So You Want to Travel the World, Eh?
So you want to travel the world, eh? Do you have a calling in your heart that just won't let you be? Are you being asked to do something more with your life? Are you tired of living in the system and want out of the box? Well, let's see if I can inspire you. It is time to LIVE.
I made it and I am living out my dream! I definitely would not have been able to tell you ten years ago that this is what my life would look like now. I had no idea and I still sometimes question how I got here. Life has become such a story that I am so excited to be a part of. It has become some an adventure I am so grateful to explore. It took a lot of courage to trust and jump head first into a lifestyle I really didn't know too much about until I was living in it. All I knew is that there had to be more to life than the system that had been set up by society. I was ready to take the risk and find out more for myself.
I was always an adventurer at heart. I always had a natural flow of exploration and curiosity as a child. As I grew older that never changed but instead grew stronger and more irresistible. I tried many jobs and explored many different avenues of life just searching for the answer to what it was I may have been brought here to earth to do. I worked in the food industry, call centers, child care, non profit organizations, and I even started my own business. It still wasn't what I wanted for my life and I never felt I was living up to my potential. So it was time to trust and take a leap of faith. It was time to follow my heart.
So many people ask me the same questions and want to know how I created this for my life. How do I financially support myself? How do I have the courage to travel across the world? Do I ever get home sick? How do I do it? And it goes on and on. The answers are actually quite simple but you have to be willing to take a leap of faith and put more trust in the universe. So, I am going to give you all a few simple tips so you can reflect and ask yourself just 4 questions.
The first questions you must ask yourself is: "Where do my priorities lie?"
When I first began this journey of traveling I had to really sacrifice a lot of my old life in order to start a new one. I got rid of 90% of all of my things. This included clothes, furniture, my house, jewelry, art supplies, and the list goes on. Basically anything that I didn't absolutely need, I got rid of. The only things I really kept were about a weeks worth of clothes, my paintings, a select amount of art supplies, and some of my books. Everything else I donated to charity.
How did I do this? Well, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world. There were many tears shed in the process but I knew that it was a necessary move for me. I needed to clear and cleanse the old me so I could really step into the energy of the new me. This meant ridding myself of material things so I didn't have so many attachments holding me in one place. While going through these things it was a bit of a struggle and I found there were many things I wished I could hold onto. However, at the end of the day though once everything was donated I felt this freedom wash over me. I now only had what was absolutely necessary along with just a select few sentimental small items. The freedom I suddenly felt.
I also in the midst of it all had to make the decision on whether I wanted to keep my shop with Thirdeye Indigo going or if it was time to move forward and begin traveling the world. This was a really hard decision for me because I had worked so hard to open up my own shop and start a business. I had finally become quite successful at making art and selling it online. As the business grew though I began to feel drained and I was drowning in orders and customer requests. It wasn't making me happy anymore. So, I had to also release the Thirdeye Indigo shop. This was a shock not just for me but for many. I spent 2 years building this online business only to turn around and then detach and move forward.
My priorities lied in self discovery now. I had to really shed what no longer served the new me I was ready to explore. So, I did what I had to do and learned some very powerful lessons in detachment from this experience.
The next question that arose when I made the choice to travel was: "How will I make money and support myself?"
Money has been a topic and energy in my life I have really had to work through. Abundance with money was not something I was naturally gifted with from birth. I grew up in a poor family living off of food stamps and WIC. I am the oldest of 8 kids and my parents worked minimum wage jobs barely scraping by to support us all. I grew up in the energies of worry and anxiety when it came to the topic of money. So yet again I had to face another fear: WOULD THERE BE ENOUGH? I took the leap though and before I knew it, there always was. In doing this I began to break the belief systems that were keeping me bonded from living up to my potential.
I don't quite know how else to explain how money has come into my life but I have learned to trust and there has always been JUST ENOUGH. I have always had what I need to support myself in every moment. The universe provides. If you are on the path you are destined to be on, then everything else is already taken care of for you as long as we don't resist. Money can show up in the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times.
The most powerful lesson I have learned when it comes to money is that money is ENERGY. Since money is an energy this allows us to manifest it's abundance and prosperity into our lives. I really had to take a leap of faith on this one and trust that it would happen, and it has always worked out.
For work I am freelancer. This means I work many different kinds of jobs throughout the year. Half of the year is really focused on income and saving saving saving. 6 months out of the year my entire life is 14 hours per day and 6 days per week just working my butt off to make as much as I can. I work many different kinds of jobs doing this. This includes working on a farm in Northern California making money by weight (you'll understand what this means if you are meant too). I also work for Soothe as a massage therapist throughout different parts of the year. It is like Uber but for massage therapists and I make a certain amount of money per hour and per client I serve. These are my 2 main incomes for the 6 months out of the year I am working over time to save for traveling.
On the side I also have taught meditation classes, done energy work, done astrology readings and tarot readings for donation based rates. These donations help to get me by while I am traveling and also give me some inspiration to stay inspired to learn more about the things I am passionate about. It is also a good way to be of service and give back to communities. These services provide me with just a little extra income to keep me feeling secure while I am in the midst of my travels the other 6 months out of the year.
