It's ok to switch off

#71 - It's ok to switch off (EDITED)

Mon, Jun 10, 2024 10:09AM • 19:26

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

india, retreat, year, trip, emma, tigers, monetized, book, switch, holiday, delhi, content, planned, rest, packing, share, pleasure, life, break, business

00:00

Emma, do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell, show a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world, and now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure too. It's possible, and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams, to create a life you love and to live it now, not wait for a time and or someday in the future, I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

01:03

I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place, now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land, waterways and skies where I work, live, listen, learn and play from here on Yugambeh country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present.

01:26

Hello and welcome to today's podcast. I am tuning in to you from my bed on the eve of my trip to India with my gorgeous family, and I wanted to share this one because I think with my topic, or my main content piece of pleasure, there's going to be this misconception that you always need to be combining the business and leisure, and I think there's a way that that always happens when you're an entrepreneur. But I also want to say to you that it's okay to switch off, and that's what this episode's about. It's okay to switch off, and it's okay to have a holiday. And actually, my this trip to India, I think it baffles people, it's actually a holiday, and I'm really excited about that.

02:19

It actually came about on my last trip,

02:23

which was February 2024,

02:26

I was there with my gorgeous client, Christine cancunon. She was running her sheath rates retreat, which I was co hosting and representing my travel partner over there, indusbound. So I'm the Australian representative for indusbound, and we help people to organize trips, luxury, bespoke travel in India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal.

02:48

And I was there, and I was doing a cooking class with the wonderful Neha from saffron palette, and she said to me, you know, you always come in. You come to Delhi quite often, but you you never stay long. And I said, yeah, that's, you know, I have been many times. And, you know, I'm often coming on my clients schedules. I'm coming for a retreat or in, you know, flying in between things. And so there isn't as much time.

03:21

But I have been here before. And she said, Oh, you know, it just be nice maybe for you to have a holiday here, or to have just come and kind of hang out sometime. And I was like,

03:33

Yeah, I guess that would be nice. And we had a bit more time in Delhi last time because of being on the chief rates retreat, we were at the

03:42

the ihdf in Delhi Fair, which is a the gift fair, so I got to be there a bit more. And, you know, she really reminded me that I do love that place.

03:54

It's where I spent a lot of time on my first few visits, and I stayed in homes with people. And we didn't do touristy stuff. We did local things. We went out and had coffee, we went out and ate food, we went shopping, we went to functions, went to weddings. I don't know, I kind of got to see the local side of it, and I do enjoy the city. And I think coming and going, I got to see glimpses of it, but I didn't really get to enjoy what I enjoyed. So I went home with that. And initially my plan for this trip was to go over for a colleague's 30th anniversary party. So my dear friends, CK govel and his wonderful daughter, chandrama govel, they're hosting a party for their business active air, which has been around for 30 years. And I thought, Well, what a great reason to go. I wanted to take Matthew and Finn for longer, my husband and son and I can always India. I've always got work to do. I've always got.

05:00

Things to do, I can always it can always be a pleasure trip, and in itself, going to a colleague's,

05:07

you know, someone that you met through business, going to their parties is a form of pleasure. I think, combining business and leisure,

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I'm also talking to active air about potential distribution of my book, or something to do with my book in India, so stay tuned. But you know, I really wanted to just go to the party. And I've always wanted Matt to go to a wedding in India, and I thought it's going to be like a wedding. It's going to be like a wedding, and

05:35

yeah, and then, because the party's in June,

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that's a great season for the Tigers. And in central India, they've got these amazing national parks and sanctuaries. Well, they're not sanctuary, sorry, they're just wild. They're they're national parks

05:53

for tigers. And if you see near the latest Disney documentaries, it's National Geographic on on Disney Channel,

06:04

they've actually managed to, like, increase and I'll share more. I'll definitely do a podcast episode about the incredible work they've done. But they've increased the population by, like, three, three times. So Tigers were desperately endangered, and the work that they've been doing in India, even in the last five years since I first went to this region, is incredible. And a lot of that is down to tourism and protecting the Tigers and understanding

06:34

that they are, well, not only are they a draw card, but also there is such a crucial part of the environment, and so I decided we take my son and my husband, and so I put together, actually a tiger tour. And so me and my partner, Pankaj, put together a program, an itinerary, and actually put that out to a few people, and was selling that tiger tour.

