The Power of F*cking Off

Retreating in order to advance.

Images from Unyoked

I have this natural tendency to crave solitary retreats into unknown places whenever my daily stressors mount up.

Do you know what I mean? Monday rolls around, the same humdrum routine of the week restarts, and you feel like you want to just get away from it all for a while.

You want to just, you know, f*ck off for a bit.

I get like it quite a lot. I also asked my Instagram audience if they can relate, and many responded in agreement.

Taking a solo retreat into nature isn’t an uncommon pastime. Bill Gates, Daniel Craig, Kate Winslet, and many other celebrities also do it. They make the decision to regularly unplug from it all and disconnect from the constant noisiness of the world.

And so that’s precisely what I did.

Getting Unyoked

Life is full of many weird coincidences. Around a month ago, I experienced one of the strangest.

In one of my I need to f*ck off for a few days in a forest and clear my head kind of moods, I was looking on Airbnb for a little cabin in the woods somewhere to exile myself.

After a quick browse, I closed my laptop, cooked some food, and forgot all about it.

The next morning, however, I received the following email from a contact of mine:

Hey Adrian! I just wanted to let you know getting in touch to let you know we’ve just started working with Unyoked; a groundbreaking Australian nature company, who are bringing their business to the UK, launching with 10 cabins across 3 remote locations today.

We’d love you to stay in one of them!

Exactly what I needed.

So, taking nothing with me but my film camera, a few books, walking boots, and a change of clothes, I hopped in my car last Friday and drove to North Wales.

There’s nothing quite like getting out into nature. The sound of the leaves rustling in the wind, the birds gossiping in the morning, and the crisp, autumnal air.

More than that though, nature is simple. Infinitely complex at a molecular level, yes. But simple.

Nature is naive to the never ending list of demands from your boss. It is ignorant to your impending mortgage invoice and the dent in the side of your brand new car.

Instead, it exists in the realms of necessity, not superfluousness. What needs to be done to keep things running as they are? That is the only question nature asks.

In much the same way, that’s precisely how I spent my weekend in Wales.

The cabin provided by Unyoked was charmingly simple. Nothing superfluous, and yet minimalistically beautiful. Unpainted wooden walls, large open windows, an open fire, and most importantly, no wi-fi. Oh, and a cassette player, a couple of books, and a coffee grinder.

What on earth did I do all weekend? Well, that’s the point. Nothing.

A couple of shots from the cabin.

Whenever any of us intends to visit a new place, the first question people ask is: What are your plans?

But why do we need plans? Why can’t we just do nothing every once in a while?

That is, to put down all of the distractions, forget about the to-do list, and reconnect with the present moment for once.

I spent my weekend reading, walking, meditating, and relaxing. A lot of nothing, really. But sometimes nothing is exactly what we need.

Why not try it?

This isn’t a paid post, but feel free to check out Unyoked using this link.