It’s good to slow down once in a while. Everyone has their ways of shifting their gears such as reading a book or going for a walk. For me, it’s so important to do this. I can easily exhaust myself sometimes, especially when living in a city like Istanbul. I think that it’s safe to say that Istanbul is like the London of Turkey and you sometimes get caught up in it.

Being in Istanbul and doing such a fast-paced course like SCA I can get caught up in it sometimes, but it’s not just about SCA and Istanbul. I have two things I do whenever I feel that I’m just doing too much. One of those things is physical and one I would say is mental. I go to the gym every day, which is my Daily getaway and time to relieve stress. I have been doing gym on and off for about 6 years and I know my way around the gym. I find it very helpful to get away from everything, even if it’s just 40 minutes. Going to the gym for me had its many stages like how I tried to lift the heaviest I can and always ended up injuring myself. Going to the gym nowadays for me is just fully about disconnecting. Sometimes it can be hard to motivate me to go, and one interesting thing I started doing is going without music. Training fully within my thoughts helped me with coming up with some good ideas for my briefs. And I don’t feel dependent on listing to fast-paced music at one of the only times of the day when I wanna slow down.

Going to the gym is just an example of my Daily disconnects. When I fully wanna disconnect I go to this lovely place we call Akyaka. This is the city in Turkey where my family lives and it is basically when my parents decided to slow down after covid arrived and the whole World had to shift gears. Our home in Akyaka is my dad’s dream home and my dad is an architect so, it turned out to be a dreamy home. The house itself is inside the wilderness and it’s very spacious as well as very cozy. The city of Akyaka is also a very relaxed place. It’s one of the top 5 places on earth to do kite surfing so, it’s one of the more exotic places in Turkey. There are no skyscrapers, no traffic, and no shopping malls. It’s an actual disconnect from everything and also It’s usually whenever I get the chance to spend some quality time with my parents. For me, it’s kind of like rehab. Whenever I lose motivation or feel like I have to slow down that’s where I end up for at least a week.

Everybody needs their disconnects in life. I’m very lucky to have one of the best ways to do it with Akyaka. When I decided to stop doing architecture I went straight to Akyaka to get some fresh air and get some guidance from my parents. That’s when my dad told me about SCA and I decided to give it a go.

@alicenanuras