We know that we are living in difficult times where we do not consider traveling today, but why not go dreaming and knowing about everything that traveling means? For me traveling has been the step to transform my life. And here we tell you a little bit why…
Since I left behind the doubts and fears and decided to take the step into the unknown, I found a new world for myself. Traveling literally changed my life. It taught me more about life than any school, showed me more about myself and helped me “get out of the tank”.
Your mind expands and your interests and outlook change, or rather, become more flexible. I tried to summarize the reasons why from my experience as a traveler and owner of https://travelermagazine.net I think this happens, so here I tell you.
1. Helps you connect more with yourself
You are in a different scenario than you are used to. Sometimes you are uncomfortable, you don’t have your bed, your bathroom, or your usual food. You don’t have your family or friends around. You can’t speak the same language as always, you don’t know the streets, you don’t know anything.
And that’s what’s interesting and what it’s going to be like to know more about yourself. Because your personality seeks to adapt to these new situations, and so you begin to discover your fears, to open up to other people, to break your limits, to work on your tolerance and your understanding of other cultures.
You discover yourself among the world, your virtues, your defects, and even talents you didn’t know you had before. Sometimes we spend so much time on “autopilot” in the routine that we don’t have time to think about how we feel inside and to connect more with ourselves.
2. You come across people who can open up new paths in your life.
Every traveler we met who ended up being part of the documentary was an unforgettable experience. When we need help, someone always shows up, and those friends you make during your travels will always remain in those unique experiences we share.
If you have never traveled in a group, I assure you that the experience is very enriching in terms of the bonds that are formed. Most of them come alone, without knowing each other, and that makes the groups even closer. It’s like a group of perfect strangers who end up being one big “family”, living together for several days.
I know several stories of couples who met on a trip, as well as friends who keep in touch to this day. I invite you to watch this other documentary we made about what it is like to share the trip with strangers.
3. You understand how small your place in the world is and you become more compassionate
You begin to become more knowledgeable about other cultures and the world around you, you begin to see things in person and not just as they are told to you.
Knowing how other people live, what they eat, what they believe in in another part of the planet, no doubt makes you understand the dimension of how big the world is, and how small we are in it, the small place we occupy.
When you feel that immensity, something changes. We become more compassionate and more curious about our surroundings. We feel more connected to people and we realize that ultimately we are all the same, just with different cultures.
4. It helps you to value more what you have, and to be aware of the abundance that surrounds you
I think that sometimes we are not aware of how valuable is that routine shower we take in the morning. While for someone else in another part of the world, it can be a miracle.
We are not aware that that dish that we complain about because it was too salty, or because it was cold, for someone else in another part of the world can also be a miracle. Or of the coat we have hanging unused, or of the television, or simply of our roof or our bed. Or going to something simpler: of having health, of our family having health.
Of course, being aware all the time and of everything we have is not easy. We are used to seeing what is missing and we live in a society oriented towards the desire to have more.
But personally, traveling hit me with different realities, and even more difficult than what I was used to, in remote places, which made me feel privileged. Simply for always having a shower, a meal, a roof over my head.
“We are surrounded by abundance and we do not realize it”
I remember when I went to Cusco for the first time and a local craftswoman told me her hard life story that moved me. Or when I came across people with difficult health problems, or others living in unsanitary conditions, such as children living among garbage and with very little water.
When we see firsthand how they live in other places, we become aware of it. And that for me, is one of the greatest teachings that make travel can change your life.
5. Leads you to think from another perspective and see with other eyes
It is not new that when we travel we see things from another perspective, but this does leave us with a new way of seeing things.
Once you put yourself from another place, you can see everything differently. The destructuring of the look makes us grow in several aspects, and everything goes in how much we become more flexible and learn to always see everything from another scope.
The problems or concerns that in your city you saw in a perhaps more serious way, from another country look very different. It gives us that greater perspective towards things, not only because of the distance but also because of the experiences we live.
In the end, our “problems” and fears back home may become much less transcendent as they collide with other realities. And those prejudices or preconceptions begin to fade as we let go and let the road lead us.
6. It helps you to simplify yourself and have less
On every group trip one of the first tips we give to travelers is: “less is more”, so whatever you hesitate to take with you, discard it.
I have to be honest, in my first trips I always took some “just in case”, and then without wanting to carry more than I had to.
Then I slowly started to reduce and travel light, I changed my backpack for a much smaller one and I was always comfortable for the movement.
But there is a lesson beyond carrying as little load as possible, and that is that we really don’t need that much to be well. In fact, the less stuff we have, I think we’re better off. When we travel that makes itself felt.
When you go alone with your lightweight backpack and the necessary practical elements, it’s enough. So why do we have so many things at home? Why do we accumulate so many clothes, so many things that we literally don’t use? I recommend you to start simplifying yourself, even giving away or donating what you don’t use, it will give you a liberating air.
7. You can change your habits
As you change your culture, your habits will also be likely to begin to change.
Maybe walking around a city so much will make you realize how good exercise is and you’ll start doing it more often when you get home. Or you may start eating a different breakfast and like it to fit into your routine, and eating different things and feeling good.
In fact it happened to me that in Colombia all the breakfasts were with eggs and I started eating eggs for breakfast.
Sport also increased a lot in my life thanks to the trips. To practice some exercise always adds for a trip (and for everything), if you have to run a train (it has happened to me many times), or if you want to travel a lot.
Something that I have changed when I travel has also been that I get up earlier. Having woken up so much at dawn in the trips, why not keep doing it and have a more productive day in my routine too?
I have met people who have decided to quit smoking on the road, for example, or who have changed their eating habits to healthier ones. So you know, if you travel, you can have that new space to leave behind old habits that no longer add to you.
These are just some of the reasons why I recommend travel as a deep change that can really mean a before and after in people’s lives. The positive and enriching experience that you can decide to give yourself is waiting for you out there, you just have to take that step and throw yourself into the adventure with all your fears and doubts. Go ahead! It’s time to “get out of your fishbowl”.