Here are a few reasons why I believe women SHOULD TRAVEL alone.
1. For this time away live without compromise. As women we generally compromise in hundreds of small ways every day. This week listen fully to your own heart. You can sleep in, go shopping, eat whenever you want. Do everything or do nothing. Go for it! You get to spend your time exactly as you want to.
2. You will feel totally FREE! Most of the time we live according to what everyone else wants us to do. You only have your own schedule to concern yourself with, no one else to manage. You have no else’s expectations to manage. There are no pulls or pushes on your choices.
3. You will learn to be more present. (Putting aside the multi tasking ritual of being a busy mom, busy boss, busy woman.)
4. Not every woman who travels solo in this world is seeking a mate.
5. You will gain a new perspective. Traveling alone allows more opportunities for the day to unfold as we allow it to rather than over organizing our lives all the time. Tthere is mystery and adventure in the allowing. This gives us a new way of seeing the world without having to always over control it.
5. You’ll experience new inspirations. When traveling solo we say yes to more adventures because we can. Life can become so predictable that having this time to try new things is essential to staying inspired. Don’t let your best stories be ten or twenty years ago, make up some new ones.
6. You will get to know yourself better. Sometimes we get spiritual amnesia and forget who we are unrelated to a role we play or a job title. You can delve deeper into who you are and what you want for your life independent from other’s opions.
You probably know of the novel “On the Road” by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on his travels with friends across America. It’s the Heroes Journey (ala Joseph Campbell) where it’s all about SELF-discovery.
I often wonder why can’t there be more stories about women on the heroine’s journey through travel? I want to be inspired by a female protagonist having the courage and vulnerability to discover the answer to Who AM I? I want to be inspired by other real women’s stories of meeting life challenges with messy grace.
Women, especially busy women, should ALL travel solo to explore them selves by exploring the world. We need more “Wander Women.” Travel is an incredible teacher!
Don’t believe the myth. As women, we aren’t waiting to be saved or for someone to make us happy. We are saving ourselves, our sacred marriage is taking vows of self-love.
I guess I’ll just have to write my own version of On the Road.
