Creative Ways of Living: Genevieve Nathwani

From London’s Rat Race to Life by the Sea: Redefining Success Through Intention, Community, and Slow Living

Creative Ways of Living is a series where we’re widening our aperture around more creative (and gratifying!) ways of living and working. Ways that allow us to build our identities around all of the vibrant – and varied! – different parts of ourselves, where we feel alive, and life feels full.

In this month’s edition, we’re talking to Gen, a certified coach supporting people who create systemic change to lead with greater impact and well-being. She is British and now lives in a small village by the sea just south of Lisbon with her husband and two dogs.

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What does life look like for you these days? How do you fill your days?

My husband Khilen and I live 30 minutes south of Lisbon in a little village called Aroeira, which is five minutes from the sea, a long stretch of coastline called Costa da Caparica. Both of us work for ourselves from home, and we have two dogs. I work online as a coach, and I do about 2-3 hours of deep work every day. Outside of that, I might have some calls or an online talk to tune into. I work out a few times a week, we walk our dogs on the beach and in our nearby forest, and we buy as much of our food as we can from our local farm.

Living outside the city has afforded us more space, we both have a home office which we can shut away at the end of the day. We have a big garden and a swimming pool which is amazing on hot days in the summer. We go into Lisbon once or twice a week for a top-up on city life - a nice dinner, live music or an exhibition. Over the last few years more people have moved to our area and it’s been fun to build a new community together. Friends of ours have started the first local brunch place and an amazing new co-working space which has a sauna and chickens! We enjoy bringing people together, so I've started a local ladies group and a gathering for people interested in regenerative projects on our doorstep, and Khilen runs a local meditation group. We travel back to London a few times a year and love to get away to somewhere new when we can.

What does the “art of creative living” mean to you?

For me, this is about being fully conscious of what I want and need and remembering my power to choose and design my own path. I share my life with my husband Khilen, so it’s also about working out what each of us wants, compromising where we need to, and creating the kind of life we want to live together, a life designed around health, joy, learning and community.

Tell us about the path that has led you to shift from life in London to life in Lisbon, and what role experimentation played.

The idea started around our kitchen table during a conversation with my husband. I was on the brink of burnout in a demanding VC job in London. The work was exhilarating but all-consuming, leaving little space for life outside of it. One day, he asked, “Is this how we want to live—passing like ships in the night?”

We were newly engaged and realized we were on autopilot. Inspired by the Designing Your Life framework, we started asking bigger questions: Why were we here? Were we choosing this life or just coasting through it? It became clear the main thing tying us to London was my job, and it wasn’t making me happy. My husband worked for himself from home, so we decided to try something new.

I resigned, and we left London. We initially kept our house in London, opting for a 6 month trial in Portugal to see how it all felt. It was magical: the sparkly light, the hills, the tiles. I took ceramics classes, hiked, and gave myself permission to rest for the first time since childhood. It was transformational—letting go of the drive to constantly achieve and simply be.

Then COVID hit. We were briefly back in the UK when the lockdowns began, with our dog still in Portugal. We rushed back just before borders closed, and I’m glad we stayed. Those months gave us clarity and a new sense of what mattered most.

As the world emerged from COVID in the spring of 2021, we sold our place in London and started looking for a permanent base in Portugal. Two failed property deals later, we asked our landlord on a whim whether he’d consider selling. He said yes and within a couple of months, the house was ours. We bought our lockdown Airbnb!

We miss London a lot, but every time we go back it feels like we’re operating on fast forward. The pace is so much faster and everything feels very futuristic - new trainer trends and fancy payments tech, and we also feel completely bombarded by advertising. We love going back, especially for food, art and live music, but we also really enjoy returning to the peace and quiet of our new sunny home by the sea.

What made you feel like Lisbon was the right place for a move?

It was about choosing a good enough place, not finding the perfect one.

One of the best bits of advice that I was given before I left London was from this amazing woman, our CFO Humera Afzal, who’d lived all over the world, and she said, never compare where you're going with where you were before. It's just pointless, every place is unique and you're going to be a different person there. There's going to be things that are amazing about this new place that you didn't have in the other place. They're just incomparable. So don't, compare the pros and cons. Think about what you want in your life, and whether that place gives you enough of that, and if it does, then give it a go.

