To me, there is a big difference between travelling and going on vacation. And although there is absolutely nothing wrong with going on vacation (I have been on some great vacations): staying in one place, relaxing and enjoying the comforts of a luxury hotel, it is completely different to travelling. When travelling you interact with locals, you use local transport and you get a glimpse of what life is like in the country you are visiting. It helps us to explore more about culture, traditions and inhabitants. We travel not just to travel and marvel at people, places, things. That’s not just it. That was never just it for us. We travel to learn, to experience, and to feel all the spectrums of being human in this world.
If there was one piece of advice I have for people today to experience more joy in life, it is to travel more. I don’t mean taking vacations or going on pre-planning trips, I mean making the journey out to somewhere you’ve never gone before with an open schedule, to let life show you what opportunities were waiting for you that you couldn’t have even imaged before.
Travelling is wonderful in many ways. It captures us with a sense of wanderlust and has us longing for more destinations to visit, cultures to experience, food to eat, and people to meet. As amazing as travelling is, most of us think we need to wait until our later years to really explore a lot of the world. But it never works, tomorrow never comes and people left their lives with regret of not exploring world to its fullest.
Travelling is an amazingly underrated investment in yourself. As you travel you’re exposed to more new people, cultures, and lifestyles than you are living in your homeland all the time. With all the newness in your life, you’re also opened to new insights, ways of seeing the world and living, which often gives people a new purpose for their lives. If you’re feeling stuck on what your purpose is, what you want to do with your life, the career or educational path you want to pursue, go travel… you might just be surprised about what you discover as a new sense of life purpose and direction. It is well said “To travel is to take a journey into yourself.”
When we spend time away from home, especially in a place where we don’t have the same luxuries readily available to us we become more aware and appreciative for the luxuries we have back at home. All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. The more we travel, the more we realize that our home is so much more than the town, city, state and even country that we’ve grown up in; we realize that our home is the world, this planet, and we become more conscious of how we can harmoniously live and support one another.
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
- Saint Augustine -
There’s concept, and then there’s experience. When we travel, we may notice that some of the things we’ve heard about the world end up being very different than what we were indoctrinated and conditioned to believe. Many of the initial myths that get dispelled are often about travelling itself. Where you once may have thought it was too expensive and dangerous, you may realize how you can actually save more on your lifestyle expenses travelling the world than you do living at home. You may also realize how kind and friendly strangers can be, and how they are even willing to take care of you with a place to sleep at night. Beyond that, you have the whole world to learn about with every place you discover, every person you meet and every culture you experience.
As you travel more, you notice the truth of this even more… and as that happens, you are more adept in being able to relate to people regardless of their background. One of the first things I learned from travelling solo is how easy it is to make friends. Something magical happens in how people can show up more raw and real when they’re out of their conditioned environment and open to express themselves without feeling judged. That rawness and realness ends up inspiring others to be authentic, and that’s how you can become best friends with people when you’ve only known them for a few hours. Just as we notice how we share similar needs, how our perspective of our home expands, and how we become close friends with others from different backgrounds and cultures, we begin to realize how we are all connected. This state of awareness is a jump in consciousness, and what I mean by that is in the way we perceive the world, the life experience and ourselves.
“Travelling is one of the easiest ways to become aware of the magic that weaves all of creation together through serendipity and synchronicity with perfect timing.”
- Adam Siddiq -
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain -
Life is a wonderful gift. It really is, and as we travel and experience more of the world and life, we often become overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciation for all the beautiful moments we enjoyed and people we’ve shared them with. More often than not, this is a realization that we can experience and take action from now while we’re still alive with energy rather than stacking up regrets by the time we’re on our death bed. Rather than waiting until you’re saying “I wish I had”, live so you can say “I’m glad I lived”.
