You are so engulfed with your daily chores, there is not even any time to plan for a break, forget about taking a break. Career ambitions, project deadlines, kids’ education and extracurricular activities, social media, sensational news and insensitive entertainment media – all work in unison to take every minute your life away from your ‘Self’. The many schools for yoga, meditation and self-realization operate for profit and do little to make a lasting impact.
Your basic needs in life is not very different from that of your parents, but you seem to be busier and more restless. While the whole world has become fast paced, you cannot live the same way as your parents. Thinking about it may sound like that you have entered a never-ending dark tunnel. However, there are ways to escape this madness and recharge yourself – Travel.
For many travel, which is synonyms to vacation, is an annual project, that involves lot of research and crowdsourcing of ideas – and begins with shortlisting location, booking for hotels/tours, saving or borrowing cash, applying for leave in office/school, arranging back-ups and managing post travel issues such as catching up things missed (kids’ homework, project status). Sometimes you feel that you added more stress to life by taking a vacation.
It is true that a long and expensive vacation require a lot of planning and arrangement, but real value of such a break can be derived, if you keep in mind the real purpose of the vacation.
Vacation is not about rushing to exotic or popular place, taking photo and sharing it on social media. It is about engaging in new experiences- experiences that introduces to a new world, experiences that brings new perspectives, and experiences that opens new dimensions of life. Here are few simple tips.
- Make vacations an important part of your life. Frequent, short and less expensive travel have proved to be more satisfying that longer and expensive travel.
- Push yourself out of your comfort zone. When travelling do not try to be in your comfort zone always. Explore new boundaries, be adventurous, but be mindful of personal safety and security.
- Remain in the moment. It is only when we travel you can be in the moment. Do not plan too much for the next day, just a skeletal plan of activities and logistics is good enough. Enjoy every moment and go with the flow.
- Strengthen bonds with family and friends. Vacation is a great time for personal bondage. Set aside enough time to relax as a group – talk about the great things that happened, the wonderful things you did together, share how important you feel about each other.
- Unwind and introspect. Travelling gives you the much-needed time to recalibrate yourself. Keep sometime to remain in solitude, and let your inner self question every part of your life – what are doing to your life, what are your ultimate goals, are you going in the right direction. Do not stress. Let the thoughts flow as it comes. You may feel more energetic with reassurance about your progress, discover more about yourself, and get ideas to realign your future action to your priorities.
- Shed your weight. Do not carry anything from your daily baggage to your vacation. Disconnect from anything that will remind you of your life once you reach home.
Enable the ‘Airplane’ mode, not only on your mobile devices, but on yourself as well. Travel, experience, explore, discover and bond. Rejuvenate to become a better person.
Bon voyage.
