Living and working remotely was a dream of mine for a long time. If you’ve followed my journey the last several years, then you may have seen that I have been a bit of a Nomad. I’ve lived in Australia, England, Amsterdam, and the East and West Coast parts of the US.
This desire to travel and create a unique lifestyle started in 2015 when I traveled around Europe and witnessed a new way of living that felt aligned with my soul. Content, blogging, and traveling for a living started to become not just a pipe dream, but glimpses of a reality. I went back home to Australia and several months later launched a festival for creatives and entrepreneurs; #RadLivin. This grew into creating content for different brands and building strategy and communities for companies who are creating a positive impact. I combined a lot of my travels with video projects, filming in Greece, Finland, and London.
The more I traveled and said yes to new opportunities, took risks, and went into the unknown, the more I realized that as humans, we are constantly searching for balance. When we have one thing, we crave parts of the other. This desire for balance is something I’ve been looking at more closely; Wanting to expand and feel freedom, while deeply craving a sense of stability, consistent community, and a home base.
Having an adventurous, nomadic lifestyle for so long made it hard to figure out how to have a base. Traveling and being remote became the norm, and so the idea of living in one place moved into a different territory. Staying still felt like the risk; the unknown. I wanted to find all of the parts that I loved about travel in one location.
I knew that finding a base was something that I wanted and was ready for, because while I have a deep part of me that loves to explore the world, I also love to be cozy, curate spaces, and expand into surroundings. One or the other never seemed to fit quite right for me. I would travel for a couple months, and then get a little tired and burned out and wanted the complete opposite – a grounded home.
Whether you’ve been traveling, vanlifing, working remote, or curious what it would be like to find a home base that feels authentic and aligned for you, here are a few ways that you can make a shift.
1. Making the (mindset) shift.
You aren’t stuck. I thought that if I was based in one location that I would feel stagnant. That it needed to be one or the other. On the road and full-time traveling, or home. I thought I would lose the adventurous part of myself who loves meeting new people, exploring new places, and trying new lifestyles if I was to have a consistent home base.
I’ve found that having a base allows me to curate travel intentionally; to go to places that I feel called to whether for work or a personal adventure. It’s also allowed me to look at being in one place differently. The more I am in my home base, the more I want to explore it. There are so many neighborhoods, coffee shops, nature destinations in this area. I treat each week like a new little adventure and feel that sense of synchronicity in daily life. “Who will be at this coffee shop today? I wonder who I will meet.” Having a home base that you enjoy feels like expansion in a grounded and fulfilling way. Each week continues to evolve, I make more friends, feel more aligned and supported.
There’s something about being planted that allows life to bring things to you, rather than feeling like you need to go out and search for it.
2. It gives the space for your dreams to catch-up to you.
I believe that when you declare a dream, whether it’s out-loud or to yourself, life wants to bring it to you. When you move around a lot, and are chasing external adventures, although they can be beautiful, when you slow down and stay in one place it makes it easier for the things that you want to catch-up to you.
When I was traveling, I realized looking back that a lot of my favorite synergies and connections with people were in places that I didn’t book the night before, but months before. It was as if life knew that in order to connect me with different people, it needed some time to work out my schedule and their schedules, so that we were in the same place at the same time. Something at the time that felt like a quick synchronicity, may have taken a lot of behind the scenes work.
I also found that once I settle into a base, my nervous system gets the chance to settle as well. There is a lot of excitement and new energy around being somewhere completely unknown and different. Our nervous systems like to feel as grounded and safe as possible before going for big things. By having a home base and experiencing familiarity, our minds and bodies can relax. This allows energy for us to focus on creating. I will say, this can happen while traveling if you are feeling really grounded in yourself, moving at a slower pace and feeling a sense of peace and safety within. Physically not moving around a lot has allowed my body to ground into my space and feel capable of executing new ideas in a harmonious way.
3. Finding a Base.
Finding a location that feels right after traveling, or even if it’s the first time you’re considering a move, can be hard. After having experiences of different cultures, topography, and energies, it can feel like there won’t be a base that ‘has it all’.
Finding the right location was the hardest part for me. After Australia, I tried Charlotte, London, Amsterdam, and Charleston. Amsterdam was the closest I had to a base because I found my dream canal apartment and built a community of close friends. I was close to other locations around Europe and so it felt like a good balance between having a base and the ability to travel. It was too far from my family and film production work, because after 2020 work really picked up in the US. I found I was balancing between two worlds of a ‘grounded nomad’ in Amsterdam and working in the US, and so I decided that the base would need to be stateside. Before choosing to move back to the US, I wrote down questions in my journal similar to the below:
What elements make you feel at home? What nature elements are non-negotiable for you? (Is it the mountains, ocean, forest). Do you care if it’s sunny, if it rains?
I thought the ocean was a non-negotiable for me after going to college in Southern California and living in Australia for years. I realized what makes me feel most at home are tall trees. As long as I can look out my window and see trees, I feel grounded. Where I live in Portland is close to a river and lake, and so I like the feeling that water is close by. The beach is only about an hour drive if I really need a fix. Deciding what elements make you feel at home can help you to find the location that fits best.
