Many of the most popular and beloved travel books and films out there have to do with the quest for self-discovery. This is true for fictional tales, as well as non-fiction ones, and it’s even true for tragic tales, in addition to uplifting ones.
The book, “The Beach,” adapted into a hugely successful film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, takes many dark twists and turns – but there’s a deep yearning for meaning, adventure, and self-discovery that underlies the whole tale, all the same.
If your travels only involve you going to flashy tourist resorts, and taking as many selfies as possible for your social media profiles, you may have some fun – but there are certain things you could do that would allow you to fit some self-discovery into your travels, too.
Here are a few suggestions on how to do so.
Hit the open road in a motorhome
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Whether you go through a motorhome hire company, or buy your own motorhome, you’ll be able to travel from place to place at the drop of a hat, while also having your own private “area” wherever you go. You’ll also be able to take more essential belongings with you, and will rely less on external services and systems.
Assuming you don’t spend your motorhome trip watching TV and surfing the web, you’ll likely benefit from the fact that you can wake up in a new location every day, and experience a country or region in an “authentic” scale – seeing how the locals actually live, and encountering the culture directly, instead of just lingering around the tourist traps.
Then, in the evenings, you’ll be able to spend some time meditating on your experiences before going to bed, and reflecting on the lessons you’ve learned that can be applied to your everyday life back home.
Do some writing each morning or evening
Research has shown that writing things out by hand helps to activate various parts of the brain that aren’t activated when you’re just typing something out.
Among other things, when you write things out by hand, you’re more likely to remember them, and you’re more likely to properly consider the nuances of what you’re writing down.
Taking a journal with you on your travels, and writing out a small entry each morning or evening, can help you to piece together the common threads between your experiences, reflect on your emotional reactions to things, and come to a better understanding of yourself, your motivations, your fears, and your hopes.
Don’t overfill your daily itinerary
Many of us spend our everyday lives essentially working around the clock, and so when we finally get some time to enjoy a vacation, we often crowd our daily itineraries with as much activity as we can possibly manage.
This is understandable – but if you’re spending only a very short time at each attraction, or with each experience, you’re not likely to engage with it fully, and “experience” it on a deeper level.
By committing to doing fewer things on each day of your vacation, you can pay more attention to each individual experience you’re actually having. You can stop, calm your thoughts, and be more mindful about things.
This, then, can help you to experience some much deeper
