Sunday, April 26, 2020

How Travel Enriched My Life


I am a travel coach who focuses on helping and empowering people to have meaningful experiences that improves their wellbeing and enriches their lives.  My personal journey began in university as a wanderlust spirit with a broke college student budget. I struggled for years growing up and into my young adulthood with severe anxiety and depression.  It was after graduating from university that I knew that something needed to changed.  I was slipping into a deeper depression, felt lost and confused, and lacked any direction in my life, despite having a college degree.  I knew in my heart that climbing the corporate ladder was not for me and I didn't want to live my life anyone just trying to make my family happy.  I wanted, I needed, to find my passions and purpose in life. I needed to figure out who I was, what I wanted out of life, and what I didn't want.  That's when I decided to take a very conventional route by packing a suitcase and setting off to explore the world.  I had no idea how long I'd travel for, where exactly I would go, or what answers I was looking for.  I thought maybe I'd travel for a month before coming back home and finding a "real job".  Little did I realize, travel was helping me in more ways than I imagined.  I wound up traveling on and off for the next decade to over 84 countries as a solo female traveler. 

Travel was not only my greatest professor but my healer.  I was meeting incredible humans around the globe who opened my eyes to other ways of living, foods that I didn't have in my home country that enriched my body, and had experiences that made my soul sing.  I explored incredibly beautiful destinations that installed a deeper love of nature and the world in me. My travels exposed me to new belief systems, ideas, lifestyles, people, hurt, joy, problems, and challenges. It showed me just how strong I was while teaching me about my weaknesses.  It made me realize what kind of life and lifestyle I wanted to be happy as well as what my dream career path was.  I dove into research on the various wellness benefits that travel had and learned about the decades of studies that talked about the mental, physical, and physiological health benefits that travel can provide. Some of these studies included how travel can boost your happiness and even lower your stress and anxiety levels. 

I also learned about the benefits of experiences and human connection had as well, both which travel consists of.  Travel introduces you to new people, whether they are other travelers or locals.  It makes you an interesting storyteller and gives you a boost of confidence to know what you are capable of and what your passions are.  Travel makes you more compassionate for other beings and can inspire you to help others or make a change in the world. This aids in feeding your soul and gives you a sense of purpose.  Traveling also opens your mind to new ideas while shaping what you want in a life and a career.  Need to strength a relationship with a loved one, child, or a friend? Travel somewhere.  There are many healing powers that traveling with people or engaging in culture or human connection can do for you.  There are so many ways that travel can enrich your life if you simply open your mind to it and take that first step on your own adventure. It's important to self-assess what kind of experience you are seeking on your next trip and what outcomes you desire so you can better decide what to do, where to go, who to go with, and for how long. 

Put the benefits of travel into motion in your life by being intuitive about what you need, what you fear, what might holding you back, and what transformation you need.  I have made it my mission as a travel coach to empower others to take control over their vacations or travel lifestyles so they too can have transformative experiences that impact the mind, body, and soul. 

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