To travel alone is to find the answers you’ve been seeking and discover the questions to all your unfounded thoughts.
Photo by Galyna Andrushko
Find yourself in solitude. Everybody hears this time and time again.
From the punishment of youth when sent on “timeout” to the isolation every individual needs in order to hibernate with one’s emotions. Even through days of work, locking the mind and body behind concealed doors in order to cram a semester’s final paper or spurn a creative project.
Isolation, solitude, being alone-these words derive a connotation of growth and progress. They emphasize a deeper understanding not only of one’s surroundings, but also of the most significant and empowering quality-finding oneself within the present moment.
Who are you, I dare ask? Where are you? What are you doing, exactly? Why?
To find out I’ve a suggestion: quit work, take a leave of absence from work or school, and buy that one-way ticket to nowhere.
To travel alone is to find the answers you’ve been seeking and discover the questions to all your unfounded thoughts. It is your world. It is your adventure.
1. Responsibility
To take one’s life within one’s hands and have the freedom and maturity to mold it to one’s desires is to embrace this basic knowledge.
The one thing carrying the most weight, the quality of personality that enabled you-the solo traveler-to get here in the first place, is responsibility.
To take one’s life within one’s hands and have the freedom and maturity to mold it into shapes, forms and experiences of one’s desires is to embrace this basic knowledge. On the actual day we take responsibility for ourselves, our lives begin to change.
We witness how we are responsible for everything we do-each thought, word, action and emotion. This acceptance of our own responsibility for the life we lead provides us with the power to change. We become the artists of our lives.
In the words of Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, “Why should I deem myself to be a chisel when I could be the artist?”
2. Self-reliance
After the hurdle of self-responsibility there evolves a new respect and a new dimension toward living. Self-reliance is the response.
See it as the art of flotation after leaping into the air and clearing the hurdle of responsibility. It’s the sense of lightness and contentment. It’s a joy of accomplishment surpassing those worldly possessions left behind. “I am Lion! This is my Life! Hear me roar!”
3. Independence
Welcome to independence as you come down after the initial high and hit the ground running. You are now shaved of everything but your Self.
You are living your independence. No longer do you require anything other than yourself for happiness. No longer do you search for those outside fulfillments.
From the start, you were already alone. You were most likely in mother’s womb alone. And now you’re traveling, embracing this solitude, allowing you and only you to make all your decisions; what to eat, where to sleep, which train to catch and at what bus stop to depart.
You are the captain in your very own captain’s chair. Want to sleep in the middle of the day, read on a bench the rest of the afternoon, take long midnight strolls out under the stars? Fine. Do it, because no one is stopping you except your hesitation.
4. Likes & Dislikes
Traveling alone affords the individual solitude in order to step out of society’s role-playing games.
Now through these various layers of your evolution of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual growth-the solo-wanderer comes to terms with likes and dislikes.
Traveling alone affords the individual solitude in order to step out of society’s role-playing games. It absolves all expectations of you. You don’t have to listen to anyone. You don’t have to meet anyone’s needs. You have no schedules, appointments, meetings or deadlines with projects, papers, exams, etc.
It’s just you. And through the sifter of the mind you begin to remember who you are, remember which elements and ingredients in life you enjoyed the most and those you enjoyed the least. Then, without hesitation (you must drop this), you leap upon the likes and forever discard the dislikes.
5. Emotions
Emotions are a combination of mind and body sending you messages. They tell you where you are on a physical and emotional level. They inform you where you need to be-again, physically and mentally-in order to be healthy and whole.
With a continued awareness of what turns you on and off, emotions arise. They are not your friend’s emotions, your roommate’s, or your lover’s no matter how you might wish otherwise. Those persons aren’t here. You’re alone.
Emotions are the parts to your totality-the inner psyche-and in seclusion may one best decipher their keys sounded from the past.
The solo-artist may come to terms with the depth of Ralph Waldo Emerson when he said, “None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.”
6. Patterns & Reactions
Photo by Cam Karsten
Stepping out of our routines and daily lives clears the traveler’s vision. So often we live in the past or future. We do not stop to see and be the present moment-our present moment.
Indeed, it’s a gift, and to let this gift slide away over and over again is to miss the beauty of the day, the hour, of the minute and its seconds. They will never come again.
Patterns and our reactions to these patterns are what prevent us from living and taking part in the beauty we are gifted. By frolicking in the unknown we’re able to witness these patterns from afar and see how we react to them.
With a continued awareness we can prevent ourselves from falling into old habits and bygone ways. Each new day is our rebirth and each new breath can be as if we are inhaling for the very first time.
