Those who hugs us and wishes “Good Trip”, rarely realise that the person who leaves now never returns!
When we decide to travel, something in us changes. Our focus, our openness to the unknown, our curiosity about what is different, the excitement that vibrates by leaving behind the routine, the thrill of feeling that a dream is about to be accomplished, among so many other things.
I was a Coach when I started travelling to challenging destinations. Also as Coach, I knew that leaving the comfort zone is essential to reach those great dreams that have been with us for a long time and deep down we think it will be impossible to realize. I had already taken a few steps away from this comfort zone, always with the aim of knowing myself better, testing my limits and even confirming that Coaching is the ideal tool to make dreams come true. Of course, there are thousands of ways to get out of the comfort zone, and that varies from person to person, but in my personal experience, none achieves the same impact as the trip!
Titicaca lake, Peru (credits: Ana Ferraria)
The power I feel when I’m exposed to new experiences, new cultures, new tastes, sounds and silences never before heard, laughs and discomforts, landscapes just before seen in National Geographic, live right there in front of my eyes, flavours that I never thought I would taste is utterly transformative. I often recognize the pride I feel in being in contact with people from different backgrounds, in communicating with them even though I do not understand their language, in the surprise that I know more about English than I imagined (or not! deepen my knowledge, as has already happened!). I can see my life in perspective, what I have and am, from a new point of view. I understand that the body speaks and sometimes tells us the path we have to follow, not to mention the people, who bring us to their curiosity, wanting to know us as much as we want to know them.
Mount Toubkal (credits: Ana Ferraria)
Travelling fills my chest with emotions, the memory of stories to tell, like the one in which I decided to climb Mount Toubkal in Morocco at an altitude of 4167 meters for two days instead of just go in shopping tours in Marrakech. Or that trekking in Picos de Europa, where I decided that the excess of body weight I had and the discomfort I felt were the results of bad eating habits and maltreatment to my body and that once I left, I would change the whole my relationship with my body and food. This decision I made and carried was utterly transformative in my self-esteem, well-being, and above all, in my health! These are the kind of small choices that I took on a trip, for my sake and even for the sake of others, which made me always come back different. And it does not have to be just on the mountain, where I overcome at every step! This personal transformation can happen at any moment, even in a simple cross of smiles on Lake Titicaca, Peru, where I realised the hard life in that magnificent place, or walk in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, merely to contemplate that desert of salt filled with silence and powerful energy! The trigger is undoubtedly the journey, is to dream about it and to make it happen, is to accept the openness to the other and the difference, it is the plasticity and the amplitude that we gain to react in life with more empathy, kindness and conscience.
Going always implies getting a little out of our comfort zone. Coming back always means, as a consequence, to be different, more conscious, and makes whoever embraces us on arrival, always embrace a better version of us.
Head towards the unknown with The Wanderlust!
