Having a break in July is the best. It means you can travel wherever you want, come back and it's still summer (unless you live in London right now) and you slowly realise that half of the year has already happened. Where did all these months go? Wow, time is truly running too fast. Even more so did I feel I needed some time to switch off and relax. I haven't had a week off since six months and I could feel that my body got tired and my mind could not really rest, filter and calm down anymore. 

And where can I relax the best? Absolutely, at the sea, at our sea. I'm really proud that Germany has such a nice sea side. I went to my favourite little secret paradise in the north east of Germany, a peninsula called Darß at the Baltic Sea, to meet my mum and to spend some quality time with her. For the first time I didn't think about that I might get bored or that there is nothing interesting for me to do because for the first time I could feel all I want is to connect with nature and my mum. Nothing else was important. The first evening I arrived we walked along the beach, it was sunset time and we sat down on the sand with a bottle of wine and enjoyed that view over the beach, this beautiful light and our conversation. A conversation that doesn't need any introduction or any explanation - a deep conversation from mum to daughter, from women to women. And I could feel already the heaviness on my shoulders started to disappear. 

I'm such a fan of the sea and the beach. I constantly think how can I make it to live closer or by the sea? Why is it so calming and makes me feel at peace? Most of the answers I found in one book that I was reading in that week. I got it from a friend who recently became a marine biologist. The book is called BLUE MIND written by another marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols and it's about the effects that water has on our wellbeing and health. No wonder that I feel so at ease at the sea or near a lake or river. 

My takeaway from that week is not only that spending quality time with my family makes me happy but also that one week is enough for me to think clearly again and to start cutting out the "noise" in my life. And with that I mean doing and following things that are actually not helping me to become a better person or help me feel happy. It refers to the distractions in my daily life, the extra stress I create running from one appointment to another in a city with over 8 million people. I have now adjusted my daily routine, took the simplicity of the sea side life style into my big city lifestyle and feel so much better and relaxed. 

What about you? How does a holiday by the water effect you?