Could our impulse to travel be a yearning for finding purpose in life? What feels like a natural curiosity, might be a response to the inner quest for change, purpose and meaning?
A wish to get away, or go to see exotic places or to experience yourself alone in essence could be a yearning for authentic life, where we know ourselves intimately. Have you noticed the quality of your internal drive to go travel? Have you looked behind your impulse to travel?
As Andrew Lam puts it here: "We travel to find ourselves".
The feeling leading to making decision to travel could be seen on a surface as a subtle spike of boredom, a very low level impatience with what is going on in your life right now.
Something might be missing. Or perhaps the feeling of general buoyancy of knowing where you are psychologically, or certainty about your plans suddenly lose momentum.
You feel less confidence in your intentions and even a spasm of meaninglessness. There might be a question of “why am I doing this?”.
Or you might be overcome with feelings of waiting for something to “fall into place” while what you are doing now appears fake as a mirage or a dream.
This internal reality could be felt as not being connected to life, feeling of not being recognized or not feeling much purpose to anything. As we seeking to balance these feelings, we are going through psychic reorganization and consequently finding purpose in life.
The best and most successful way of going through this process of finding purpose in life, not that it is the easiest, is to accept yourself and feel all the feelings that could rise — hopelessness, anger, frustration, anger or loneliness without seeing them as a permanent state or totality of who you are.
By accepting yourself wherever you are, you create a comfortable environment of integration when you can admit your shadow — a part of consciousness that you have hidden away or denied to face about yourself.
There’s tremendous amount of creative energy is hidden within this system of maintenance.
For this reason alone travel is meaningful as it offers a freedom to look at your psyche exposed, while being removed from activating triggers or enabling agents of our relationships that keep these energies engaged and hidden.
This what makes travel meaningful and rewarding — it presents a space for that part of ourselves that wants to be hidden to unravel safely without external witnesses. It happens in the safety of anonymous environment where we don’t have any history or demands to hold expectations of others. Meaningful travel avails the environment where we can bring our hidden process into view of our awareness without caution for being interrupted, misinterpreted or corrupted by unwelcome influences.
If you detect that your impulse to travel is much more profound than a simple craving for leisure, if you notice that deep down there’s a quest for change, desire for something unknown, yearning for freedom, for finding purpose in life, then you may follow these practical suggestions to stay steady through this crucial period often filled with fog of confusion, chaos and doubt.
Look at your beliefs.
Trust that there’s a purpose to being here.
Ask yourself what you’ve been tolerating.
Confront your story of fundamental limitation.
Let the feelings be felt.
Give yourself time to be alone.
Use this time for self-renewal.
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