Travel with intention

The notion of living with intention is becoming more and more popular, so how can we bring more of it when we travel?

Travelling has always be a BIG part of my life.

When I was a little girl I used to daydream of going to exotic places all the time, and I spent  hours reading the travel guides in my grandfather office and I had the chance to travel quite a lot with my parents since I was very little, so I've gotten used to taking planes, feeling comfortable in airports and loved tasting all the different kind of foods!

During the last couple of years however, I realized that I had transformed travel as an escape from reality and my truth. It was the easiest thing to do, and I thought it was the solution to all my problems ...

When I started to question myself and my choices one of the things that jumped quickly to my eyes was my habitute of moving arounf a LOT. Of changing home,city and sometimes country very easily.

SO I STARTED TO FEEL DISCONNECTED FROM TRAVELLING

After travelling to Asia for an exchange with my shcool two summers ago , I've started to notice how travelling for me didn't have the same value as when I was that little girl.

I had lost my sense of wonder and incredible curiosity that I had before.

I clearly remember visiting with my parents and amazing garden in Asia and feeling....Nothing at all. It was clearly stunning and breath-taking, but it had no effect on me in that moment. I was spent and tired and all I wanted was to go home and be quiet. 

Another thing I noticed was that I started to be scared of flying, which was a feeling completely foreign to me, because I've always loved airports and planes. I literally felt like my feet wanted to stay on the ground and not up in the air, it was such a metaphor of my life in that moment!

What was the point of travelling without appreciating all the wonders around me?

None for me!

So I made a promise to myself to stop travelling as much as possible during the following year, or years if necessary until I had found back my energy and my desire again.

I felt a huge urge of being more stable and STILL , because I knew it was my way to face myself, face my limits and really discover what I wanted in life.

It was the start of a self-discovery journey and building a greater sense of HOME here in Paris, with my friends and community and most importantly inside of myself.  And really investing my energies in creating new projects ( like this blog and all the new passions I'm cultivating now) instead of wasting it in packing my stuff and moving houses around the country.

MY NEW DESIRE OF TRAVELLING WITH INTENTION

BUT ..... in the last few months something has changed . I'm feeling again the travelling vibe blossoming inside of me ! After being quite still for the last couple of years, with no desire to move unless it was a learning or "business" trip , I'm feeling that desire of discovering places and people again!

The colors, textures, the smells of a new country.

And I'm so happy it's coming back, because I've always been a gipsy soul at heart!

My way of travelling now is adapted to the person I am today, so it's a lot about travelling with intention.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN ?

• Travelling slow and not rushing from one place to another trying to see EVERYTHING !

•  Packing with care all i need to feel great , from little snacks to bring on the plane, to nice clothes to feel good in, a book, to all other essentials instead of packing one hour before and forgetting stuff ( I forgot my pijama 90% of the times before ...)

• Researching the destination and finding places to visit aligned with me, including healthy cafes, unique little corners of a city and avoiding the touristic spots as much as possible

• Blend with the locals and go where THEY go, and create real human connections

• BE PRESENT : Soaking up the experience and pausing enough to remember about it

• Finally I think that travelling with intention means adding value to the places you visit as much as to your own world

I'm loving this idea of intentional travelling, and intentional living in general, so I'm gonna write more about it for sure in the future !

For now I pack for my amazing long-weekend trip to Portugal , holidays here I come 😃

Want to know more about travelling with intention ? Check out the blog of my friend Katie http://www.thetravellinglight.com which I interviewed here few months ago, it was one of my first inspirations for travelling in a different way !

Now it's your turn, How do you like to travel? What's your style? What do you get out of travelling? Share it in the comments below, I'd love to know !

With love and light,

Alessia