week, without me having listened to it. The Mountain Goats’ Dilaudid balances a sense of ominousness with passion, spark, and a desire to make the most of things.

'Cause you just can't do / Things your body wasn't meant to

Take it easy,