From advertising in Hamburg to island adventures in Papua New Guinea:
How I escaped the city via Umbria & Bali to find a new way of life
I was standing in front of the door to the office and literally couldn’t set a foot inside the building. I froze, my chest cramped, I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was about to faint. Thoughts rushed through my head — What am I doing with my life? This can’t be it. I’m following somebody else’s agenda. I feel like someone is controlling my life with a remote control. What’s in all of this for me? Apart from a paycheck, and mental and physical exhaustion? Absolutely nothing! I felt numb. I turned around and walked away.
At the time I had no clue what to do or who to turn to. All I knew is that I wanted to escape the 16 hour days I was working in the world of advertising. Fill my life with purpose.
If only Escape the City had already existed then!
That was nearly 10 years ago. And I’ve been on an incredible journey, following my inner compass ever since.
My absolute passion has always been slow travel, discovering the world, getting to know new people, and understanding their cultural heritage. So that was exactly what I did after having turned my back on agency life for a while.
In the meantime I‘ve travelled much of the world on foot, by train, plane, sailed across the Pacific and lived in trees. I love finding new places that feel like home in an instant. I’ve learned so much from the people I’ve met en route, and found the space to listen to my intuition and follow my heart.
My dream is to one day have a place of my own where I can welcome guests and offer a home away from home for a while, whilst also offering the experience of being in nature, somewhere where the clock ticks slower, guests can reconnect & recharge, find peace of mind and therefore let emotions, creativity and spirituality unfold.
But it wasn’t until I came across an Escape workshop run by Ben Keene, founder of Tribewanted, in 2014 on my favourite website Escape the City, that the big changes started to happen — and ever since I’ve become quite a bit of not only an ESC but also a Tribewanted junkie.
Escape to Umbria at Tribewanted Monestevole : the key turning point
Before I joined Ben’s Escape workshop, I had been struggling to take the leap from my current freelance lifestyle, still working in advertising, into the unknown. I couldn’t stop thinking ‘There’s more out there, I love my current lifestyle, I love the balance between freelance work and travel, but I still have a dream. But how to move forward, how to make such a major change?’
Ben’s escape workshop gave me the space to reconnect with my dream, develop the first steps of my escape plan and follow up with my accountability group.
Unbelievable how such a powerful mind shift can take place — from feeling lost to being so highly motivated to follow through and achieve what I am passionate about — within just three days.
Tribewanted Bali start up tribe : the kick-off
Every winter I escape Europe for a while, and as one of the top points on my escape plan was to join Ben and the Tribewanted Start Up tribe in Bali it was an easy decision: February and March in Bali.
The Bali tribe offered everything I was looking for: a winter escape to a beautiful island; structure and focus on my project during daily check-in sessions (“What are you working on today, and how can we help you?”), accountability; skill-sharing sessions; a talented and diverse community that offered continuous support which facilitated each others projects and progress.
Once again I appreciate that it’s the people and your attitude who define your world and happiness.
During my time in Bali I have met some of the most inspiring people and beautiful souls who I am so grateful to call my friends.
We worked together, supported each other through our ups and downs of being in transition and building new futures, and spent amazing weekends exploring Bali and islands close by, reached natural highs at ecstatic dance.
The support on eachothers projects has continued long after being in Bali. And reunions are happening all over the globe as soon as two or more tribemembers cross paths.
Full Immersion at Tribewanted Monestevole : the lifestyle test
The next step of my journey of making this dream reality is to check the lifestyle by living it, understand the in’s and out’s of running a retreat location, living in a close-knit community and the challenges that come with it.
And where better to take the opportunity to take my first steps by learning behind the scenes than at Tribewanted Monestevole for the full months of April and May.
A group of 6 immersees (from the UK, Spain, Germany, Canada, and the US) and I lived a sustainable lifestyle with the local community, supported work in the kitchens and permaculture garden for a few hours every day.
We pruned the olive trees and bundled the branches for fire; worked in the vineyard; weeded, made raised beds and planted seeds with all produce required in the following months; fed the animals; made bread, made cheese, and home-made pizza and many more delicious Italian dishes.
The evenings were spent cooking and eating together, playing the Italian card game Briscola, having jam sessions and a few spontaneous very fun kitchen parties.
I met so many special people at Monestevole who I know will always remain a part of my life. I didn’t even realise I had the capacity for so many new friends.
So, concept developed, lifestyle tested…what next?
I cannot even put into words how much I’ve turned my life around and taken action towards my dreams in the past months. And I’ve learned so much thanks to all the inspiring people I met along the way, and of course not to forget the endless support from incredible friends and family at home.
I realised after developing the concept for my dream location offering the lifestyle and workshops on taking some timeout to “decelerate to accelerate” that I’m not quite ready to settle yet. But I will in time. In the meantime I continue to travel and have now found a way to live the more nomadic lifestyle I love.
In addition, I’m a certified coach, offer individual coaching sessions and facilitate workshops for people who are stuck, looking to reconnect with themselves and take the first courageous steps towards fulfillment. My purpose is to guide people in transition to follow their own inner compass and lead a fulfilled life on their own terms. Through taking a pause, decelerating.
And on top of all of that I am happy to have started to work with Filippo and Ben on a new and epic Tribewanted adventure…
Next stop: Tribewanted Gonubalabala
I’m so excited! Tribewanted’s latest project combines all of my passions: managing an amazing project, travel & adventure, building sustainable tourism, bonfire chats about life, our future and how to move forward — with, once again, an inspiring new tribe.
Gonubalabala is a small island in the Samarai archepelago in Papua New Guinea. We will be supporting the 20 island inhabitants of the Mailulu clans’ goal of building a simple off-grid eco-tourism site this November.
While camping at the beach we’ll be supporting the local tribe to build the first Tribewanted accommodation, a compost loo and bucket shower. We’ll be supporting them fishing, working in the gardens and enjoying timeout at the stunning beach and snorking with the beautiful manta rays.
Interested in joining? We still have a few places left and would love to welcome you to the tribe!For more information click here!
Feeling stuck? To join my next retreat Click here
Ready to say yes to starting up your own business ? — Join the tribe in Bali Click here
Dreaming of living the Italian life for a while and lending a hand at the farm in November/December 2015? Click here
