Travel takes us out of our comfort zone. We sometimes, somehow, end up doing things we never thought we’d do, ever. Like bathing in the Ganges or skydiving. Or maybe learning a new language. By experiencing new things on our travels, we allow ourselves to see the world around us with new eyes.
Travel is freedom. And the freedom to travel allows us to let go. This is why we take vacations. We need to escape to rest and rejuvenate our mind and body from time to time. And by escaping on these little holidays, we get to let go of our daily obligations, just for a little while.
Audrey Scott says, “As we expose ourselves, we also open ourselves to create space for freshness and learning to enter our lives“. She shares on Yahoo! Travel the instances travel helps us let go:
1. You can let go of control.
For the most part, the world is going to do what it’s going to do. It will rain or snow when it wants, strikes will happen when it’s least convenient, buses will break down, restaurants will run out of your favorite dish, stores will close for hours in the middle of the day, and the government will even shut down when you most need it.
This isn’t an invitation to feel powerless and to respond by giving up. Instead, it’s an invitation to constructively deal with what is and to identify and focus your efforts in areas you can control — your approach to people, how you respond, your ability to problem solve, and your situational creativity — all in an effort to actively craft the style of experience you want.
2. You can let go of who you “should” be.
Sometimes we adhere to notions of who we “should” be, often based on some internal chatter regarding what we imagine others think of us.
The beauty of being on the road is that nobody knows who you “should” be. All they know is who you are right then and there. So experiment! Give an audience to those little voices inside that encourage you to do something new, something that might even surprise your friends at home. Let go of who you should be for who you’d like to be. But do so within limits; it’s never okay to be a jerk.
Then, don’t abandon this newly-developed dimension of yourself when you return home. Try to incorporate the behaviors into your daily life. If that requires making changes in your life that others can’t quite understand, so be it.
3. You can let go of time.
Buses, trains, and airplanes depart and arrive on their schedule, not yours. Punctuality knows wildly different meanings and manifestations around the world. People move, act, and react at varying degrees of speeds. Travel demonstrates that time is a construct and its importance is relative.
This may be one of the most difficult releases to embrace. After all, many of us fundamentally believe that ‘time is money.’ It’s our vacation, our holiday, and there’s an itinerary. There’s stuff to do, and there are places to go and see and be.
Herein lies the freedom: the freedom to accept that the schedule of the world around us is not always tied to our needs. So plan accordingly as best as you can, and then leave some space. You just may find that some of your best experiences happen there.
4. You can let go of fear.
Travel can serve up situations that are uncomfortable — sometimes physically, but more often, emotionally. When you’re traveling, you usually have no choice but to work through the discomfort. This process can be painful, but the rewards are almost always worth it.
Fears run from the primal ones of physical harm to the more mundane — yet no less damaging — fears of looking stupid by doing the ‘wrong’ thing or asking the ‘wrong’ question. For the first, let go of the fear and replace it with awareness. For the second, confront your fear of exposing your ignorance by asking the silly question anyway. Then, watch your fear slowly be replaced with wisdom.
Travel also teaches us that some of our greatest stories and greatest memories are accrued when we dip our toe into the pool of fear and realize that it really wasn’t that scary after all. Our fears, though seemingly very “real,” are, by definition, mental. That is, they exist entirely in our heads. Tap into them, and then surmount them by succeeding in something that previously seemed frightening or impossible.
5. You can let go of living in the future and simply be present.
It’s easy to live for the future, putting your head down now to achieve something one, two, or ten years down the road. There’s no denying how important it is to have goals and plans. However, in pursuing such plans, we sometimes forsake the beauty of the present moment — what is — for the future, i.e. what could be.
Travel can help strike a balance.
Travel grounds us in the present, for it’s all about observing, learning and savoring the moment. The better your full absorption of the moment, the more vivid your memories are — and the better your stories will be. Travel helps tune our senses so we may better appreciate our experiences. Travel also underscores how much the moment is fleeting; if you don’t savor it now, you won’t savor it ever. <cont.>
Audrey’s inspirational list continues, read the rest of her article on how travel allows you to let go at the link below.
Read full article at: How Travel Helps You Let Go
Reposted from: Yahoo! Travel
Pic credit: Pixabay
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