Why Do We Travel? Backpacking For My Own Enlightenment
Why do we travel? I learned more about myself and the world in my 75 days backpacking Europe than I ever could of if I had stayed at home.
It takes a person outside of their normal routine full of ingrained patterns that may leave them feeling unsatisfied and pondering “Is this all there is?” It takes the slate of what is, and what has been and wipes it clean. It gives a person a renewed freshness for life. A crispness that feels as fresh as the morning air and so familiar, leaving them wondering why they didn’t do more to feel this way before.
As you get transplanted from one environment and dropped into a totally new one, the shift in the paradigm of the outside world brings rise to an equally impressive shift to the inner world. The traveler goes from a “comfortable” way of existence into a completely new culture and way of living.
The backpacker’s lifestyle makes things simple. I didn’t have to solve difficult equations or worry about what my family and friends were doing. All I had to do was find a place to sleep, get on the right train and make sure I had enough local currency to buy food. It was so refreshing. I could do this!
My mind slowed. My emotions calmed. The whirlwind I didn’t even notice, but had become accustomed to living in, slowed and dissipated. All of the emotional ruts and stresses I felt trapped in at home were given a well needed rest. I got the time to learn a new way of being: one that felt like a much better fit.
A few weeks into my trip, as everything was slowing down, my stress levels were at an all time low and I was teetering on boredom, something unexpected happened. Something so unexpected that I’m sure Cindy Lou Who herself would have found it an even more amazing experience than when she woke up to find Santy Clause in her living room on Christmas Eve. It is certainly something I will remember throughout my entire life. It was like a pop. As though a lid that was hiding the real me was taken off: the true me. The me that was always there but lived hidden away under a tinge of dread, or a graying breeze of anticipation or a blur of worry. It wasn’t that cheap happy you get from a new job, a new wardrobe or outside praise. Nope, this was something much deeper and much more stable. Even when I had no one around I wasn’t lonely, even when I had nothing to do I wasn’t bored, even when I was hungry it was tolerable because I felt full of life. Difficult to describe in words, best felt through experience. It is the feeling of joyful fullness when you are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. And I wanted to hang on to it at all costs, so I kept backpacking, until I finally felt so secure in my new found wellness that I was sure I could bring it home with me and live that way for the rest of my life.
And with that I’d like to share with you some of the beautiful places I traveled through as I experienced the fun of travel and a new taste of life.
My other websites are Backpacker World Travel Tips and a Natural and Alternative Health and Wellness Blog.