9 LESSONS THAT TRAVELLING WILL TEACH US

Credits: Google Images

Hi,

I am back after enjoying my summer vacations. My vacations were great, full of fun, where I met some personal challenges and also learnt life’s beautiful lessons. There were certain things that went well, as expected; and certain things, that didn’t. Overall, vacation time was rewarding and exhausting together. Since travelling is part of vacations, today I would want to highlight 9 lessons that travelling experiences can teach us.

If I say that our life will be meaningless if we do not travel, it would not be an exaggeration, you know it. Travelling is a great learning institution in itself. Many travellers have proved it time and again. And it goes without saying that it is during those travelling experiences, we start taking a journey to our inner self, and gradually understand that knowing ‘thyself’ is the most important pursuit on the road to achieve success, happiness and satisfaction in our life.

So let us see how travelling can help us understand our own selves better, since in words of Danny Kaye, “to travel is to take a journey into yourself” and after knowing this axiomatic truth, shouldn’t we start travelling now onwards? Of course, we must. And here are the 9 lessons that travelling will teach us.

1. Live each moment. This is the first and one of the most important lessons that travelling experiences will teach us. From getting our tickets booked, to boarding our flight, train or bus, we start experiencing and enjoying each part of our travelling journey. On Road, in metro, on shopping streets or boating in drizzling weather, we become one with our goal, our journey. It is the pursuit and the journey that brings enlightenment and happiness and we savour and live in the present and do not think about the past or future, our only concern seems to be capturing each moment of our journey and that’s what makes our journey more too special.
2. Learn to be adaptable. The food, the climate, the culture, the people and the place where we stay force us to come out of our comfort zone. We see how quickly we try to adapt ourselves to the new place and soon, instead of looking and sounding like an alien from a different planet, we try to acclimatize and adapt ourselves to the culture of new place and people. And that’s what a skill and a new learning calls for. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that our travelling experience can even change our entire programming and conditioning of mind to an extent where we find our newer self.
3. Love for adventure. Travelling and being a part of different adventures like bungee jumping, Para-gliding, scuba diving, glacier climbing, rock climbing, skiing, biking, and zorbing to name a few, require courage and our boldness quotient to be too high. And after experiencing these moments we understand what Helen Keller says that, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” We feel that our love for adventure and life had increased manifold and we experience our ever ready mode for all the unexpected and uncalled challenging experiences in our life to confront and be in control of.

   Credits: Google Images

4. Love for Nature. While marvelling at the Seven Wonders of the World, we appreciate and acknowledge the architectural human feat but suddenly when we stand in front of the Niyagra falls or Himalayan Range of mountains we observe the vastness of the nature and the world. The beauty of the species and the birds and the plants and the nature make us realize our own limitations and how we have been confined so far in these. Suddenly our own feelings of envy, jealous, selfishness, fears, anxieties and worries look small and meaningless. In that moment we appreciate the beauty of Wordsworth Daffodils and The World is Too Much with Us and understand the greatest lesson of compassion and love taught by the Mother Nature.
5. Experiential Learning. Cancelled flight or delayed train,  unpredictable avalanche, silent night walks, night desert safari, confrontation with wild life animals which we have witnessed only on the National Geographic so far, they all become part of our memory and experiential learning. These gruelling and awesome travelling experiences give us abiding life lessons, which are difficult to erase from our memory.
6. Learn Man and Manners. Travelling allows us to meet different people. We make friends with them and some of this friendship might turn into the most lasting relationships of our life. What we know may not help us and our entire learning may require a new theory and definition. It is not inside the class room that we learn the best and the most but it is our travelling experiences which act as the best workshop for learning the technical and the non technical stuff of life. We understand the human psychology and human needs and realize what it means to be on the road to self actualization.
7. Love for History, Art, Culture and Cuisine. While travelling, our history lessons may suddenly conjure up in front of us when we visit the cities of Italy, Paris and Rome. Moreover, in our visits we also find developing of our sense of appreciation for the art, craft, stone work, tattoo making and many indigenous art works of a place which may hook us for too long due to their exquisite beauty. The rich cultural heritage of a place will allow us to understand our own culture from a different perspective and the food and cuisine of a place may convert us into a foodie or a connoisseur. With all these experiences, don’t we feel rich and awesome at heart already?
8. Memories. We treasure memories. We make friends. We meet different people and get the opportunity to experience and learn from other culture making us feel richer, wiser and content. Time is more precious than money. When we calculate the amount of experience and wisdom and training gained in our travelling we decide that our travelling decision was the best. Soon we embark on another such quests.
9. How to be Smarter. Travelling makes us a newer one, a smarter one and a better one. We become more global and cosmopolitan and gain a newer perspective to analyse and judge things, man and matters. Once we finalize our destination, book our tickets and reach to that place, we know and understand what it means to plan and prepare, well in advance. The same preparation and principles also apply in life. If we know where we want to go, we will reach there for sure. Travelling experiences teach these life lesson in the best and the most beautiful way.

So, it is not how long the journey is but how beautiful and memorable it is. We get life once and we must experience the best. We must visit the best places. Taste the best food. Have those life transforming experiences. And such things happen when we travel.

Hence, instead of waiting for our old age to come and execute some of our travelling dreams or postponing our travelling plans for tomorrow which never comes, we should get ready, decide the place, get our tickets done and be ready to explore our inner self once again, even when our vacations end. After all, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page,” says Saint Augustine.