Find Balance By Traveling Within
Most of us love to travel. We get excited about the idea of a vacation or the opportunity to go someplace other than where we are, but then we come home and begin to dream again of a far-off land or opportunity that exists as a hope, as a fantasy, as an opportunity to change our perspective about ourselves.
Traveling is important. I won’t deny this. When given the unique opportunity to shift either emotionally, physically, or psychologically, there is nothing like an excursion to help with that shift.
I won’t say traveling is an opportunity everyone can afford, and there may be resentment when we see others traveling to far-off lands for the Instagram moment. But before I go about criticizing Instagram again, as I am known to do, let’s rethink what travel can do.
Yes, traveling can provide an opportunity to get some cool photos, but after we have taken the photos and shared them to receive a reaction, we’re onto the next great idea about where we can go and how we can receive more applause for our efforts.
There is nuance, difficult to convey, in what I am about to propose so please bear with me as I explain. Traveling is good. Sharing ourselves with others is good. Taking photos to remember our trip, wonderful, creative, and exciting. But I would like to propose the following concept as a way to shift, ever-so-slightly, our approach to traveling:
Going outside of ourselves, as we do, to get a reaction about these personal moments is good for the ego. It is exciting to feel good about who we are, what we do, how we contribute to the world, and how others perceive us. So we continue to share these personal moments to help ourselves connect.
Connectivity is the name of the game and we’re playing, rather superficially, with these tokens we’ve collected that say we must share and wait for others to respond. But at the end of the day are we happy with ourselves as a result of sharing our most personal moments? Will we feel the need to seek more gratification by sharing even more? If we do need more, and most of us do, because we feel as though something is still missing despite the “likes,” we will go outside the self again to gain insight, to share, to post, to receive a response. The circle continues.
Writing, to me, is like traveling. It is my way of going to an undiscovered place within myself to make discoveries. When I travel within, I do so to tap reserves I never knew existed. I want to take the opportunity to draw these experiences into me before I take the time, effort, or emotional commitment to share them. Sure, I can post a picture of myself that I’ve taken on a trip, or write a witty blog, but I weigh these decisions carefully.
I’m not about to go about willy-nilly and give out my most vulnerable self. Just as it takes effort to share, it takes effort to restrain. I look for a balancing point so that I can recognize what is mine to share and what stays home. With me.
SelfTraveling is good for the soul. Going within is good for the soul. Therefore, traveling within is a good way to look at the nuance of sharing ourselves and at the same time find balance by keeping some of this traveling to ourselves to honor the self.
