Travel to Be Present in the Moment
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By Danny Newman
Staying present is a key skill for any traveller to develop.
The more I reverberate on it, the more I come to see the discipline of mindful travel as the but way to reap the full rewards on offer, whether you are traveling solitary for the first time, or a veteran world wanderer.
That's a large argument. So, let me try to explain…
Meet my related articles on meditation for travelers and yoga for travelers.
The Benefits of Present-Moment Focus and Mindful Travel
The nowadays moment is a magical fragment of fourth dimension that constitutes the hither and now. To remain situated in information technology will help you make the most of your time on the road. Hither's why:
· Presence is to exist free of worry, grounded in the reality around you and unconcerned with the trivialities of life.
· Presence is to be aware of, focused on, and available to whatever circumstance arises in the environs at large.
· Presence allows experience to be captivated and entered into fully.
· Presence evokes a feeling of connexion. Unity with experience reigns where disconnect, apathy and indifference tin can otherwise prevail.
· Being nowadays with travel helps you embrace and remember the feel. That's particularly important because that travel is ordinarily transient in nature.
Hopefully those benefits of being present while you travel accept convinced you lot of its importance. For anyone who remains unconvinced, I'll carry on…
An Example of Presence in Action While Travelling
Inbound into the present moment is like turning the WiFi on.
Suddenly, there's access to something outside of you. Ironically, in real terms, information technology frequently takes turning the actual WiFi off to become present in the moment!
To illustrate my indicate, here's a scenario I invite you to imagine.
You're sitting on a beach. It's the beach you always dreamed of while suffering through those endlessly long, dreary days at work or uni. Now though, gratis at concluding, you've swapped the desk chair for a deck chair.
The sun shines high in the sky above you. Light glints from the crests and troughs of the surf that laps rhythmically nearby. The air is warm but not uncomfortably and then. A cakewalk blows gently across the bay, cooling y'all downward and rustling the palm fronds that sway over head. Heat shimmers the sand in the distance, rising in waves and blurring the lines of bounding main, sand and sky into a hazy combination of contorted colours. The temper is one of varying shades of blue and gilded.
The remnants of the freshly cut coconut purchased from a beachside vendor sits in the sand at your side, close to manus. A volume, bought at the airport, rests half read on your chest as you gaze through weary eyes and tinted sun glasses at the other oiled and tanned embankment dwellers that sunbathe, swim and generally bask the day around you. You rest your head back on your backpacking pillow, and breathe a sigh of relief.
It'southward just how you'd imagined it.
Except yous're not actually there.
The whole time this perfect scene unfolds you lot're ruminating over the incident on your last day at work, when y'all heard 2 colleagues bad mouthing you around the water-cooler.
You tin can't think whether you filed that confidential document properly, or if it's yet on top of the photocopier. Did you lot lock the firm door properly behind you and shut all the windows?
What about the banking company—did you tell the bank you were going away, or are they going to cancel your card when they run into all these foreign payments?
So at that place's the stack of emails that will greet you on the calculator upon your return, or the meeting with your dominate you've scheduled to discuss a pay raise.
It goes on similar this and before y'all know information technology the sun's gone down, clouds have come and it's a petty chilly. Information technology'southward late and you're hungry, so you become some food at a restaurant. But earlier you know it, the aforementioned thoughts have trickled dorsum and you're sitting and eating a beautiful plate of food in the aforementioned mindless, disconnected fashion that you experienced on the beach.
Experiences that could, and maybe should, accept been prioritised become irrevocably lost to a mind stuck in past and future.
Though we're present in a physical sense, the pesky little monkey heed that'south constantly tick tick ticking away is plonked firmly dorsum at habitation, amid the stresses of work and daily life.
The Experience of Presence
It'southward important non to beat out ourselves upward about this.
Our brains are simply doing what they have evolved to do- that is, to protect u.s.a. from impairment.
Thousands of years agone, this same capacity to stop, think and fear would have spared the hapless caveman meeting a premature demise at the jaws of a sabre tooth tiger. Information technology was (and is) helpful.
Though the environment (and the challenges that went with it) has changed dramatically since then, this neural programming remains. The consequence? That ceaseless internal chit conversation and worry that loosens our grip on the present moment.
We know what gets lost, but what practice we stand up to gain by staying in the moment?
Really pay attending though and the environment takes on an impressive novel form, equally if seen through with a new filter.
Colours raise, lines focus, and shapes take on a new class- tiny details become obvious and striking.
Of course, these are only symptoms of existence enlightened of what's external to us. Presence also has the potential to reveal our true thoughts and emotions, which can hands be lost or occluded otherwise.
The Trouble with Presence…
Presence isn't easy. Nosotros're and so used to being 'absent' that presence is difficult to sustain.
However, it definitely improves with practice- it's a skill. You may only become a fleeting intermission from those internal workings, but this is a good start. Hopefully it volition whet your ambition for more.
Over time, you come to recognise when you're anywhere only the present moment. At that moment you can determine whether to proceed on the current path, or bring yourself back to the present. It is a procedure that gets easier over fourth dimension.
Equally, the aim isn't to exist constantly present.
Indeed, like a caveman walking inadvertently into the jaws of the sabre tooth, being present isn't always what a situation calls for. Far better to finish, remember and plan for the potential danger.
It'south the balance we're later on, and the capacity to recognise our thinking and claw ourselves back, when that'south the most appropriate thing to practise.
When y'all travel, it'due south unlikely you'll be willing and able to be nowadays all the time.
Yous'll often exist tired, which never helps. Equally, in that location's a level of thought and preparation that's necessary to stay safe and well on the route.
However, for every moment where it'll be beneficial to be lost in thought, there volition probably be ten where presence would be a preferential state—particularly as presence/alertness is frequently a vital ingredient in the recipe of staying safe while travelling.
Mindful Travel is Within Grasp
Ultimately, the joy of travelling is that it lets you write the script.
Stay present, or don't.
Just know that it often takes a mental pace dorsum to reach a creative spring forward.
And, where the benefits of presence are so abundant, I'd argue that beingness present can exist a hugely positive practice in anyone's adventure.
Some days are easier than others. Presence isn't ever possible. Sometimes information technology's easier to resign yourself to thought. But, wherever possible, have active steps to root yourself in what's actually happening, in the here and at present.
Permit us know how it goes! What did yous notice when you were truly nowadays while travelling?
Drop a comment below!
Virtually the author
Danny Newman is currently writing and travelling his way around the earth in a bid to figure out exactly what he's doing with his life. He'd love you to follow along with his journey over at What's Danny Doing.
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