The Real Value of Travel: How Exploring New Places Can Improve Your Health and Well-being

If you browse this site or read and like my content then you likely prioritize health, life, experiences, and travel…

So I thought I'd share a little about the last 2 year of my life and the major impact it is has had on me and a little bit about how you can do the same without completely uprooting your life

One of (if not the biggest) transformative experiences in my life was when I sold my house in February 2021 packed my car and hit the road. I only knew what the next 6 weeks looked like and after that I didn't know where I'd be staying, sleeping, visiting, eating, etc. What started out as a 3 month experiment in personal development has turned into a little over 2 years of a transformative life experience.

To you, this may sound like an insane way to live or it may sound exciting, thrilling, wonderful adventure.

I can say that it has been ALL of those things and MORE.

I will admit... the last 2 years I haven't been living completely by the seat of my pants. When I first started I was living in a new place every 5-7 days. Usually 4-8 hours away from the previous place. That gradually changed into monthly stays and then 3-6 month stays.

This has not been easy, but it has definitely been worth it.

I'm not saying you should sell your house and move across the country for 2 years (unless you feel inclined to do so.)

What I am saying is that there is NO experience like stepping outside your comfort zone in the BIGGEST way possible.

There is a quote by neuroscientist Dr. Joe Dispenza that says
 

"When you understand that change really requires becoming uncomfortable to a certain degree, and that’s normal, you’re leaving the known and step into the unknown."

What he's saying here is that nothing new is created in the familiar, present moment. Because the present moment, for many, is a recorder of the past.. We often live our days based on feedback from the day before, the week before, months or years before in the same environment as before. We are making the same decisions, with the same limiting mindset.

And before you know it you are living your life on autopilot, reliving the day before without any real new creation. At best we are having new experiences with the same fears, perceptions, stigmas that we had before. Making it the same, new experience. ( if that makes sense?)

To change you must step into the unknown to create a new identity, new memories, new meaning in life but from a new place, environment, mindset than before.

This is what travel has taught me. I have learned more about myself, the world, people, cultures in the last 2 years than I have in my whole life up that point.

Living somewhere new so frequently allowed me to make new connections in my brain, not settle into an identity that was expected of me based on my environment, it was and has been a constant state of creation. I am literally a different person.

It also helped me create boundaries in my life and protect the things, people and experiences that are important to me. I automatically kicked many of the "bad" habits I had for YEARS simply by being somewhere where I could consciously decide in every moment who I wanted to be, not who i've been up to this point. As you can imagine, it is extremely difficult but doable.

But as I mentioned above, you don't have to do what I did to experience this for yourself. You can do this on a smaller scale on vacations, weekends away or trips.

Next time you leave town for 3-10 days I want you to use that as an opportunity to practice this mental exercise.

1. Take a look at your life back home and take inventory on what feels really good day-to-day. What doesn't feel good day-to-day. Be really honest with yourself. Write it all down.

2. What would you do differently? How will you change what's not working?

3. What are you doing on vacation that you'd like to do more? Habits? actions? thoughts?
feelings? write it all down.

4. Create a plan of action back home that will allow you to do more of what you like and less of what you don't like. Bridge the gap of your everyday life and your vacation life.

I can't overstate the profound impact that stepping out of your everyday environment can have on your life going forward IF you can identify what's working and not working and then go to work on creating more of what you DO want. 

As a reminder, the lesson here isn't to just travel or go on vacation. But to bring awareness to your life as a whole. Do you take vacations as an escape to your everyday life? If you find yourself saying " its good to get away" ask yourself what you are you trying to get away from?

Revisit those questions next time you're away for a few days.

This is all about consciously choosing who you want to be each day instead of living on autopilot or based on others expectations or desires for you.

It is your life, but you have to realize that YOU are the creator. You always have a hand in creating what you love about your life as well as what you don't love.

It is with this ultimate responsibility that you can take your power back and live a life that you are proud of and in love with.