The Life-Changing Magic of Travel

I swear, traveling is one of the only things that you pay for, that will make you wealthier. It's such an empowering experience, especially if you're solo traveling! You are always pushed out of your comfort zone, discovering new places, meeting new people, trying new experiences. It's so beautiful to be open minded and able to experience different cultures, different way of living, and to expand your knowledge and understanding of this world. I am personnaly so curious to explore alternative perceptions of reality, different mindsets, habits and so much more. I am in love with traveling for the wisdom it teaches you, and I want to share with you how it can be a transformative experience and how to make the most out of it!

Reinvent Yourself Through Travel

I love this quote from Rudolf Steiner saying: "To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world." because for me, travelling teaches you life, and it's the greatest thing you can study, the best school you can ever go to. From my experience, traveling allowed me to step into the version of myself I really wanted to be, especially when traveling solo, you can litterally reinvent yourself as you're always meeting knew people, you can choose how you want to show up in the world and be your most authentic self. You can break free from an old personality you no longer want to be and recreate the character you choose to play in life. It personnally also helped me a lot to have a mirror reflection, through the eyes of others, of who I am and understand what am I naturally giving to the world.

Almost anyone will agree that solo traveling is the best if you're looking for a deep transformative experience, because it's the best way to reconnect with yourself, be empowered by your abilities to make friends or face challenges and grow along the way. But of course, it's also possible to do so if you choose to travel with the right person. You really don't want to travel with someone that is not on the same page as you. It's important to make sure that you have the same vision and expectations of what travelling looks and feels like, to really enjoy someone's company during a trip. Because if you're the adventurous type, always looking for exciting and fun activities to doduring the day, while your buddy is more lazy during the day and into sleepin in after partying all night, you're going to have a hard time to follow each other.
When I first started traveling, I was with my best friend and we had the time of our lifes because we were on the same page, looking for the same experiences (we even made a to do list of things we wanted to experience before going, that we completed of course!) and that was such an amazing thing to share this trip with her, thanks to this we are closer than ever and we have lifetime memories together! So as I said, be carefull who you choose to spend time with, and if you go by yourself, I can garanty you that you will meet like minded people to be friends with on the way anyway !

Anyway, eather you're traveling alone or with someone, make sure to always connect with other travelers and people along the way, take time to share stories, have deep conversations with them because chances are high that they will inspire you in some ways and have a positive impact on you. Once I heard a traveler I met say "I am a combination of all the pieces of joy I met" and that really stucked with me because I think it's so true that you can just choose to keep with you and embody the vibe or energy you like from the peopel that inspire you. So don't be afraid to talk to people, the only risk you're taking is to potentially make a friend and share good times with them!

Dive Deep into the Local Culture

To make the most out of your trips, I would recommand you to always engage with locals and ask them what are the best things to do or see in the areas, because of course you can always find good suggestions on internet (like in this blog!), but by asking the locals, chances are that they will tell you about a secret spot (if you are respectuous of course) and the best recommandations for places to eat, so don't miss out!

One of the greatest lessons I also learned from traveling is that the world is truly a happy place (if you choose to see it this way), people are kind and caring, and you can always count on their generosity, as long as you are also nice, polite and smiling ! By traveling and doing volunteering work occasionnally, I realized that when you're ready to help out, there will always be solutions and opportunities for you to have a place to stay, while learning and developping new skills. There are plenty of websites like workaway that connects hosts with traveller, you can also find free stays at people's house on apps like couchsurfing, if you're really traveling on a budget and want to have an immersive experience. I have to admit that there is something beautiful with traveling on a budget, because you get to connect with people more deeply, if for example you're volunteering with locals, or if you're hitchicking you can have beautiful and interesting conversations along the way, if you're staying in hostels, it's very likely that you're going to meet other travelers and make friends... Of course you can connect with people even when you're not on a budget, but sometimes the best way to immerse yourself in a culture is to stay close from the locals, in pure simplicity.

By doing volunteering works, I had some of the deepest human connections with the locals. I remember volunteering in a café in Nicaragua, and even though some of their staff was working all day long for 10 dollars a day, they were always smiling, happy and caring. My spanish was very approximate so we could barely communicate, but the connection was in the eyes, in the non verbal, in the laughter, and it was such a beautiful relationship that I almost felt like they were my "travel parents" on the other side of the world, such a warm feeling!

Embrace the Unexpected, go with the Flow!

Traveling also teaches you to go with the flow of life, and see how magic happens when you are open, curious and spontaneous ! The secret is to have in mind an idea of what you would love the experiment, and without expectations, keep being in the moment and aware of your desires, and an opportunity is more than likely to show up for you to jump on it!
I don't know how many times I ended up in amazing unexpected situations, just because I knew what I wanted and so when the circomstances where right, I had no doubts that this was ment for me!

Most of all, traveling is a pure source of inspiration if you're looking to develop one particular area of you life. For example, when I first started solo traveling, I wanted to explore different ways and style of living, I was curious to see how people can live off the grid and in harmony with nature, I wanted to have example of people making a living from what they love, in beautiful places... basically I wanted to have proofs that you can live happy in a simple way, so I was traveling with that intention, but I was completely detatched from any expectations, and guess what, I saw more than I could ever asked for! I met all types of artists, entrepreneurs or digital nomads making money by doing their passions, or having a profiable business that allow them to be free, I was even invited to an indigenius community living completely remotely, slipping on the ground and raisong their chicken, selling cacao and bananas. On the other side, I also get to experiment a luxurious lifestyle, so I was able to compare both, and from that I can create my own balanced reality, inspired by the answers I had on this journey. That's why choosing an angle for your travel is an amazing idea, because your focus will be directed in this way an you will be able to go deeper than if you're just going without intentions.

The best way to have an unforgattable trip, is to follow your instinct and try everything that attracts you, because you only live once and everything that you do is going to create lifetime memories ! So do everything with enthousiasm and joy, find the fun in everything, see the beauty everywhere, because traveling is most of all and adventure and to have to most incredible experience, know that it all depends on your mindset, and how you choose to perceive things. Because yes, life can be hard and challanging sometimes, but you can always also choose to see the blessings in the tough times, and the benefit of the growth in those moments. Traveling teaches you that your inner state reflects on the external world, and not the contrary: if you're all pessimist, you will more focus on the negative things happening and you're more likely to have a bad time. While if you're optimistic and joyful, you're deciding to have a good time, and if anything "negative" happens, you will be able to put things into perspective and still enjoy the moment.

Final words

To conclude this blog post, I think that the most important thing to keep in mind, is to stay true to yourself. Follow your dreams and desires always, because the most beautiful trip you will ever get to experience, is the one you're currently living, it's the one of your life, in your body. No matter where you are or what you do, you will alway learn and grow, you can also have the time of your life in your home town, it doesn't matter. Traveling is just a beautiful tool to expand your perception of reality, to help you remember that in the end, we all are the same, no matter where we come from, we're all a big family, we're all human beings here to love and be happy !

Comment in the section bellow what has traveling taught you! I am curious to read your points of view :)