06:59

I could have probably promoted that harder, but something probably was holding me back, let alone all the other things I have on. And then yeah, ne'er house, words came back to me that

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maybe I just needed a holiday here. And

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yeah, so we just went, you know what? Actually, especially with selling my investment property. Some of the big things we have going on this year, how nice to just go and have a holiday in my favorite country in the world, and to actually remember the things I love about it. And so in Delhi, we have very few plans. We're going for 10 days. All up, we'll be in Delhi for five nights. Then we'll be in Kanna, within which is in central India, and the kana National Park to see the Tigers. We're there for three nights, then we come back to Delhi and then fly home,

07:53

and yeah, all I've got planned is

07:56

dinner with Neha and some cooking,

07:59

some shopping to find maybe an outfit for the party, the party and the Tigers.

08:07

I would love to do a massage at each hotel. That's something I've sort of said, one, to test out the spa. But two, because that's, that's kind of all I want to do. I'd love to work on my book. I think that's going to be really incredible to be able to look back on my book and know

08:28

that I wrote and worked on it in India, some of it,

08:33

I've done a lot of batching with my work, so I can kind of have some break. But yeah, I just wanted this reminder that

08:42

you can switch off and it, I got this lesson again last year, or sort of planted last year when I went on the rose farm retreat with Denise duffel Thomas, a money mindset mentor

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and coach. And she, she sort of said, like, I really planned to go there. And I was like, Oh, I sell retreats, and I'm going to show all this stuff, and I'm going to talk about my experience here, and I can, like, it'll be like, a way to promote my retreats by talking about retreats, which is true. And then I got this card pulled, this oracle card there about

09:24

under the roses. It's called

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subrosa, which means under the roses. And it meant

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that you know, you'd have these sort of secrets. And

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I sort of took that message is that that retreat could be just for me, and that not everything has to be monetized. And it's something that Denise talks about in her program, but also reinforced again there, that not everything has to be monetized, not every experience has to be monetized, especially sometimes you just can do something to enjoy it. You.

10:00

When you're a business person and an entrepreneur, there can be that leaning towards, oh, well, I can turn this into content. I can,

10:08

I don't know, make a business out of it. And as I said, India, for me now is always got a fantastic,

10:17

you know, pleasure element, because I'm always, I guess, promoting India by being there, talking to clients inadvertently, about people could see me there, and they go, I want to go there. So then I can say, well, we can help you plan your trip.

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And, you know, I'm sharing content on my socials and things like that. So that's kind of still doing business, but this time, no formal business, and

10:47

deciding not to go ahead with the tiger tour for everyone else and to just have that for me, my husband and my son was really me taking that switch off message that it's okay to have something that's just for me. It's okay to have a holiday, it's okay to switch off.

11:06

And it's awesome that I'm able to so many times monetize or turn it into business ideas. And I think that entrepreneur mind is always there, but there's always also a big

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and crucial part of business, which is resting and taking time out and switching off. And I do enjoy that. And so I'm feeling really excited to go tomorrow. I know that I'm being called to rest,

11:36

to go inward, to focus on my stuff,

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because I've got a lot of big things coming up. The book is huge. It's life changing. I know that that is going to require energy and my focus. And so it's nice to go and have this time in the middle of the year. And funnily enough, last year, I do think I get to that mid part of the year and go. I need a break.

12:04

Hi. I'm Alicia major. I love working with Emma so much. I've done everything to the cheers offered Emma's how to live and love your brand. Course, opened my eyes to the power of personal branding. Then I moved on to one on one coaching. Attended multiple of her fabulous photo shoots, and her rest and receive retreats have all been the best time out to rest, think about all those juicy possibilities, and then wait for you to receive that post retreat goodness.

12:31

I went to Bali last year for five days, and I planned it about three weeks before

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just desperately needed a break.