7. Past Analyzation
You’re soaking in the Andaman Sea off Thailand’s western shore. You see a woman walking the beach who reminds you of an old lover, a past friend, someone against whom you’ve carried a grudge for too long.
You’re alone. You have that isolation to observe your thoughts. Therefore, you reach deep into the past and sift through the relationship’s components.
These moments of past analyzation allow one to heal sore spots, to lick old wounds and overcome the pain still carrying into today, whether exhibited upon themselves or others.
Through this process of self-healing, the solo-sojourner may reunite with another and develop a more mature relationship; one more natural and unconditionally loving for the benefit of both parties, which includes the surrounding environs.
Past analyzation while traveling alone affords the adventurer a journey into the past to reclaim forgotten lessons and repressed emotions.
8. Future Dreams
The future is your dreams’ playground. It is imagination free of any construct built by the past and not portrayed by the present.
Next we leap out of the past, through the flicker of the present and into the vastness of the future. Here, unfettered possibility rests. The future is boundless. It is borderless.
It is imagination free of any construct built by the past and not portrayed by the present. The future is your dreams’ playground.
During travel, see the future as everything and nothing. It’s your empty canvas, and there’s no better time to wallow in hopes, dreams and possibilities. So extract your journal and write, draw, scribble and dabble the imaginary creating anything the heart desires, no matter how selfish or selfless.
It’s the Law of Attraction - all that is necessary in life is asking, believing and then receiving with gratitude.
9. Care for Oneself
The above eight steps are not concrete. They are not rules or dictations. They are mere ideas thrown out into a world of utter possibility and endless variety.
In essence however, they are the steps of an evolutionary journey, which can be taken at anytime, anywhere, by anyone. Yet a personal journey is best undergone in the silence of one’s own presence, and traveling alone promotes this introspection with ease.
Solo travel teaches the pilgrim to care for their own self - because it’s only when one masters self-care that the individual will be able to advance. Only when peace is established at home will one be able to spread peace throughout the world.
10. How to Love
The finale is love itself. Love is the master. When living with love, all thought, word, action and emotion radiate from this core of our being-that being love.
Through solo-travel, and through the varying evolutionary processes of the pilgrim’s own psyche, he/she rides the expressway into the heart and splashes in an indescribable feeling of love and peace.
And from the words of one final sage upon the doorsteps of this last stage of personal growth spoken by Joseph Campbell, “You are that mystery which you are seeking to know.”
You are the love you first sought, whether conscious of it or not. Your personal journey, either in this lifetime or another in the future, will bring you to this center within yourself. Traveling alone upon a solo-quest is the perfect catalyst for this grand voyage given to the human being as a birthright.
So go find yourself in solitude where the inner landscapes of personality become most audible within a world of possibility.
What have you learned about yourself from solo travel? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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26 Comments... join the discussion!
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Thank you for the wonderful article! I’ve been debating on a solo trip to Morocco and you just highlighted all the right reasons to travel alone or indeed to take the initiative to live each day meaningfully according to the individual.
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Great article Cam, certainly one of your finest. It encompasses much of the philosophy that BNT is all about - that the key to happiness and a better world isn’t “out there” - that the journey is really just an effective way to self-knowledge.
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To qoute an Andrian Belew song ( from 1982—I’m dating myself, I know):
‘I am a lone rhinocerous.”I have done most of my traveling alone, long term or short for almost 3 decades now.Might be time to try something new. Better check out the Travel Partners section of the Community board. Key West at Christmas anyone? I’m in search of Hemingway’s ghost and 6 toed cats.
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Wow…just wow…
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What a load of pretentious twaddle
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Thanks Mike, I like traveling alone too.
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I so enjoyed your article! Just last night I finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (Yeah, I know, Oprah loved it and all - but I thought it was an excellent memoir of travel and self-discovery). The book made me ponder the particular blessings (and hardships) of traveling all by one’s self, and how much traveling alone can contribute to one’s sense of self and place in the world. Your article gives me the sneaking suspicion that the universe is telling me to plan a trip all by myself…thanks for the food for thought!
Also - mike? You’re a jerk.
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One question… what if you’re always the solo traveler?
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Yes, I love that. Don’t you believe we’re always the solo-traveler? The majority of us are surrounded by family, friends and strangers, but there’s this slice from the senses that we are alone.
