When you say, “I need to get away somewhere different for a while,” it tells me that part of you is yearning for:

• Perspective – distance can help us see things more clearly, outside the noise and emotional fog.
• Safety – a shift in location can provide a kind of emotional shelter when familiar spaces start feeling suffocating.
• Healing – new environments can be therapeutic, especially if they are peaceful, nurturing, or inspiring.

A change of scenery doesn’t have to be permanent or dramatic. Sometimes even a few days by the sea, a weekend in a new town, or time in nature can recalibrate your energy and offer you the space to acknowledge what’s just been unearthed.

Or Do I Just Need to Get Busy Again?

Ah, this is such an honest and important question.

Getting busy is a strategy—one that works in the short term. It helps us feel productive, needed, in control. But the trouble with keeping busy as a form of emotional survival is that eventually, the feelings catch up. They sit quietly underneath all the doing, waiting. And when life slows down, when we stop, they rise again—often more loudly than before.

That’s not to say that staying active is wrong—there’s real value in movement, focus, structure, and purpose. But only if it’s paired with time to feel, to reflect, to process. Otherwise, busyness becomes a bandage over a wound that needs air to heal.

So, What Do You Truly Need Right Now?

It sounds like you’re standing at a familiar crossroads:

• One road leads to doing, distracting, moving fast.
• The other leads to feeling, slowing down, being with the truth of what’s happening.

Neither road is wrong. But one will offer long-term healing. The other might buy you temporary relief. And you are wise enough to be questioning that now—which is beautiful.

Maybe the answer is both:

• Take a short break somewhere new. Give yourself the gift of space and gentle reflection.
• Let yourself be with the discomfort, even just a little each day.
• Then slowly return to structure and meaningful activity, but this time with your emotions alongside you, not buried beneath your schedule.

A Journal Prompt for You:

“What am I really trying to run from, and what might I find if I paused long enough to listen to my heart?”

And maybe ask yourself:

• Am I looking for escape or for transformation?
• Am I avoiding pain or creating space for peace?

Whatever you decide, you’re not wrong. You’re responding as best you can to something painful. And being confused doesn’t mean you’re lost—it means you’re on the edge of something new, and your heart just hasn’t caught up with your mind yet.

— Linda C J Turner

Trauma Therapist | Neuroscience & Emotional Intelligence Practitioner | Advocate for Women’s Empowerment