Sinéad Kennedy: ‘People think loneliness is for old people, it’s not, anyone can be lonely’

Every year at Christmas, travel writer and fitness fanatic Sinéad Kennedy packs up her suitcase and heads off to the sun. Last year, it was a few weeks spent exploring Thailand and Laos, this year the destination is Panama and Costa Rica.

“I made a deal with myself that I will always have an annual trip of lifetime,” she tells Róisín Ingle on the latest episode of The Women’s Podcast.

For Kennedy, who turned 50 last April, it’s a chance to escape the loneliness that can crop up around the festive period.

“When you’re single it’s brilliant, but around Christmas time it’s soul destroying,” she says. “Everyone is busy, everyone is off doing things, and it’s actually a very lonely time”.

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“People always think loneliness is for old people, it’s not, anyone can be lonely,” she adds.

In her new book, Life is a Cycle, Kennedy shares tales from her travels abroad, including Cuba, Everest Base Camp and India. She explains how exhaustion and burn out in her early 30s, forced her to take a step back and reevaluate what it was she wanted out of life.

In this episode, Kennedy shares her safety tips for solo travellers, speaks about finding her tribe with her local cycling group and explains how an annual self-audit enables her to keep reaching for her goals.

You can listen back to this episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.