Never compare where you're going with where you were before. It's just pointless, you're going to be a different person there. There's going to be things that are amazing about this new place that you didn't have in the other place. They're just incomparable. So don't, compare the pros and cons. Think about what you want in your life, and whether that place gives you enough of that, and if it does, then give it a go.

For us, Lisbon checked the right boxes. We wanted a cultural shift from London’s rat race and hyper-consumption. Here, work is less central to everyday life. No one asks what you do for a living—a refreshing change after years of work-centric conversations. The sunshine (330 days a year!), a welcoming climate, and a great tax incentive were all extra bonuses.

What was your biggest challenge in changing the way you lived?

One of the biggest challenges was the professional identity crisis I faced after leaving my job in Venture Capital. At the time, working in venture capital carried a certain prestige, and I tied my self-worth to that identity. Leaving without a plan for what came next was a big shock—it forced me to confront how much of my sense of self was tied to my work.

It was a necessary lesson, though: my identity couldn’t hinge on such a small part of my life. In hindsight, I think it was really helpful for me to not have a plan, but I might have organized a few things during that time to help me still feel connected to my network. Some light training or contributing to something simple, just to maintain a sense of belonging. But stepping away without a clear roadmap ultimately helped me reflect and reset, even if it took longer to find my next path.

Do you have any daily, monthly or yearly rituals to break up your routine and stay inspired and out in the world?

Yes! I find that I have to work quite hard on this, especially as someone who works alone and mostly from home.

Every month, I meet with a fellow coach who is at a similar stage of growing her business to me and very aligned in terms of the kind of business she wants to build and the life she wants to live. We share our goals and help each other work through current challenges. We’ve recently started co-working together online, too. I find my time with her invaluable. We’re currently designing a deep work and mastermind retreat for us and a couple of other coaches to do some high-impact work together IRL.

I recently joined a local co-working space 5 minutes away from home. It’s owned by a dear friend of mine, so I love catching up with her and other friends who are members a couple of times a week. It has a sauna, so I make sure to squeeze a session in every time I go. It’s really helpful to get out of the house for a change of scenery.

Gen post-sauna :)

I love getting away on solo trips - this is probably the thing that resources me the most. I try to do some work, but I hold the plan quite loosely so I can use the time for whatever I need most. It’s usually really helpful for reading, long-term planning, reflection and writing. Ideally somewhere deep in the countryside, with a bathtub and a masseur on call! I also love a solo day out and will often combine a book event, an exhibition and a nice lunch or dinner in Lisbon a couple of times a month.

Since I started working on my own business I’ve found it really helpful to attend big events to help me meet new people, organise some small gatherings, and get inspired. I’ve loved the House of Beautiful Business in Portugal and Tangier, and the Inner Development Goals Summit in Stockholm, but next year I’m looking for smaller, deeper and more intimate experiences. I really enjoyed a writing retreat with the School of System Change, so perhaps more trips along those lines.

House of Beautiful Business in Tangier last year

What are you interested in exploring next?

The last few years have been about finding more meaningful work and building a life and identity which is so much more than a career path. In the process, my value system has shifted enormously (or perhaps I’ve shifted my behaviour and choices to better reflect my value system). I’m letting go of the “shoulds”, of striving for more money and status and embracing all the things that support a healthy and fulfilling life. It’s taken a lot of work and change but I’m really feeling the benefits, it brings me a deep sense of peace! It's really important to me to walk the talk and show my clients that it’s possible to do impactful, meaningful work while also living a healthy, happy life you truly love.

This year I want to continue building on that momentum. I want to direct lots of energy to the “being” as opposed to the “doing” in my role as a coach. How I show up to this work is everything. Part of this will be establishing a daily meditation practice and seeking coaching supervision.

More broadly I want to learn more about how to live well in a world in transition, and how we can apply this to everyday life. It can be difficult to have one foot in a world in decline, and another in a more hopeful future. Learning to better navigate the practical and emotional realities of our current global challenges not only strengthens my ability to coach clients working in systemic change but also plays an increasingly vital role in supporting my own well-being.

Find Gen on LinkedIn and Substack here: