I went to Poland, not just because it's cheap, but mainly just to relax, take time out and get my head in a good place again.
Before I visited Poland, I was often stressed and frustrated about where my life was, both professionally and personally. I would get stressed about social media, worrying about my engagement or growth on Instagram and YouTube, or worrying about what I would post to Instagram on any given day.
Poland was all about taking a break from all of that, to get rid of any stress and get back to how I used to be when I was calm, relaxed, full of gratitude and always happy and smiling. So I took a break from Instagram altogether and just focused on enjoying Poland.
Sure, I walked around with my camera and took photos and filmed things for my videos on YouTube but that is because my two favourite things are exploring and being creative. Nothing makes me happier than walking around, exploring a destination with my camera; but crucially I did not put any pressure on myself to take a certain number of photos or taking photos that had to be worthy of going into my portfolio. It was just taking photographs for the sheer joy of taking photographs.
Sometimes, in the past, I would feel guilty if I was on a vacation and was not achieving things towards my photography business during that time. I always feel like I should be working on something and achieving something and I feel like I have failed or wasted time if I have not.
But the truth is, sometimes it is more important to take time out for yourself, to make sure you are happy, mentally where you need to be, grateful for and enjoying life, because otherwise you can't truly achieve anything, at least not to the level you could or should.
You cannot reach your potential if you are stressed and feeling anxious and things like constantly worrying about social media, whether or not I had fascinating content to post every day, whether or not I was getting enough likes on my posts, all those things were just adding to my stress and anxiety.
So taking a break from that and just enjoying myself in Poland without any guilt was exactly what I needed and by the end of the trip I was happy, relaxed and full of excitement and optimism about the future and I couldn't wait to get back home and get back to work again with renewed energy.
To see why my 3 weeks in Poland was so good, watch all of my videos here.