I feel alone, and I’ve always felt alone, whether receptive to my family’s support or not. However, it wasn’t until I truly embraced traveling alone that I became comfortable with this individual solitude of life… apart from the social circles of society. Many argue that we’re naturally social animals, much like our near primates of the woods. And I agree. But we’re also solitary, self-thinking, self-responsible beings free to choose and break away from any physical bonds to explore inside and out.↵ -
spot on. spot on. As a solo traveler, I can relate to all of those!
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Well, Cameron, I think each of us needs to travel alone some times, but there are also some people who’d like to travel alone most of the time. I came from the second type. Yes, travel alone makes me going deeper into myself. With no one to talk to, you are a kind of forced to talk, hear, do for yourself. Isn’t it just like an introspection in the middle of the night, when others are sleeping and you are left alone with this world, this universe?
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Great article, Cameron. Thanks for so eloquently pulling together the important aspects of solo travel. So many people reject the idea of traveling solo, thinking that they’ll be “lonely” but that’s rarely the case. Traveling solo gives you the chance to be with people, or not. Either way, you get to know yourself and return home with a whole new appreciation of your strengths and weaknesses.
Beth Whitman
http://www.WanderlustAndLipstick.com↵ -
Sir please made me one tell me about urself example for me>
My personal detail: My name is anil singh rawat. I m 27 year old & i belong in uttrachal district. My acdemic qualification is concerned, I m a graduate from delhi university. Moving towards my additional qualification, I have done one year diploma in computer application from ITG, Noida. My family background : There r 5 of us in our family. My father is a retire person in Janpath Hotel & my mother is a house wife. And I have one brother & a sister.I m the smallest amongest them. Apart of that my personal interest r, i m very fond of watching & playing cricket.
Please sir rectify my personal details & briefly.
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it is as important share to what’s learned on such solo journeys as it is to make them in the first place, I think.
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You broke it down very well. I love #10, no pun intended.
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I agree with mike, what a load of pretentious dribble…. it’s written as if it’s religous scripture or something…ridiculous.
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Loved your article. All 10 points resonated with me. When I traveled alone to Edinburgh, Scotland in August 2007 for the International Fringe Festival, I felt very free. It was great to spend time by myself even though I was surrounded by many people. I learned to become independent. This is ironic because I always considered myself to be an independent woman. I discovered I was not as independent as I thought I was. Also, I learned to ask and accept help; I learned to trust people.
I’ve been on a journey of self-discovery since March 2007. I moved across the USA in September 2008 and continue on my journey to the “center of me.” Who knows where it will take me next!
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Traveling alone does definitely lead to self discovery…I also wanted to let you know that I just finished this book and it might interest you. It deals with all five pillars of your life (financial, relational, mental, physical, and spiritual) and shows you how to create true wealth (as in well-being!) in your life. The very practical applications have made a big difference in my life – and could do the same for you.
Here’s the link: harmonicwealth.com/read
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Hey, Nomadic Matt,
If you are who I think you might be, do what you should do and be in touch with those that love you.
Peace, Zen, Freedom, Love, — and consideration for those who care
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Experiencing travel on own or with others is what life is all about.
"The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences". Christopher McCandless
Check out these cool travel quotes:
http://www.collthings.co.uk/2008/10/cool-travel-q...↵ -
Beautifully written. The last part on how to love, brought tears to my eyes. It's time to do this.
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Hey,
A friend of mine wanted to go to Thailand with me this summer until I told her I have a trip through Southeast Asia planned. I must have said it wrong because she started talking about how much fun it's going to be and so on. I had to tell her I really have to do this alone a few days later (even though I should have told her right away so she wouldn't have gotten her hopes up in the first place, but I'm really bad at doing that to people and honestly, I wouldn't have told her at all if her dad wouldn't have said no to her going on the trip…) Now she won't understand why I desperately want to travel alone, and maybe that's my fault because I'm not very good with words and didn't know how to explain her.
Beautifully written, Cameron. I'm sending her the link right away, and maybe she'll forgive me:)
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I just finished reading the The Evolution of Change, by Dr Michael J Thomas, this book opened my eayes to things I never realized, in using the laws, I recommend all read this book, find it at http://www.mindnfocus.com
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Hey! I love your post!
I will definitely mention your article in my blog. More power! =)
Love lots,
Angel Meg
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“To take one’s life within one’s hands and have the freedom and maturity to mold it into shapes, forms and experiences of one’s desires is to embrace this basic knowledge.”. Dude, this was an awsome post! It made me realize that you need that silent alone time. No outside interference, just You and Source. I bet all of your questions could me answered during a time like this. Society is just so busy, rushing, etc, that we walk around most of the time like a chicken with the head cut off, no clear and defined direction. Great things cannot be accomplished without Source involved.
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