A wave-watching writing retreat for joy, motivation and meaning

The other day, I went on a one-day “writing retreat”. I generally work well from new spaces (I am writing this from Copenhagen central station as I am taking a break from “real” work and waiting for a connecting train) and especially moving spaces (so looking forward to being on the train for a couple of hours soon — assuming the seat reservation works out and I have a working power outlet by my seat!). For me, there is something about having only a limited amount of time available before I need to pack up my computer and get off at a different location from where I started from that makes me focus in a different way from sitting at my desk in the office, and being in an unfamiliar environment, especially one that is constantly changing outside the window, also makes me feel unstuck. Also I have been telling myself for years that I am productive in this type of settings, so maybe at this point it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let’s not question it, then, whatever works…

We took the train to Helsingborg and then sat on the (electric!) ferry — back and forth between Helsingborg and Helsingør to write. After a couple of hours, we went off to have lunch and a little exploration trip in Denmark. While I am usually not a huge fan of castles, what I do like are moats, and this one did not disappoint!

It of course helped that this castle is located right by the sea and that it was a fairly windy day, so we got some excellent wave watching!

Love a good splash!

Or two. Or five…

But I have to say, the castle itself was also pretty cool!

But here is why I love moats: You always have great wave watching, because there are always wind funnels, obstacles, sharp corners. Here, it is so awesome to see how waves are trying to propagate around the corner but quickly die out as soon as the wind forcing is gone…

Then we worked for a bit more, and went to Helsingborg’s tropical beach, because who doesn’t like to look at potted plants in a climate where they really don’t want to be? But first some more wave watching!

Helsingborg is my favourite wave watching spot close-ish to home, here are always good waves (in contrast to my home beach, where it is way too shallow way too far out, so usually there are only very small waves…

Nice breaking waves!

And nice splashing!

And more splashing. Believe me, I took easily 100x more pictures than the ones I am showing!

Ok, last splash.

And some potted plants!

So this is the end of our “tropical” writing retreat…

But, having just written a post about dealing with eco-anxiety, these type of “retreats” (like another one recently to Kristianstad) help me to maintain joy and balance and meaning. I get to do my job (and I do love what I am working with!) in a setting that is inspiring and productive, and with the best company. It is a big contrast to what normal days in the hamster wheel of the office are like, but days like this one — actually doing big steps at moving a project forward that is meaningful to me — make it easier to also deal with the other days…