Happy Monday Motivation!
Last night I watched The Oscars and was pretty moved by quite a few speeches. It reminded me of why I love movies and how they inspire me to travel. There are so many reasons to travel, but what I love most about traveling is meeting new people and learning their stories. Everyone has a story to tell and they are fascinating to hear about. For example , during my travel to Thailand, I met a Canadian who worked six months out of the year and took six months to travel. Most of his travels were actually through the company he worked for who used 1/4 of their profits for philanthropy work all over the globe. The company would ask for volunteers from their company to travel to Argentina to build houses, fly to India to help the orphans at an ashram, and traverse to Thailand to deliver goods to those who lost everything in the tsunami. This Canadian would volunteer. After he completed helping others, he would take a few more weeks to travel around the area and explore more of that country. How amazing is that?! Story after story about all the sights he saw and the people he met. It made me want to turn his life into a movie!
Most of us are taught to work hard, get into a good school, get a stable job, and start a family. It ends up becoming a life that is cramped into this little bubble of a rat race where you never seem to win. If you ever feel like that and have a yearning to have an adventure, here are 5 reasons to travel the world:
1. You get to see new and exciting sights. You wake up, go to work, come home, sleep. Repeat. Maybe there’s a workout at the gym, a coffee with a friend, a night out to dinner or the movies. But it’s all the same. The same places, the same restaurants, the same shops. Seeing new countries with new places to discover automatically gets you out of the boredom and routine of your daily life. You will feel freer, more energized, and happier! Change of environment is a valid form of therapy. So if you are unhappy, pick a city that inspires you, book a flight, and go. You’ll be in a better mood because of it!
2. You get to eat delicious new food. Food is delicious. Especially when you are getting handmade pasta in Italy or Pad Thai in Thailand or Spanish paella in Spain. The food in other countries tastes a million times better because most of them do not have all the GMOs and pesticides that we have here in the US of A. That’s not to say that you can’t get great food in America, but the food overseas will definitely tantalize your tastebuds and fulfill your stomach’s desires you may not even know it had!
3. You get to meet new people. This was definitely my favorite part about traveling! Especially if you decide to backpack, you will meet other backpackers everywhere from all over the world. Strike up a conversation. Find out why they are traveling, how long they are on holiday, what exciting places they have already seen, and what places they are looking forward to exploring. You may even get a fun traveling partner, a life-long friend, or maybe even meet the love of your life 🙂 I met several people along my journey who met someone during their trip who they fell in love with and had that soulmate connection with. There are 6 billion people on Earth. Like-minded friends and lovers are out there. So go find them!
4. You get to try something new. If you have a bucket list and wonder if you will ever check anything off of it, now is your chance! No one is going to judge you out on the road. Find something you’ve always wanted to do and go do it! Whether it’s cliff diving, riding a bull, eating an exotic food, bungee jumping, or kissing someone underneath a waterfall, pick one item off your list and find a way to do it. Your life is happening now. YOLO it up! You never know if you will get a chance to do it again! Be Brave!
5. You get to discover yourself and inspire others to do the same. Probably the most incredible experience I had traveling was learning more about myself and who I truly am. As you connect with others and see the lifestyle and condition of other less fortunate countries, you become a lot more grateful for the abundance and freedoms we have in America. You also will learn about what truly matters to you and what is truly important in life. Kindness and compassion will fill your hearts and you will be able to bring those stories back home and hopefully inspire someone else to live a life filled with more happiness. What is the meaning of life if there is no happiness? Chase your dreams.
I learned so many people’s stories while I traveled and I am turning these stories into screenplays and hopefully movies.
So, where are you going to travel to? Need help planning? Comment below and I’ll do my best to guide you as best as I can!
Much Love and Happy Traveling!
Alicia