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Celebrating The Journey: Why We Love Travel |
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Celebrating The Journey: Why We Love Travel by Victoria Ugarte
Why do we travel?
What compels us to leave the comfort and safety of our shores in search of foreign lands?
1) To reconnect with Self - We travel in order to distance ourselves from the stresses of everyday life, to maintain our health, recharge our batteries, and sometimes to get a fresh perspective on our lives.
2) To reconnect with a loved One - Many of us travel to reconnect with a loved one overseas, to be alone with our spouse, or rekindle the passion in our personal relationship.
3) To reconnect with family & friends - We visit other countries to rekindle old friendships or visit family.
4) To celebrate a special Occasion - Many of us travel in order to celebrate a birthday, honeymoon, anniversary, even to celebrate a divorce.
5) To discover New Cultures - Many of us travel to explore another culture that we feel a connection or fascination with.
6) To reconnect with Faith - Some of us travel for religious purposes, to visit a shrine that has religious significance so that we can reconnect with our faith.
After carefully examining the reasons why we travel, can you not see the parallels, the common denominator that binds these reasons together? The common denominator is the yearning we all have to bridge the distance between our heads and our hearts. When one mentions a “journey”, everyone assumes that we speak of a physical destination outside of our immediate surroundings. But the greatest journey of all is the eighteen inches from ones head to ones heart. People spend their entire lives searching for this connection, and travel is but a physical manifestation of this process. Travel is an effective way in helping us connect with the heart because it obliges us to leave our comfort zone and progress into the unknown, allowing us to be receptive to beauty, new experiences such as the exploration of foreign lands and, ultimately, discovery. As we explore foreign lands, so we explore our own psyches and reconnect with our hearts. Travel encourages us to grow. The exploration of our world results in a far greater sensitivity to the struggles of human beings in general. Through this process, we begin to put our own lives into perspective. Travel encourages a sense of unity with all beings everywhere as we acquire a sense that we all share in the same destiny and that we are all interconnected. So knowing that travel is but a physical manifestation of our own inner processes, how can we consciously harness this so that we maximise our experience and celebrate the whole journey, without and within, and not just the physical trip? Allow me to share with you what happened to me on a recent trip to Mexico, in the charming town of Tepoztlan, just 90 km outside Mexico City: Tepoztlan is a tiny town with cobblestoned streets that has become over the years a haven for artists. My husband and I were staying at the lovely home of a cousin, who happens to be a sculptor. His home was “pueblo” style with a lush tropical garden surrounding the home. The backdrop of the home were the majestic mountains of Tepoztlan. We were already a week into our Mexico trip and I had been having dreadful problems sleeping, which is not ideal when you're traveling. After yet another sleepless night, I got out of bed in the early hours of the morning, pulled a blanket around me, and walked out into the lush tropical garden, finding myself a quiet spot that afforded me a glorious view of the majestic mountains. As I sat gazing at the sun rising from behind the jagged silhouette of the majestic mountains, it was one of the few moments in my life when I felt really close to God. With my mind silenced, I was able to look at my frantic lifestyle in Sydney with fresh eyes. I realised as I gazed at those beautiful mountains that I had been overloading myself with functions in Sydney prior For me, this whole process helped me to find a practical solution to my problem and enabled me to gain valuable support in changing my life direction. After the great relief that came after this process, my sleep gradually came back, allowing me to fully enjoy the rest of our trip. So to share with you this process again, here is what you do. All you need is a pen, a journal, and yourself.
Victoria Ugarte is the Founder and Director of Postcards From Millie, a womens travel website. Based in Sydney, Australia, she draws inspiration from the courage of mind and spirit of her muse, Amelia “Millie” Earhart. Victoria spends 3 months out of every year traveling the world and writing about her adventure vacations on her website, keeping her readers posted on exciting destinations, itineraries, travel tips and resources, and challenging women to go beyond their current boundaries so that they may come home to themselves. Look Victoria up on http://www.postcardsfrommillie.com/
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Excluding travel for business, education and medicine, let us look at the reasons why we travel:
to my Mexico trip. I had become exhausted and my creativity began to suffer as my "busyness" was keeping me from doing what I really loved, which was writing. I became aware of how out of balance my lifestyle had become, with little time for reflection and physical exercise. My shoulder and neck muscles were knotted and screaming for attention.
An ancient Greek philosopher named Hermes Trismegistus was famous for saying, “As Within, So Without.” The ancients were very aware that the physical manifestations in ones life are but a reflection of our own inner state. So go out into the world and continue to explore and discover. In doing so, we celebrate the journey and we end up coming home to ourselves!
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