Reflecting On: Traveling and Healing

So today I’m writing this while sat in a train in the middle of Europe. I thought that it would be great to take a long weekend off and start seeing Christmas markets earlier this year. And it’s been super cool! And what better place to write this than in a 2h night train, with all covered in snow and full of mist. So I’ll start putting my words out here and – hopefully – they’ll start making sense by themselves by the end of the post!

I love Christmas, and I’ve been dreaming of visiting Christmas markets since I was little, watching these Christmas TV movies at home, hoping to be there one day, in all that crowded christmasy atmosphere. And to be honest, I didn’t know what I could really find there, but I just wanted to be there and experience it!

And it’s really been like that since forever. I’ve always been in love with the idea of travelling, getting to know new places, taste new food and meet new people. So the first opportunity I got to travel abroad, I took it. I was about 20 years old, and I had never been outside my country ever before, so you can imagine with all that anticipation, how getting to my first destination felt like.

I was surprised by everything I saw. The buildings, the nature, the people, the food, the smells, even the air! Everything felt brand new and exciting to levels I hadn’t felt before. And I enjoyed my first abroad stay so much, that I had a hard time going back to my routine back at home. I was thinking all the time about the next trip, and working towards it! That’s what I really worked for, my motivation really.

And don’t misunderstand me – it still is in a major way. I love to travel, meet new cultures and bring open to new experiences! It’s one of my biggest motivations to this day. But lately it feels different – in a healthier way, which I’m very proud of.

My latest trips have been great, but the thing is that now I don’t feel that feeling of rejection when the time to go home comes, and I believe it’s because I feel more comfortable with where I’m at in my life and with the responsibilities I have at home. I link this mostly to where I’m at with my professional life, ‘cause it’s something that used to haunt me in the past. I felt anxious about it, I was procrastinating around it as much as I could, and – basically – trying to avoid the thought of it.

But that has changed recently apparently! I feel great in my current position. I also feel great in my personal life, which just adds points to this feeling of comfort.

In summary, I felt like sharing this piece of my mind, where traveling doesn’t feel like escapism anymore, but more like a way to extend and enrich my day to day life with new experiences, findings and ways of thinking, all this by getting to know new places, people and ideas!

I think I’d name it something like “Mindful travelling”, but I don’t want to enter the culture of mindfulness and peace of mind gurus, but I think it’s the best term to define the idea of traveling I want to share. An idea of you travelling because you want to actively learn about new cultures, ways and ideas, starting from the curiosity and aiming for self-growth. The idea of leaving a new place being a slightly different person than when you arrived there. Probably with more questions and doubts, but because you learned something new!

I hope you liked this post, and if you did, just leave a like or a comment, cause I’d really like to know about what you really enjoy about travelling and if you went through similar like me!

PS: checkout the main page for my all time favorite travel song! 🫶🏻❄️