Take Time To Live Well

Thanks to a new passion – or mindset – these four women have transformed their lives, and started putting themselves first...

- Emma Elms, Lauren McDiarmid

LORINDA VOGES, 37, is single and owns a PR and media company.

“After reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love, I was so captivated by her experiences of self-discovery through solo travel in Italy, India and Bali that I vowed to do a similar trip. This was quickly sidelined as, over the next two years, I focused on getting the fledgling business I’d set up in 2011 off the ground.

Then I hit a turning point in February 2013. A close friend passed away quite suddenly, and the shock made me take stock of my own life. I’d become so caught up in day-to-day responsibilities that I’d lost sight of my own needs. There was no joy in my life; I couldn’t recall the last time I’d done something just for me, just for the pleasure it would bring. The more I thought about it, the more I felt the need to pack a bag and escape to an exotic destination, far from the stresses of life, the pressures of work and the sadness of my loss. I booked a three-week trip to Singapore and Bali for December 2013, just for myself.

I took each day as it came during that trip, made plans based on what locals recommended, and soaked up everything around me. Not feeling pressure to do anything other than what I wanted to do, without having to take anyone else’s opinions into consideration, was liberating. It was the best gift I could’ve given myself. I quickly felt recharged, but most of all, the trip helped me grow. I experienced so many things on my own – from watching the sunset from a rooftop bar in Singapore to sitting with a traditional medicine man in Bali – that, by the time I got home, I was a more confident version of myself. I was also much more in tune with my emotions and what I wanted from life. It encouraged me to make other changes too, such as uprooting my life in bustling Joburg and moving down to Cape Town last year to enjoy slower coastal living.