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Traveling and Happiness: Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.
When you’re traveling, you get a whole new perspective on what
really matters, and you feel this sense of adventure and excitement that
reminds you just how many possibilities you have in life.
1. Great things can happen when you’re flexible.
When you’re traveling, you expect there to be bumps in the road,
or unexpected surprises, and that’s what makes it so exciting. If everything
went as planned, you wouldn’t have a story to tell other than “I saw the Great
Wall of China, and it was large.” If you’re being flexible, you open yourself
up to opportunities that sometimes can stem from a single moment gone wrong.
It’s not always easy to be flexible in life. We sometimes get
attached to rigid ideas of how things should work out, personally or
professionally, but this can backfire and end up limiting us. When you’re
adaptable, you open yourself up to possibilities that you might not even know
are available to you.
2. Life is a lot more beautiful and manageable when you
proactively create moments of awe.
These moments, when you remember you’re part of something much
bigger than you, ignite a sense of awe. They’re humbling, and if you let them
wash over you, you’ll feel a sense of connection and peace that makes all your
problems seem manageable.
We need to choose to create those moments—to get out of homes, and
out of our heads, and into the great, big world together.
3. You have to let go of where you were to get where you can be.
When I was young my mother used to tell me and my brother to wave
goodbye to places when we left them. If we were at the ocean, she would say,
“Wave goodbye to the ocean!”
When you’re traveling, it’s easier to let go of a beautiful moment
because you know the adventure continues. No matter what rolls by outside your
window, there will inevitably be more to appreciate when you get off the train.
In everyday life, when you leave a moment you loved, it’s tempting
to cling to it—particularly when you’re headed back to work, or to a place
you’ve been to many times before.
We forget sometimes that waving goodbye to one beauty allows us to
wave hello to another. We may not know for sure what that might be, but there’s
always something good ahead if you’re open to recognizing and appreciating it.
Benjamin Button said, “I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what
a shame that is.” He’s right—they don’t. But it doesn’t have to be a shame if
we enjoy each moment while we have the chance and stay open to the next adventure.
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