I will admit there is nothing like traveling with others for camaraderie. Human connection and shared experiences have a magic all their own.
But traveling alone has a unique magic to it as well. It brings about:
1. Balance
2. Your own version of fun.
3. Heightens the mind with Problem solving skills and Critical thinking.
4. Let's you get to know yourself and the world around you better.
Sure it gets a little lonely and your mind tends to wander to others sometimes... But for me, the good outweighs the bad.
The Good:
Balance
When else do you have multiple days to please no one but yourself? You get to move at your own pace the entire time. No rushing and no worrying about another persons timeline. You get to luxuriate in laziness and get motivated by things you truly want to explore. Sometimes you get tired of the laziness, sometimes you get tired of the exploring, so then you learn how to balance it all out.
Your own version of fun.
You may not even know what your own version of fun is. And that's perfectly OK. You may be used to traveling with others and doing things that they would like to do or finding compromises. There's nothing wrong with that with those things. But when you travel solo, you truly get a sense of what you enjoy doing, so then you start to learn your own version of fun.
Heightens the mind.
Traveling by yourself makes you more aware of your feelings and thoughts. Sometimes people want to escape these two things by getting lost in distraction. But really, if you don't have anyone else to vent to, or every day life to get in the way, you are faced with resolving those thoughts and feelings so you can then go about enjoying your trip.
Traveling alone also heightens your critical thinking skills. You become a lot more resourceful and creative when you have only yourself to rely on. In essence, traveling with yourself makes you learn more about, well, yourself.
Getting to know yourself and the world around you better.
Solo Trips make you more aware of your surroundings...
The quaintness of small towns, the emotions you have when they are stirred by the lyrics and sounds of your favorite music, the wind in your hair, the wildlife chattering and scurrying about you, the friendliness of a smile, or a hello (that you experience often while camping and hiking), children's laughter, annoying car alarms, old men that meet in groups for breakfast and talk mostly about observations but rarely discuss feelings, women that meet one on one for lunch that talk mostly about their feelings with a small smattering of observations, couples who are opposites, couples who are alike, the friendliness of people who are in the present moment with you and rudeness of people who are lost in their own heads and egos and won't be there with you and self awareness of how you choose to feel and react to friendliness and rudeness.
We have all tricked ourselves into thinking that we should not travel alone. Some concerns are safety (which can be addressed with realistic planning), fear of the unknown, and thinking that it can't be enjoyed unless others are around. But don't take my word for it, experience a solo trip yourself and see what happens.
Author- Charity M. Loring, LMSW
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