Deep Travel: Rocket Fuel for Your Inner Growth

I spent my 20s wandering solo through over 30 countries. The world felt like a carnival to be explored. Every turn revealed a kaleidoscope of experiences — new sights, sounds, languages, and everything else that defines a place and its people.

I look back at this period of exploration as being the most instrumental in my self growth and inner understanding. I now realize that the experiences life normally drip feeds is accelerated when regularly moving into and adapting to new spaces.

When the world around frequently morphs it feels less “real” and more like a good story or fiction. Swapping spaces becomes like moving from one movie set to another. Each environment is a space for human inter-relationships and you’re a new actor that just joined.

How you play this role — the choices you make and the perspectives you hold — will shape your experience.

When novelty and change are the norm, the only constant is your self. It’s the only place you have for familiarity and comfort when the world around is anything but. It forces you to go within and become your source of peace and clarity.

Traveling so that your experiences become an opportunity to better understand yourself and the world around is Deep Travel.

Experiencing cultures becomes an immersion into the place’s history. It gives you an understanding of the matrix of thought you belong to. It reveals the evolution of consciousness and the journey of humanity. It is an opportunity to liberate yourself from limiting mental constructs that keep you from being the best version of yourself.

Deep Travel is creating space for reflection, getting in touch within and empowering yourself to shape your perspective so that joy and peace can be achieved regardless of circumstances.

Triggering Deep Travel: Some questions to get you started

Understanding yourself —

• What are the most difficult challenges you encounter? What does that say about you? Where from your past does it originate? Is this something you want to hold on to?
• How did you like spending your day? How would you do it differently? What were the things that made your day great? Would you like more of that?
• How are your interactions with the people around you? Are there any patterns that emerge with how you deal with people in your everyday life? What are you carrying over from your everyday life to this trip? What does this say about you? Would you change anything?
• What are the perspectives you hold that frame situations in a negative light? Does it make you uncomfortable? Where did this perspective come from? How can it be reframed so you have a better relationship with the situation?
• As you went through your day, what were your thoughts like? What did you learn about your inner voice? What are some things that are important for you? What did you learn about yourself? How has your culture created who you are? Are there some things you want to keep or let go?

Deciphering the world around you –

• Are there any signs of a place’s history affecting the present? How is their contemporary reality different from their past? What has changed for the better and worse?
• How do the people relate and interact with each other? How is the relationship of people with their government and authority? Where could this have come from? What does this reveal about the world to you?
• What do your observations tell you about the people and place you belong to? Does it reveal any concepts that have been fed to you? How would you define your culture in relationship to the one you’re experiencing?

Travel is akin to an obstacle course that prepares you for the trials of life. It consolidates and amplifies what life normally brings in slow motion.

Adopting the practice of Deep Travel allows you to accelerate learning and teaches you to produce the mindset that turns any situation into an opportunity for growth and joy.

I accidentally stumbled into this life hack during my fluid wanderings. Exploration became a source of clarity on the world I belonged to and opened me up to myself.

Deep Travel liberates you from limiting belief systems. The stories we are told about who we are and where we belong dissolve and begin to read like fiction. This clarity on our inner self and the world gives us strength when confronting the challenges of everyday life.