Why travel is the best tonic for self-discovery is one of the philosophy pillars in my upcoming book Unpack Your Personality: Let Your Inner Guide Be Your Travel Guide. Feel free to sign up here for preorders and who knows what. So typical of an ENTP.
As a travel professional, I know full well that time spent away is an elixir for self-discovery. For the past decade, I have learned away from daily routines is a stress reliever. For many of us, our daily lives have become overrun with doingness, lifelessness, and listlessness.
“Our data reveals that 95 percent of people believe they are self-aware, but the real number is 12 to 15 percent,” she says. “That means, on a good day, about 80 percent of people are lying about themselves—to themselves.” Tasha Eurich, author of Insights
Travel: A Pillar Supporting Self Discovery Through Typing
If you don’t know your personality type, traveling for self-discovery is disingenuous. Most of us think we know ourselves but it’s just not so. Research by Tasha Eurich states that 90% of people believe we understand ourselves, but only 10% really do.
Honestly, I suspect it stems from a conditioned, linear mindset. Our logical self has come to value things that others believe to be valuable, without questioning. Exploring your true self on vacation reveals the aspect of yourself that holds the key to your truth. Remember, the truth will set you free!
Cognitive Functions Harmonious or Disharmonious?
The desire to travel for self-improvement is an admirable journey. Congratulations on taking the first step. My seven-year life tsunami taught me that until I reconciled with my personality type, the world would remain chaotic, fearful, and exhausting. It’s the unknowingness within and unhealthy cognitive abilities that lurk around every corner, keeping doubt, anxiety, and confusion top-of-mind. You can’t have mental clarity without knowing the capabilities of your cognitive functions.
I realize there are many personality type assessments, but I prefer Myers-Briggs®, as I’ve come to see it as a fluid assessment that meets you where you are in life. Nina Zapala, founder of Spiritual Personality Typing.
Here is a list of blog posts that can kick start your spiritual personality type journey to self-understanding:
- 33 Ways to Love Your Personality
- 16 Personalities: What Is So Wonderful About You
- What Happens When Your Personality Isn’t Soul-Centered?
Spirituality: A Pillar of Awareness
For the past decade, I’ve studied the soul’s role in personality typing. This is what I now know. I had to put aside the belief that we are linear beings with logic as the only soul-ution. I now see this as a falsehood. My studies, working with spiritual psychologist Dr. June Lee Nix, Ph.D, reviewing a certificate in Myers-Briggs instruction, and applying everything I’ve learned to navigate through my life tsunami showed me we all have a spark of Divinity within us. I call this our spirit mind. It acts as a bridge between the Divine mind—the all-knowing, I AM—and our logical mind. When our personalities are unhealthy, they are typically in fear. Fear cannot connect with our spirit mind, our true center of knowledge, so it waits patiently until we acknowledge it.
When we let the spirit mind lead our lives, it relays messages from Divine Intelligence and sends them to our logical minds. Divinely inspired messages prompt us to take inspired action, always for the greater good. It’s why getting right with your personality type is paramount to a life of harmony, pure potentiality, and living as your true self.
Eight Reasons Why travel is the Best tonic for Self-Discovery
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New Perspectives and Cultures: Travel exposes us to different perspectives and challenges our preconceived notions. Questioning these new insights can lead to a deeper understanding of yourself, your values, and the world.
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Stepping Out of Comfort Zones: Travel often requires stepping out of your comfort zone. Facing difficult challenges and uncertainties can help you discover hidden aspects of your cognitive abilities and weaknesses that you may not have known—an incredibly helpful way to know your personality.
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Reflection and Solitude: Travel moments of intentional solitude and reflection give you time to slow down your mind and contemplate aspects of your life that no longer serve you. Most often, these aspects are tied to unhealthy behaviors stemming from unbalanced cognitive functions. Introspection can lead to insights about your personality type to further define your true self.
