So, I have a bit of a confession to make: I’m not very good at switching off. I know what you’re thinking: how can that be true considering how much I rave about the importance of self-care and ‘you’ time. As anyone who knows me will attest though, I’m incredibly highly strung, have an unhealthy tendency of berating myself for not working hard enough and am borderline neurotic. I’m a doer in every sense of the term so if anyone knows the damage that constantly being on the go can have on your body, it’s me.
Late this summer I was invited to spend a week at Jumby Bay, a private island a couple miles off the north coast of Antigua. And, while great on the surface, you can understand why a holiday program of lying on a beach with patchy wifi, away from my computer filled me with fear. The fact that I hadn’t been on a trip unrelated to work in almost eight years didn’t help either.
The 300-acre island is pretty much as close as a castaway hideout can get to an airport baggage hall: three minutes in the car to the port, then seven on a boat across what felt like unending turquoise seas. Funnily enough, that transfer blasts away all the airplane fogginess and the moment I stepped foot on the warm wooden jetty, the thoughts and worries of everyday life in New York just vanished. I felt completely transported. As we jumped on a golf buggy to our beach front room, I took in all of the smells of summer. I actually noticed birds chirping in the sky; I marvelled at the formation of a few clouds in the distance. The centre of my world was not clients or what deadline I was about to miss. Out in Jumby Bay, I was truly and properly away.
We first made our way to The Verandah, an open-air casual spot open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with views of the sea, which is a stone’s throw away, where were greeted with Rum Punch. Rates are all-inclusive and The Verandah is only one of four eating spots. The Pool Grille and The Beach Shack serve hot wraps, sandwiches, salads and pastas during the day and The Estate House is them to an 1830s manse house shrouded in palm trees and ivy, where you can tuck into dishes like roasted butternut ravioli with truffle butter with views across the island. While the bright prints and colours of the décor contrasts the neutral hues of the buildings there, there’s no doubt that the resort is perfectly in tune with the surroundings. After dinner on our first night, we sat on sun loungers in our garden, steps away from the beach, wine in hand, and watched the sun set for the first time in as long as I can remember.
A former sugar plantation, Jumby Bay started off as a 12-room resort in 1983, and in 1998 the island was acquired by a group of private homeowners, now a cooperative of close to 60 owners. To operate the resort, they teamed up with the Rosewood Group, which properties include The Rosewood in London, Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands and Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas.
All rooms come with bikes, and on our first morning we hopped on ours to explore the full perimeter of the island on a paved path, which winds past private homes, gardens and the most beautiful sea views. As we casually manoeuvred through herds of free-ranging black and white sheep and stopped to take photos, I suddenly realised that this was probably the first time in a long time that I hadn’t been hurtling along like an animal being chased by prey, neither was I stuck to my phone incessantly posting on Instagram. We happily spent nearly an hour cycling slowly, hopping off to explore tiny pockets of unoccupied beach. As we settled back on the sea front later that afternoon, I remember pausing, smiling and not talking. Sometimes for hours. Strenuous, this certainly was not.
Is this slow pace a problem, I momentarily wondered? As someone in their late twenties, should I even be courting the idea of taking things slower? Surely I should have a strict itinerary, soaking in culture and having lots of things to do? But just as quickly as that thought crossed my mind, it dawned on me that maybe it’s okay to be in the slow lane. Because maybe being a millennial and not trying to do one hundred and one things at once and actually embracing a more reflective pace is actually rather revolutionary.
The days after followed a similar routine, broken up either by an early morning tennis session in the island’s courts or a late afternoon massage at the Sense Spa. Away from the pressures of the city, I was unwinding, my mind having time to consider things that had been lost in between rushing to meetings, remembering to work out and the pressure that comes with constantly being glued to social. Aside from the morning digest of news that came on a few pages of A4, I had no way of what was going on in the world. And I loved it. Life is so dictated now about being ahead, whether that’s of the news, your peers or whatever we ‘should’ be doing or have achieved by a certain age. Getting away from that was utterly liberating.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed and on the edge, give yourself a break (in every sense) and stop being so hard on yourself. My time at Jumby Bay taught me that the visual food we feed our brains is important. We can’t always hop on a plane to a private island but it’s an important reminder that changing our background can have a huge impact on the way we feel and view our lives.
I turned my phone on in the taxi on the way home from JFK, but I didn’t check my email until the following morning. Usually I’m terrified to open my inbox when I’ve been away, terrified that something’s gone awfully wrong; that I’ve lost a client or not been there for a friend that needed me. But as I started going through the first batch, I couldn’t help but laugh about just how unimportant they were. Some random press release here; an even more obscure event invitation there and a few random, ‘OMG, it looks like you’re having the time of your life,’ emails from friends. That revelation changed everything for me. And I haven’t looked back.
The Lifestyle Edit was a guest of Jumby Ray, A Rosewood Resort. Rooms and suites start from $1,095 per night in low season and $1,695 in high season season for a double but include food, all beverages (including alcohol) and water sports.