The third question that I really had to ask myself was: "Can I trust the universe enough to do this?"
When you decide to give up your entire other life in order to move forward into the complete unknown with no idea what is really going to happen it takes a lot of courage to trust. I really had to trust that god or the universe or whatever you want to call it would support me along this walk of life. This was BIG step in surrendering to this new lifestyle. Every day can be quite unpredictable when you are traveling and when you step into this way of life it really teaches you a lot about what life is actually about.
Living the life of a traveler pulls you completely out of a box. It puts you in a space where anything is possible. Every day is a new adventure and you really have to be willing to shake yourself of expectation. There are no expectations when traveling because any plan at any moment could fall through and before you know it, you are doing something completely different than you ever would have expected.
When I started traveling it opened up an entire reality of truth for me. It awakened me to my truth on many levels and showed me how to communicate more deeply with god or the universe (spirit). As I moved into trusting spirit the synchronicities became more obvious and more apparent every day. I also stepped into a whole new realm of manifestation. I wasn't living according to a structure or a belief system anymore. I was now living life according to an entirely different construct of reality. It made me pay attention to my thoughts and my actions much more. It made me realize how powerful we are as human beings on this planet and we have much more power over creating our lives than we may realize.
I began manifesting things everywhere I turned. Instead of living in a pattern every day going from work, to home, to mind numbing entertainment, to bed, to repeat I was now exploring life from a place of trust and openness to life. I was exploring it through intention and trusting that by setting an intention for life I was manifesting and receiving everything I needed from the universe to get me to my goal.
Manifestation works energetically. When we think of something or say something out loud we are putting those frequencies into our reality and attracting them back to us; regardless of whether they are conscious or unconscious. So this opens up a space for us to be the daily creators of our reality. It has helped make me much more aware of my thoughts and intentions. It has revealed truths about personal empowerment.
Traveling has allowed me into a lifestyle where I can be in the flow each day, live a life with no expectation, and experience adventure in every realm of life. Every day is unexpected and unknown. Every day new experiences, people, connections, etc. come into my life synchronicitically to reveal powerful reflections of myself. Every moment is an opportunity to see myself deeper and more clearly. It is here and NOW I experience TRUTH.
The last question I had to really ask myself is: What is it that I am searching for in my life?
The answer became apparent very quickly when I became honest with myself. It wasn't money or fame that I was after. When I was really honest with myself I could care less about any of those things. I instead just deeply wanted liberation and happiness. I wanted to free myself of suffering and discover more so I could live a peaceful and simple life.
I can honestly say that during these last couple of years of traveling I have found that so deeply in my life. I have really discovered a lot of answers and been provided so many tools to help me grow more confident as a human being and find my truth and voice. The more I travel the more I realize that is what I want out of life. I don't want what society always told me I wanted. I want to be excited about the present moment and live in peace here and now.
In traveling I have been given so many opportunities to explore myself and the present moment. Every day is up to me and the choices I make. It has provided me with opportunity to take charge of my life and create it into what I want it to be. It has also given me so many moments to slow down, breathe, live in open gratitude, and connect to the oneness that is NOW.
There are days where I wake up and I just want to relax or sleep in a little and I get the privilege of making the choice to do just that. I don't have to go out and talk to people in a day if I don't want too. I can make the choice to stay inside, meditate, and practice yoga. It gives me full rein of my life and the direction of it. It gives me so much space to grow, reflect, be at peace, and explore.
Traveling was one of the greatest decisions I have ever made for myself. It has opened up my entire life and the person that I am. It has helped me to grow and become the best student I can be to this big beautiful world. It has taught me how to dive into the unknown and accept each moment for what it is instead of needing to change it. It has widened my entire perspective on life and who I am.
By traveling I have found culture, depth, a variety of human beings to reflect with, new experiences, and opportunities to help me grow more. It has provided me with teachers from a variety of experiences and humans to help me grow wiser. I am so grateful for this life that I courageously stepped into. I am so grateful for the lessons that have shown me that it is okay to surrender and trust. Life is magic and earth is our playground. So, go play!
The best advice I can give to anyone who feels this call in their heart to make the leap and begin traveling the world is: JUST GO! The only thing that really holds us back is our minds and the confinements of it. We always have some sort of excuse or hold some form of fear around why we shouldn't. We allow the stories of "what if, what if, what if??" to play on repeat. However, these thought loops are really just stories and very far from the truth of reality.
Life is worth experiencing and the earth is worth exploring. It will give you an entirely new appreciation for society, people, and beautiful mother earth herself. It will give you the opportunity to adapt and flow like water into life. It will challenge you on levels that will remind you that you are here to forgive, love more, and expand.
So allow yourself to face your fears. Allow yourself to SHOW UP for yourself. Allow yourself into complete anxiety if that is what is to occur; within that anxiety you will soon realize on the other side of it is a warrior that has risen and is waiting to serve.
Be like water and adapt to each situation. Be like earth and ground yourself with breath into the present moment. Be like fire and stay motivated to show up each day and take on lives opportunities and challenges. Be like wind and don't forget to allow wisdom to rise as you learn more and more about yourself each and every day. Now is the time. And so it is.
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