A new travel paradigm that is good for the soul centers around asking different questions and helping you do travel differently. The question many of us ask, ‘Where do I want to go.” But maybe the better question to ask is, “What does my soul need and how can my travel personality support this need?”
I believe we’ve gotten over-exposed to the hype of travel. That we’ve forgotten the many graces, an intentional vacation stay can bring to the mind, body, and soul. When I say intentional, I’m alluding to a vacation built around your travel personality type. Traveling, knowing your genuine travel personality takes away a lot of stress and undue anxiety. Traveling knowing your type delivers vacations outcomes bring your world to life, long after the suitcases have been put away.
Shifting Perceptions
I spoke with my brother the other day and told him I was getting a bit blue, which is so not me. I needed something new in my life, and travel was always the answer. New is one of my personality pillars.😏
My brother said his recent trip to Canada helped change perspectives, lift the blues, and he felt renewed. He didn’t do much, a lot of walking and quality time spent with family—a simple trip with big rewards.
Are simple getaways becoming the rigor? Our modern-day society has made travel complicated. It’s all about do more, see more, more, more, more. Is more better? Or is it yet another non-stop, exhaustive activity in life, we come to accept as normal? One of the lessons I believe the pandemic is spreading is the idea of less is more. And I’m hoping this perception takes hold and becomes the new travel norm. I think this new travel paradigm would be good for the soul, the environment, and so much more.
Who We Are Shapes What We Do
To journey without being changed is to be a nomad.
Mark Nepo, author – teacher of poetry and spirituality.
To change without journeying is to be a chameleon.
To journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.
Mark Nepo, always wise and always on point. I agree with the idea ‘ to journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.’ I’m so excited for all of us to journey to our sacred place, the values and characteristics that provide signposts to keep us on our path and connected to our life purpose.
As we know, travel can be a real headache. And in today’s day world, the threat of terrorism also lurks. Not trying to spread fear; actually, I want to illuminate the idea of exploring aspects of your personality. Once you’ve identified your core strengths and areas of weakness, you can better equip yourself and seek out the best outcomes, no matter the situation. You’re armed and ready with intimate knowledge about your authentic capabilities. This is HUGE!
How?
This knowledge gives you the space to listen to your soul self. How? It’s because you won’t need to figure yourself out in hiccupy travel moments. You’ll know exactly what you’re capable of, when to ask for help or rely on one of your travel companions’ gifts. Nobody can tune into their soul self when scrambling to figure out what’s happening around them. Even more rewarding. When you allow your inner world to intersect with the outer world, magic happens. This magic is the power of personality typing and spirituality in action. Can you see why I believe this new travel paradigm would be good for the soul?
Travel and The Practice of Stillness: Good for the Soul
At some point, all the horizontal trips in the world stop compensating for the need to go deep, into somewhere challenging and unexpected; movement makes most sense when grounded in stillness.
Pico Iyer, author The Art of Stillness
Why not include a stillness practice on your next vacation. As an aside, this practice may come naturally to an introvert who generally seeks quietude on vacation. But for extroverts, stillness is on the opposite end of this personality preference. Please note, I don’t include all extroverts here, but I endeavor to say it’s likely to be true for the majority.
Maybe you’ll want to include a stillness practice into your mornings to start each vacation day refreshed and ready to tackle your next adventure. Again for introverts, this will be a no brainer. For extraverts may I suggest your break-up the practice into increments of ten-minute segments, and build from there.
Stillness: So Good For the Soul
Why should a stillness practice be included as part of the vacation itinerary? For many of us, we rarely take the time to do this in our daily lives? And I can confidently say, 80% of us, don’t give our authentic personalities a second look when planning a vacation. (I know this from speaking with hundreds and hundreds of travelers.) This reason, among many others, is why the practice of stillness offers innumerable value. Understand if it takes courage. Courage to realize things you don’t want to see, hear, or know about yourself. When you connect with stillness, on a walk, in prayer, watching a sunrise… Here’s what you’ll find:
- Your heart connects with the mind for epic-filled, genuine experiences,
- Lightening moments of peace fill your soul,
- A calm washes over you, and joins you on your day of adventures,
- You find slow travel to be more your speed,
- Stopping becomes your mantra. You start to understand that a first glance, doesn’t even begin to embrace sublime nuances.
It’s What We All Want
Don’t we all want to come back from a vacation feeling happier? We can contextually think about knowing ourselves all-day-long, but until we experience, FEEL, an aspect of self, we’ll never truly know ourselves. If we give our unique personalities a say in our vacation adventures, this is what can happen. When we acknowledge our travel types, the core of our humanness, it gives us the freedom to drop the mask we wear daily. It allows us to appreciate the moments as they’re meant to be ⏤ fulfilling, happy, or hiccupy. Knowing each moment ignites our beautiful, inner light, what we’ve come to know as the soul. These gorgeous moments in time, linger long after we’ve returned home ⏤ branded in our hearts. And like my brother said, we’re renewed and excited about the ordinary days that lie ahead. We’ll see them as irreplaceable and beautiful.
My Intention
I hope, A New Travel Paradigm that’s good for the Soul, challenges the way you look at travel and yourself. I’m hoping you embrace the challenges that lie ahead on the journey to self. Travel triggers, the revelers of the unconsciousness, are the hidden, unconscious aspects of your magnificent, authentic self. They’re likely to show up on vacation. Be aware.
These Divine Disrupters cause triggers ⏤ stimulating awareness. It’s in the awareness that you take action or not. If you choose to look at the awareness and not take action, there is no forward motion. If you choose to take action, a mind shift takes place. A new self-truth emerges. A new life path is mapped, and a new lease on life manifests. If you believe we are all connected. In this connectedness your growth benefits, you, everyone you know, and the world. This is my wish for you because now is the time.
As a course changer and a new path maker, I’m always looking for ways to upend the status quo and challenge convention. I believe the magic of travel is in the unknowingness. The unknowingness is precisely what you need to look past what you think you know, shatter irrelevant expectations, and bring to life your authentic self, your truth.
Tune In
My radio interview aired on Speaking of Travel part of the iHeart radio network with host, Marilyn Ball. Give it a listen here. I’m also working on a guidebook for Unpack Your Personality.©️ It will be a modern-day approach to personality typing supported by spirituality.
I’ve written a travel personality guidebook to start the journey to self. This guidebook reveals hidden aspects of yourself, and are chockful of easy to absorb information to help you rethink yourself a new.
I look forward to building a community of seekers—individuals who want to know their truth and shine brighter in the world. We will become a positive force in the world. And I’m up for whatever it takes to make this happen.
Photo credit: Processingly Unsplash