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Freedom and Independence: Being in charge of your itinerary, making decisions, and managing your journey can provide opportunities for you to explore your decision-making functions in action. Independence-building activities that help you understand your decision-making preferences can help you realize what truly matters in your life.
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Experiencing Novel Activities: Travel often involves experiencing different activities and trying things you haven’t done before. These activities enable you to reveal aspects of cognitive abilities that lead to passions and interests you may not have known you had. You will certainly want to incorporate them into your life.
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Disconnecting and Mindfulness: Being away from daily pressures can enable you to focus on the present moment and practice mindfulness. It’s observing yourself in real-time, a mindfulness practice that offers you insights into your thoughts, emotions, and reactions.
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Learning About Yourself Through Interactions: Traveling provides frequent interactions with others, revealing aspects of your personality and how you relate to others and the world around you. It identifies areas for personal growth and improvement in how you communicate and connect with different people.
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Appreciation and Gratitude: Experiencing different lifestyles and living conditions during your travels can foster gratitude and appreciation for what you have in your own life. Recognizing and appreciating the blessings in your life can contribute to a deeper understanding of your values and priorities, regardless of your personality type!
Travel A Tonic for Self-Discovery
Can you better understand why I staunchly believe that travel is a tonic for the soul? Travel offers a real-time experience to observe your personality type in action. It’s an enriching environment, a classroom for self-discovery that exposes you to diverse experiences. This encourages self-reflection, fosters personal growth, and provides opportunities to step outside your comfort zone.
These posts provide a sneak peek into my book Unpack Your Personality: Let Your Inner Guide Be Your Travel Guide. It’s a personalized travel guidebook and a self-discovery read. It teaches a new personality paradigm—spiritual personality typing—which is uber-relevant for today’s transformative times. The core premise is to discover your true self.
Please know that I curate these posts to be meaningful and educational to help you navigate the needs of your sacred personality type on the road and beyond. Feel free to contact me if you desire a 1:1 travel session to explore your unique travel personality type.
Ready To Get to Know Yourself
The concepts within my soon-to-be-published book are foundational, practical, and spiritual. They prompt you to follow a path on the road less traveled, where you’ll join the 10% club of rare individuals who truly know themselves. If you can’t wait for the book, I offer 1:1 sessions where you can discover yourself from the inside out—pure self-awareness. By collaborating, we can shed light on your sabotaging behaviors and negative cycles. Plus, we’ll dig into what brings you your greatest joys in life!
More About Spiritual Personality Typing™️
My goal is to get you excited about your personality and to break stereotypes and oversimplifications about typing. It’s my intention that you rethink your persona as a sacred tool and realize its importance to a meaningful life.
“The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.” – Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology.
Of course, good things in life come if you do the work, if you take responsibility and make personality typing with spiritual understanding a daily ceremony. You’ll realize the rational self and the soul self rely on each other to ignite a purposeful life. When you fully understand this concept, a profound awakening occurs. It moves you closer to your truth, liberating you from a purposeless existence. You’ll be ready for any occasion, situation, or event—travel, relationships, career, passion, purpose. Ahh, living a meaningful life, isn’t that what we all desire?
Please Share Why Travel is a Tonic For Self Discovery So It Reaches Where It’s Needed
It’s always my intention to encourage you to tap into unique aspects of your spiritual personality type. The idea is to raise the vibration on the planet. Feel free to share this post with a friend, co-worker, or family member struggling with self-understanding and knowing their true self. You can find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Medium, LinkedIn, and Twitter!
Stay in touch through Nina’s Newsletter, which offers a weekly inspirational word, my favorite books, and of course, lots of new insights into Spiritual Personality Typing™️. Learn about yourself, stay inspired, and learn more about travel as a classroom for self-discovery. Click here to join.
Note: I’m a certified Myers-Briggs® instructor with an intuitive side, ready to introduce you to an exciting paradigm in personality typing supported by a spiritual understanding.
Photo Credit: Taryn Elliott
