Not everyone needs to travel to “find themselves”, it just happens that travelling is one way to rapidly thrust yourself into situations where you will quickly discover what kind of person you are. The constant need to readjust plans and fend for yourself while travelling all while trying to enjoy yourself makes for some great stories, but ultimately it is you who will receive the full benefits. Many people say that after travelling they consider themselves to be much more well rounded human beings.
Not sure exactly how travelling is the best way to go soul searching? Let me break it down for you:
Understand Your Limits
There’s no way to know your limits until you’ve broken them, plain and simple. Without the harsh and unpredictable conditions experienced while travelling, chances are you won’t even know what you can and can’t tolerate. Things like how hot a room can be, what kind of service you expect at a restaurant, and just how many safety regulations you prefer on your public transit systems are easily found out after just a few weeks of travelling around. Creating a full composite of your likes and dislikes is useful when trying to create a full picture of yourself mentally.
Know You Can Face Adversity
When travelling there’s a high chance something will fall through or even go wrong. Accidents, mishaps, or closed venues will force you to do your very best to come up with an alternative plan that still satisfies what you’d like to accomplish. The article “What Should I Do With My Life?” from Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique explains that uncertainty about the future is a major cause of stress and anxiety for many people. After travelling you’ll be able to deal with the unexpected in a much more pragmatic way as you have a more functional understanding of what kind of events you can surmount yourself and which you’ll need to call in help for.
Challenge Your Beliefs
It can be easy to become trapped in a bubble if you stay in the same town you live all the time, with some social norms that are only specific to where you live becoming normal to you. Once you put yourself out of that situation and open yourself up to other walks of life, you might notice some holes in your current way of living that can be patched up by borrowing the philosophy of other people. Your very perception of the world can change with the right sights, sounds, and conversations.
So it isn’t to say that you can’t go soul searching in your backyard, it’s just going to take you a little bit to actually be able to hone in on it. Travelling is an easy way to get a lot of personal growth in a small period of time. The parts that aren’t advertised in the brochure like waiting in the rain for a bus or trying to track down lost luggage might not be the most glamorous and envied part of vacation, but in their own special way, they really do make the experience.
