The Joy of Travelling Mindfully

by Kacey Mya Bradley

When I travel, I’m always in awe of the diverse people and cultural practices that constitute this world. From the rolling hills of Ireland to the drylands of the Sahara in Africa, I always find that there’s something new to uncover whenever I journey to a new or foreign land. But while the rich variety of life can be beautiful and even breathtaking, I have found that coming to terms with differences can be challenging.

While a few years ago I may have boarded a plane with a mind full of worries or ventured into a new country with a sense of unease, the difference now is that I can make the most out of every travel experience by observing my thoughts without granting them the power to control me.

During my several years spent venturing across the globe, I’ve learned to engage in mindful meditation to build the confidence I needed to free myself from my daily worries. Little by little, I have found that, by merely embracing the world around me, I could achieve a greater sense of self-awareness that freed me from any obstacles that tried to obstruct my worldly view.

Finding Peace While Being Alone

While I always seem to be afflicted with a never-ending sense of wanderlust, many of my friends and family do not share the same desire for endless travel. That means that, in order to fulfill my travel cravings, I need to embark on my journeys solo-style. But I find that the joy of travel is noticeably enhanced when I am being mindful; when I am present in the moment.

Too often, there seems to be this idea that being alone connotes a sense of loneliness and holds a negative social stigma. However, this is not at all the case for me during my travels.

While I grew up, voyaging to the fast-paced lands of Japan was an entirely different story. It wasn’t uncommon to find myself wedged in the middle of a crowd while traversing the streets of Tokyo. But even though I was physically alone, I never for a moment felt a sense of sadness or loneliness.

Mindfulness can be massively helpful in terms of finding a sense of calm and belonging no matter where you go.

Navigating My Ways Through Difficulties — Even In Foreign Lands

Even when I would hop on a plane to a new country, it wasn’t always easy to forget the problems of my past.

Too often, I found myself turning to some temporary yet damaging way to escape the emptiness. I would make choices that weren’t aligned with my goals: staying out late, hanging out with the kind of people who weren’t likely to bring me the happiness I craved; using alcohol to disassociate from the world around me. All of it was about avoidance.

The turning point for me was discovering mindfulness and learning to be intimately connected to myself, others and the world around me. I’d make it a habit to put down my phone, close my social media, and engage in at least an hour of mindful meditation every single night. I began my practice with a simple sitting meditation where I would place one hand on my heart and the other flat on the ground, then the mantra, ‘I am at peace with myself, I am in the moment, I deserve this moment.’ It was this meditation which helped to ground me in the practice

However, the first few weeks were not all plain sailing. There were many times when my attention veered away from my breathing and body sensations, and I found myself lost in the usual fog of worry. But I realized that this was a natural part of the process. My worries were never going to stop altogether. Thoughts would always intrude on my meditations. That’s just how it is. I learned that there was no such thing as a perfect meditation. It was all about bringing myself back to the present moment whenever I noticed that I’d become distracted.

When travelling, my meditations tended to be short. Maybe a couple of minutes or so. I found I could drop into meditation pretty much anywhere – on the bus to the airport, at the airport, and even in the middle of busy crowds or plaza squares. At home, I continued to ground myself in mindfulness practice with much longer meditations.

I started to notice the benefits in the first few weeks. I was worrying much less. My sleep was greatly improved. All round, I felt much more peaceful, so much more comfortable in my own skin.

Coming to Terms With Differences

Mindfulness made a big difference to my travelling experience. As my practice continued, I found that it was becoming easier and easier to be present from moment to moment, rather than ruminating on past events or speculating about the future.

One of my most memorable experiences occurred in South America, during my stay in a small village known as Urubamba in the beautiful country of Peru. Waking up to the adjacent snow-capped mountains and the mysterious ruins on ancient Incan sites nearby always filled me with a sense of awe and reminded me that there was an entirely different world beyond the bustling streets that define most United States cities.

I was particularly struck by the cultural differences between Urubamba and the familiar streets of home. I was renting a small abode in the village and quickly made friends with a close neighbour, Gabriela, a Peruvian native. One day I knocked on her door when I ran out of nuts for some banana bread I had planned to make. She said she didn’t have any, but maybe some of the other neighbours did.

Before I could stop her, Gabriela was knocking on the neighbours’ doors, requesting the nuts for my recipe. I found myself thinking, ‘These people are total strangers to me, and they owe me nothing.’ I quickly felt my face turn red. I started thinking that this intrusion, with total disregard for privacy, would not have gone down well in my neighbourhood back home.

Then I remembered to be mindful. Noticing that my thoughts were racing and that I was becoming tense, I simply anchored myself in the present moment by focusing on my breathing and other sensations in my body.

Now calm and centred, I was able to remind myself that I wasn’t in the US anymore. I was in Peru, in a new set of surroundings with a completely different way of living. Gabriela was actually just doing what any Peruvian would do: that is, ask for a simple item from their neighbors when they were in need.

Now, whenever I travel to a foreign land where I know the culture will be different, I allow myself to connect with others by cultivating awareness of the present in a non-judgmental way and going with the flow.

Staying Grounded Wherever I Go

Mindfulness teaches us that we don’t need to be at mercy of thoughts – we can allow them to come and go without getting caught up in their content.

Mindfulness allows me to focus my attention entirely on the moment at hand while forgoing preoccupations about the past or speculations about the future. I can’t undo what I did yesterday, nor can I predict what will happen tomorrow. Every moment is an invitation to be mindful. We can deliberately bring mindfulness to a task (‘I’m going to be mindful as I cook this meal’). Or we can notice when we are not being mindful, and bring ourselves back to the moment by connecting with our breath, adjusting our posture, or even by focusing our attention on a sight or sound.

During my travels through China, I stopped by a bookstore that had an ancient Chinese saying plastered to the wall. They were the words of wisdom from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: ‘when you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’

While it’s been five long years since I first saw this quote embedded on a shiny poster, those words still hold an extraordinary place in my heart today. For me, mindfulness is about being whole no matter where I am, without the need for a specific possession or even human company to feel complete. I can travel the world and embark on new journeys while still retaining an everlasting sense of ease that makes me feel at home, wherever I am. I’ve come to realize that there’s no better way of enjoying life than showing up in the moment, rather than being lost in thoughts about how this moment ought to be.

The world is always changing — which means I too am a part of this ever-changing whirl, this ever-surprising flow that we call life. The joy lies in realizing that I’m not separate from that flow. From that realization has come a whole new appreciation of life, especially when I’m travelling.

Check out Kacey’s blog, The Drifter Collective, as well as a few articles she has written for SUCCESS, FitFluential, and U.S. News Travel.