12:41

I was over it. I was really over it, to be honest. I'm not over it at the moment. I just, but last year, I was really felt like I was getting to breaking point and going to Bali, even booking it. I got some energy back, and then being there and just having a super simple time and again, I went with the intention of just having a break, but I was invited by my dad because he was there, going there for an industry conference that I used to work on. And so he's like, come we can have some fun, like the old days, you know, you can hang out. And I was like, Yep, so booked it just poolside, walks, massages, socializing at their some of their functions, with colleagues. And it's funny, because that's where I actually met CK goville For the first time. He'd known my dad for many years, and then we went and saw him in November, had tea. He met Christine. They can do they've been partnering on some shipments and air freight together. And then we also, part started working with his daughter.

13:56

They have a an NGO that they run, and so we're now supporting that NGO by making contributions and visiting and learning about the project when guests come. And then we ran sheep's

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Christine's retreat in the February so, and then just, just a year later, I'm I'm coming to celebrate their their party. So, you know, sometimes getting to that point of going, Ah, really need a break, actually leads to something wonderful.

14:29

We shouldn't have to be quite so forced. And so this was all planned. It wasn't just me going stuff at all and booking the trip. This was planned for quite a while, and it just felt really important to go

14:43

to be with my friends and colleagues and support them and celebrate them, and to make an excuse to have a lovely trip with my family. So yeah, this is a bit more of a switch off trip for me. I'll definitely be sharing I want to do a sort of day in the life.

15:00

Of which is why I worked this week on making sure we had content to go out. We've got some newsletters to go out. I'm recording this podcast now so it can go out. And we've got some other content that's batched up,

15:12

which allows me to then be able to be more present. The

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only other thing I want to be working on there is the book. So, yeah, that's me.

15:22

This is your permission slip if you need it to switch off and give yourself a break. Plan in the little trip

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that's just for you, that's just for your family. That's just because

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you don't always need a reason, and you don't need to get to the

15:40

I'm over it or be like it's the stock, standard holiday and got to jam everything in because it's the only trip we get. So it's okay to switch off. It's okay to just have a holiday. It's okay to do things just for you. You don't have to monetize everything. And yeah, but if you do, I will sort of go back and forth. But if you do get ideas and feel creative, that's beautiful, too. I really enjoyed being in Bali last year making those connections, feeling like my brain was back into gear, feeling energized and excited and inspired for my business. And I know that India does that for me every time. So I'm really excited to go there and just to feel that inspiration. But I need to allow the space and have that rest in order for that creativity, that energy, that inspiration, to come back. So I look forward to reporting back after the trip and seeing how it went. I did this last year with our

16:39

Euro trip. Did a little bit of Bucha before and then after, and I will start to share a little bit more content this one. I think the time just went fast and have been a little bit run down. This week, I would like to start sharing how we prepare, what we pack. So I'll be doing some videos and things like that. What it looks like packing for a family of three to go away, to go on a trip, and actually realized just as I was packing my bag tonight, that I am literally flying in. So this is probably the bit more extreme, and it's why I need the rest. I'm flying back in from India at 8am on the 19th of June, and then I'm flying down to Sydney at 1130 on the 19th of June. So I realized I needed to have a bag ready, packed that I can just go to the car, say goodbye to my husband and son, swap bags, go back into the domestic airport and start again. So that'll be three days in Sydney after our trip, and sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. And there are things that

17:47

back to back, but yeah, that's why I definitely wanted to have this holiday and to switch off. So have a wonderful day, lovely one. I hope this given you some food for thought. Please do write to me if you feel inspired and you go and do something like that, just you can email me Emma at Emma lovell.au right, switch off, or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn message or anything. I love to hear what you feel and what you think, and if this is making an impact for you, but much more pleasure content to come as we ramp up towards the launch of my book The Art of pleasure. Book Launch Tickets are available now at my website. Emma lovell.au forward slash book launch had to get a plug in there, and I'll see you next time I really need to go to bed because I have to be up in seven hours to get to the airport. Good night.

18:42

Thank you for listening, lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love. Group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au the same as my website, but all the details are in the show notes. Lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom, seeking. Now go out there and live a life you love, you.