Find yourself through travel
Wandering – A Form Of Solace
Perhaps one of life’s greatest questions is the question of self. What makes up you? Is it your choice? Is it your experience? Or is it your values?
The cumulation of all these is what creates the self. The basis of your personality, your behavior, and your life at large. Knowing it, is knowing what is truly most important in life – yourself. The most remarkable aspect of it all however is that the self is creatable. You can choose to be a different version of yourself, you can choose to grow and evolve into a changed perhaps more alive individual who can take life as it comes and win at it.
What hampers the process of knowing yourself in today’s time?
The follies of a fast-paced world revolve around the fact that it is fast-paced. A slow life, though perhaps does not sound as enticing, can offer more to you and your inner harmony. A life that is calm is a life you can build on. Happiness is undeniably hard to achieve and harder to sustain but it lies in everyday moments. It lies in the dying sunsets, in the inside jokes, in empty coffee cups, and in how you take life as it comes. A fast-paced environment stops you from doing just that, it has an overwhelming tendency that takes charge of your being and engulfs you in mindless work. So much so that seeing the light becomes increasingly harder because your mind is too clouded and your head is always down.
A hasty existence can be categorized by the following – an unending chase, hustle culture, poor work-life balance, and inability to absorb life in its entirety because of being too occupied with things that lead to temporary satisfaction. This is a deeply-rooted problem that countless people suffer from, it has the power to leave one feeling dejected, unfulfilled, and constantly craving for more.
Hustle culture is by and large known to immerse people in the cycle of working hard, working constantly, and working mindlessly. It traps us in the ideology of – “Hard work makes the odds work” and contributes towards an “always on” lifestyle. It is not mentally or biologically healthy to sustain the same. Our body needs time off, it needs regeneration and healing. Proper rest leads to more productivity as well. This is exactly why the creation of break culture was introduced. Founders, employees, staff members and even interns require adequate breathing spells to perform and live as fully functioning human beings.
Importance of Introspection and its practice-
It is exceedingly important to realize that your life is built up of different segments and that it is a cumulation of what you spend your time on. A fast-paced life with no breathers draws you away from the same.
To cure all of this however it requires a simple mindset change. To make a conscious choice to invest more time in truly knowing who you are and what you add to the world. Noticing your behaviour, finding out the why behind the doings and trying to live an extraordinary ordinary life is where the beauty rests. Introspection is a powerful tool to do the same. Being in touch with yourself, with your inner child and knowing exactly what your needs are, is earned through introspection. It is a practice wherein you, through questioning, find out the reasoning behind your behaviour, your liking and disliking and your mannerisms.
It involves asking the questions of why and what to understand your patterns in a more coherent manner. Introspection helps you delve deeper and better your future by letting you open up to yourself.
For some, it can be easily done through meditation, grounding habits and a willingness to put in effort to improve. Yet for some it requires more, they might need a complete change of scenery, independence and having to rely on themselves to find out who they are. Travel, as a practice has proven time and again to be a respite, and a means to self-awareness. Acclaimed worldwide for its healing powers, travelling has been a savior for many.
Thus, taking a break, a hiatus or a respite are highly essential to functioning as an whole, stable and self-aware person. Vacations are a very interesting and beautiful way of doing the same. Travelling is therefore a major choice of many because they want to “get-away” both physically from the location and mentally from the work environment.
How does travel help you find yourself?
Element of the unknown –
Travelling always contains the element of surprise. No matter how much you plan it or how meticulously, it has a beautiful way of surprising you still. The unknown is what pushes people to rely on their best asset – themselves. When you are put in conditions that you are not familiar with or that you’ve never experienced more, it helps you understand your potential and your most primal needs as a person.
Pushing yourself –
The reason behind so many people delving in adventure sports is not only because of excitement but also because it forces you to recognize how far you can push yourself and how you can achieve your goals. Jumping off a cliff, snorkeling, trekking are also big definers of your mental strength, sometimes more than your physical strength.
Not following the rules –
Getting lost is yet another effective method during travelling that can help you truly connect with yourself. When you are made to rely on just you, it helps form trust, eliminate trivial thoughts that occur in everyday existence and make you a more confident, self-loving individual. Seeking new places, exploring, leaving are all amazing signifiers of your internal strength and great learning opportunities. Travelling does that for you.
Exposure to different cultures –
Exposure to different cultures and ways of life. No matter where you travel to, undoubtedly you will learn. You will absorb experiences and witness truly how miniscule you are in co-relation to the world. When you are given the opportunity to observe different cultures in motion, you pick aspects that you resonate with yourself, you form new perceptions and new manners of thinking that then transform you into a better version of yourself.
Living a Slow-Paced Life –
While travelling even, try not to crowd your schedule too much and give time to yourself. In free time is where you will make most of your realizations. If per say you travel to a tourist-y place and spend all your time checking off destinations that you just go and see, then it wouldn’t be as transformative as it possibly could have been.
It is very important to take a spiritual break as well. Crowded by technology all around, it can get very hard to actually detach and detox. Shutting that phone, trying not to consciously think about work or engaging with the same is imperative to your growth.
Many movies highlight the importance of the same as well. It can be as relatable as eat, pray, love or as complex as into the wild. All of them speak strongly about the message of travelling and how it forces you to candidly analysis and refine yourself.
Taking deliberate journeys and choosing the unknown will always be one of the most primal and simplest ways of nurturing and respecting your inner self. It is the constant growth, rejuvenation and simplicity that travelling offers which will always remain timeless.
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