Don’t become creatively constipated.

Osaka, Japan - 23rd February, 2025

There is something deep within my heart and body that loves travelling. I always have and I’ve often been lucky enough to travel more than most. But it was a few years ago, after a few big life shifts that I really questioned what is what that I loved about travel.

Was it escapism? Was I still running from myself and chasing that Peter Pan lifestyle? Or, was there something deeper pulling me to all these different places around the world? I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the latter - let me explain why.

Travel for me, sits in the same bucket as things like writing and photography. All 3 of them fundamentally change how I view the world. For example, when I’m writing, everything about language in the world becomes more interesting. Even grammar is fascinating - how the meaning of a sentence can change entirely, thanks to a comma.

Taking photos on the streets of Tokyo on Valentines Day in 2025

Or how someone emphasises and intonates at certain points, to make their point. Or, when you can start to recognise where in the body someone is talking from. Grounded? Deeper voice. Heart? Soft around the edges. Head? Logical and reason-based.

When it comes to photography, it’s much the same. Simply being in the habit of taking photos changes the way I see the world and changes the way I am in the world too. Everything becomes a little more photogenic or romantic - through the mindset of photography, there’s always a frame or scene to capture. It’s almost like life becomes somewhat of a movie in action.

On my GAP year in 2010, I took over 10,000 photos while travelling Europe as a solo 18 year old. It was the way I experienced Europe for the first time and it became an obsession - I couldn’t go anywhere without my camera. That evolved into event photography and I spent 5 years in my early twenties taking photos at a nightclub I worked at with my best mate, before moving to events and weddings (we used to DJ as well).

But, somewhere along the line, a belief system formed. It was time to grow up. Time to get a real job. Time to put the reflective writing and the travel photography away. These were immature parts of me that couldn’t come with me into my adult life. And it would seem, travel was thrown in there too. You can’t keep travelling, I thought, you’ve gotta get a house and a mortgage and do all the things everyone else is doing.

I’ll admit here and now, for a number of years I was very lost and ended up in some very dark places in terms of my mental health. I’ve had incredible support around me, but there were some darker, repressed sides of myself that I had to confront and only I could confront them.

In one of those dark days, a few years ago, the advice from my therapist and loved ones was to connect back to something I used to love doing for fun. I realised in that moment, it had been year since I’d picked up a camera for fun. So, I wandered into JB HI Fi with no intention of buying a camera, and there on the shelf was a new Olympus OM-D Mirrorless camera with a beautiful old school look to it, with a 60% discount applied to it. It had no box, just the camera and lens but it was a bargain. All I had to do was buy a battery for it.

Taking photos of the art installations at Burning Man was a whole adventure in and of iteself

I checked my bank account and I had just enough to pay for it. $1,600 later and I walked out of there with a new camera. That camera has since come with me on some serious adventures - Mt Kilimanjaro, Safari in Africa, Burning Man, LA and Venice Beach and now Japan. Just last week, I was even able to pickup a vintage 55mm lens with an aperture of 1.8 in Tokyo and I’ve been shooting with it everyday since.

So how does all this relate to travel you might be wondering? Well, travelling for me is as much about the experiences themselves as it is about the person I become in the process. I believe from my own experience and from the research, that 2 things have a major influence on your life - your relationships and your environment (often inter-connected).

When I’m travelling, writing and taking photography, life takes on a certain feel and texture. Life feels unique, special and alive. Not only that, I feel alive. I feel connected to this magical experience we’re all having. And I think there’s something in that. We all have certain unique ways of seeing and experiencing the world and we all have different ways of expressing our perspective in a creative form.

We all need a creative outlet or we can risk ending up ‘creatively constipated’, without a way to ‘get out’ of our system the ideas and thoughts that we have. We know from the extensive research of leaders such as Gabor Mate, that when we store emotion in the body, this can lead to illness and ill-health - the energy needs somewhere to go. If we don’t let it out, we can end up feeling frustrated, confused and even angry.

Energy needs to move and as we allow it to move within and outside of ourselves, we allow life to start moving to. Whether it’s a pen for writing, a camera for taking photos or a passport for travel, we all need to find ways in which we can bring our unique perspective to life. It becomes an adventure in and of itself and it can not only heal us in the process but also add to the texture and magic that is life.

Taken on the wintery roads of Japan on our way back to Tokyo after skiing for the week in Hakuba