Journeying Into The Self: Meditation

Honestly, travel can be one of the most stressful, anxiety provoking, and challenging tasks you can take on in your life.

I have always perceived travel as a magical, wondrous, and badass thing to experience. Before you actually take on traveling, especially by yourself, it can be easy to have a purely positive and excited outlook on it all…that might not be for everyone, but certainly was the case for myself. However, when you actually begin to experience the demand, skill, patience, knowledge, organization, level headedness, and courage that is required, ones relationship to travel deepens.

For much of my youth I have already had a lot of anxiety in response to the demands of life, even despite having a pretty wonderful childhood… And, it is from this I have realized the pervasiveness of complexity that exists within our way of living in Western society that ultimately affects every single one of us no matter what our situation in life.

Even in light of all of the material things I have acquired and the loving relationships that surround me, I came to realize that I had not cultivated a relationship to myself or to my own mind. In this, I was living in a reactionary way that left little space for authentic reflection on life or the true nature of what I was experiencing. Instead, I responded from deep within my own stories and accounts of what was happening… not the actual experience itself.

It has been from this space that most of my anxiety and fear has developed and correspondingly affected the rest of my thoughts, actions, and life experiences. In my experience this has resulted in feelings of depression, anxiety, and fear that have resulted in missed opportunities, a lack of self-expression, hurt relationships, and generally being held back in my life.

While coming to realize this at work in your life is one thing, and something fundamentally important, it does not automatically translate to the action that needs to occur in order to escape this cycle.

For myself, this realization came through several experiences, the first of which was my introduction to Buddhism, and all of which were fueled by my desire to travel the world.

When I was entering my first year of college at the University of Washington I suffered from a significant depression. I am still not entirely sure what its direct cause was, however, up to this point I had been living with so sense of religion, spirituality, or self practice. I owned Coach bags and boots and watch Flavor Flav and other reality TV shows. The most profound thing I think I lacked was an authentic sense of reflection on my life, how things around me were interconnected and affecting me on multiple levels.

In one of my Psychology courses at the time, the courses that inspired me to dedicate my time to studying the mind, I was introduced to several new perspectives I had never considered before…and one of these was the study and practice Buddhism.

Soon, I began doing my own research into Buddhism, specifically with an orientation to overcoming depression. The book I found was “The Way Through Depression” by John Kabat-Zinn. This along with “the Wise Heart” by Jack Kornfield and “The Buddhist Path to Simplicity” by Christina Feldman made a categorical difference on the way I saw myself and, as a result, the world.

One of the most useful tools I gained from this exposure is the practice of meditation.

This tool has helped me immensely, especially in times of uncertainty and breakdown while out in the world…alone and anxious about the choices that lie ahead of me. Truly, it is through the strength of the relationship I was able to build with my own perspective through the calm awareness of meditation that I have been able to realize my dream of traveling and do so primarily on my own…from planning to execution. Thus, for anyone asking me how I have managed to take on solo travel to various parts of the world, and the weight of responsibility that accompanies such a task, the first and most important answer I have is: making sure you have cultivated the appropriate tools of self and mind that will provide a sturdy foundation of all your coming experiences.

Without such skill and preparation, any small breakdown, change of plans, or challenge that crosses your path will threaten to leave you broken and miserable…then what is the fun in traveling if it is in a state of sadness, fear, and frustration?

Investing time in strengthening this part of yourself is almost like investing in trip insurance to protect the investments you have made. Having the skills to stop, reflect, let go, and find peace in whatever circumstance you are in offers you protection from the world and all of the things that can get in your way… and when you are up to big things, many things have the potential to get in your way and ruin your time. Don’t let them.

Some of the resources that have helped me along this path are as follows:

-Chakra Meditation on YouTube

-Head Space (Smartphone App)

-Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership (more on this in a post still to come and also here)

-Psychology: Learning more about the mind – its structures, what they mean, how they act, and what that all means in lived reality (Free classes in sites like Coursera)

-Books:

“The Way Through Depression”-By Jon Kabat-Zinn

“The Wise Heart” -By Jack Kornfield

“The Buddhist Path to Simplicity” -By Christina Feldman

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

-Marcel Proust

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