From Lost to Found: How I Found my Why for Travel

I’d like to thank Liz for writing this piece and being the first guest blogger on this website. You can find more about what she does at ourgreatperhaps.com .

On to the Article!

When I first started travelling, I didn’t plan to do it full-time, and I wasn’t like other nomads, this was never my dream.

You see, I grew up in the U.S. And I am all too aware of the problems plaguing the country, but we were in a toxic relationship, and the only way I could keep it from dragging me down was by leaving.

Initially, my plan was simple: find a new home abroad and establish a stable expat lifestyle.

This was always a pipe dream though, it just seemed like a good idea in theory. Then I found out I’m eligible for Irish citizenship, and that dream started to show some tangibility. I knew I needed to get out of the states as soon as I could, and I couldn’t keep waiting for my friends to join me backpacking to start. So I got started, scared but excited.

Balancing Connection and Independence 

Solo travel is hard for everyone, there is a level of self-reliance that isn’t talked about enough in it. For me though, I knew I had a tendency to fill all of my spare time with social activities rather than with myself, making it hard to trust myself.

I used community as a form of escapism to fill time rather than as something to cherish and cultivate. 

So starting this trip was a way to change that. I knew that I still craved genuine human connection, but in this journey, I didn’t want my past reliance on social interactions to be a means of escaping solitude like it used to be. Overcoming the tendency to fill empty spaces with social interactions was crucial to my personal growth.

My self awareness became a bit of a double edged sword when it came to travel. With a tendency to think an idea to death, I am not always action oriented if I can’t guarantee that I can succeed. If my choice isn’t 100% possible, I am less likely to prioritise following through, because I sure do love a good day dream. 

With travel, I didn’t give myself the chance to kill the idea by overthinking it. I made a plan, short and sweet, and made sure I was held accountable. Through conversations with friends, and booking housesits, I slowly waded into the water of travel, without much of an escape plan on the other side. 

After my first year of travel, I spent some time reflecting on how I had changed and whether I was able to accomplish my goals, beyond the simple “travel full-time” one. This led me to the conclusion that I need to be more intentional in my travel choices. Rather than try to throw myself into every social interaction I can, I need more balance. 

The end result has been choosing to stay in community-focused spaces every other month, and stay alone in housesits or my own apartment for the other months, so that I could nudge myself into spending more time unravelling my own thoughts rather than avoiding them. 

Through my journey, I began to cultivate a deeper connection with myself. Everywhere I have gone, I have met people who have given me advice or offered me an opportunity to try a new technique that would get me closer to myself. This newfound self-awareness allowed me to build more authentic relationships based on mutual respect and understanding.

Reinventing My Lifestyle 

I never considered myself a particularly spiritual person, until I started seeing how invested most of the people travelling around me were with integrating it into their lifestyle. It wasn’t long before spirituality started to characterise my travelling to a point, something I hadn’t experienced in a genuine way prior to this journey.

In the first leg of my trip, I learned that digital nomads have a real community, they aren’t just alone or choosing and planning random destinations constantly, most of them go with the flow, and the flow often leads them to each other.

After that, I discovered meditation and how I could train my mind to stop grasping onto every thought and live in the moment with more intention.

From there, I started doing new kinds of yoga with more frequency, which allowed me to tap into my body in ways that I had never done before.

Then I learned about authentic relating, and how you can feel a genuine connection with anyone, if you ask the right questions and are open to relating with them.

Onwards to minimalism, where I’ve been awe-struck at how little some people are able to carry with them, causing me to feel more content with what I have and less focused on the external.

And interestingly enough, I even tried a barefoot hike, one where my friend reminded me that any pain I felt on the way was pain that I needed to feel and release.

The most important thing that I learned in my journey so far has been that travelling has nothing to do with the places.

It has everything to do with the power of connection, with myself and with my community. This may not be why I started, but this has been the outcome and why I keep travelling.

Each new place adds new layers of experience, and clarity in understanding in ways that I had never experienced before.

So how can you start?

The key to fulfilling travel lies in understanding your motivations. Are you seeking an escape, a transformative experience, or a deeper connection with yourself and the world? By clarifying your intentions, you can create a travel itinerary that aligns with your goals and aspirations.

It is so easy to use travel as an escape, and a way to avoid your problems, so figure that out first because the answer you’ve been looking for in your problems isn’t out there… it’s in you. 

The most important thing is to listen to your intuition and embrace the adventure.

And My Why…

When I first started travelling, I didn’t know why. I was a bit naive, like most people, and I figured that anything would be better than the monotony of working 9-5 everyday in the same place.

Maybe my reason for travelling is that I need to spend time alone, or maybe it’s that I need to clarify what community means to me or maybe it’s that I want to live rent-free and experience-full. Or maybe it’s all of the above. I do know one thing for sure, I wouldn’t still be travelling if it wasn’t for the amazing people and connections that I’ve made thus far, so I guess for now they’re my why. 

And I want to keep improving myself so that I can grow with this community, rather than apart from it.

I’ve been inspired, and I hope you are too.

Happy travels,

Liz Long