What does your ideal day look like? If you were to wake up and have the most authentic day to you, what would you be doing?
I realized that what makes me the happiest is quality coffee shops. Whether it’s working from one or meeting up with friends there, I could spend hours each day exploring different places. I also love being near family and friends who have known me for a long time. There’s something about meeting up with people where you can let go and just be yourself when moving to a new place that feels grounding. I’ve definitely lived in places where I moved not knowing anyone, and love to build a community from the ground up. For this move, it was important to me to have at least 1-2 close friends who already lived there. This has been so supportive and helpful with having a new home base.
What do you need in a base in order for your career to be successful?
Are there specific industries or organizations that you work with? Clients that are more likely to live in a specific location? Do you need to be able to travel easily and live near an international airport or train system?
I usually travel to film for my clients, but being in a location where there are lot of freelancers, companies in a wide variety of industries, and nature as a beautiful commercial backdrop, made Portland a great fit for me. The airport is easy to get in and out of and goes direct to Europe as well.
What does your future vision look like, and can you see it happening at that location?
When looking ahead at a base, one of the best things you can do is write out what your future vision looks like. Dream big and small. I like to write out dreams that I would love to happen, even if they seem a little out of reach in present day, but something to work towards.
Then step back and compare your vision with the location you’re thinking of. Can this happen there? It’s ok if you move or change your mind in the future, but at least knowing that it’s possible in the location that you’re thinking of living in will make the day to day steps feel like you’re moving towards your goal vs. moving towards something in a place that feels like it has a glass ceiling.
4. Bringing the energy of the nomad life home: It’s not one or the other.
I’ve connected with so many people who moved to Portland after living a similar lifestyle to me and it feels nice to have like-minded friends who can relate to having that experience, and who I can see any time because we both live in the same place. I’ve also worked different aspects of traveling that I love into my daily life and seasons in Oregon.
It was a couple months into winter, right after a big snowstorm, and I craved the feeling I get when I travel. I wanted to wear clothes that I used to wear in Europe, explore home and design stores, chic cafes, and feel inspired. My initial reaction was to look at flights to Copenhagen. Then I allowed myself to slow down and ask, what do I think I will get from traveling there? Who do I get to be there? What parts of myself do I feel like I could express there, and how can do I that here?
My whole energy changed. I started dressing differently and sought out boutiques, concept stores, and cafes that felt like I was getting that creative design inspiration I was seeking, but in Portland. It also made me fall in love with where I live even more because I realized there were other globally minded individuals who live here too – who have traveled or been inspired, and brought that inspiration to our town.
5. Creating (evolving) a new identity
Something that can be hard if you’ve been remote or on the road for awhile is the identity that you held with it. The idea of being a Nomad, a Traveler, a Global Citizen, became so engrossed in my identity that I didn’t know who I would be to myself or my community if I was to be based full-time somewhere. Accepting a new identity can feel like a loss in some ways, and that’s ok and normal to feel that. Feel the feelings that come up when you think about letting go of an old identity to make way for the new evolved one – an integrated person who has had experiences and brings that to where they live today.
One of the beautiful parts about looking at my connection to travel, and how I felt that it was tied to my identity, allowed me to realize that I am so much more than where I live, what I do, or my lifestyle. Who I am as a person actually doesn’t have much to do with travel or being based somewhere; It’s in my every day being. How I spend my time, what I find joy in, and how I connect with people.
Letting go of the need to have a certain job, location, or lifestyle in order to be seen for who you are and trust that who you are on the road, is who you are at the grocery store. How you interact with people in a hostel, is how you interact with the new neighbor next door.
You are a whole, complete being no matter where you live. Let your authentic self shine through and bring that to where you are.
6. Be the invitation – people come to you.
One of the things that I love the most about being grounded somewhere is that people from different parts of life have been traveling to Portland. I’ve spent the last several years traveling to visit friends, and meeting up with community in different parts of the world. It has all been amazing, but a lot of planning and execution goes into it. It’s been such a lovely shift to have a home base that I love, and to have a space that my community can visit. Traveling to me is about the people, and having visitors from different parts of the world in Portland feels like I am traveling and experiencing something new at home.
7. Intentional travel – it’s not one or the other.
One of the biggest things I’ve been integrating is realizing that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It gets to be both – a home base and intentional travel. I used to drop everything to get on a flight to explore a new place. I now savor doing researching and feeling into the places that my heart would absolutely love to go to. (Japan I’m coming for you!) By making your whole life more intentional, slowing down and grounding in one place, it also allows synchronicity for trips and new experiences to come about. You’re able to better listen to the whispers of places that you would love to go to – maybe there is something magical waiting for you there.
You can be a traveler, and have a home base. Letting go of all of nothing allows growth, community, and expansion to happen holistically… and if you ever get tired of being in one place, you always know that you can go on the road again. Human beings crave balance, and sometimes getting that balance means diving into one space or the other. Whichever you decide to do, is right for you at the time.
Photo credit: Chad Miller
