How do you discover the answers you most need to know?

New travel experiences are fun and refreshing. We enjoy planning our next trip or at this time, dreaming about it. Travel helps us destress and relax.

The best trips, though, have no itinerary or destination. The most exciting journey starts when you allow yourself the space to travel within. Every moment of your internal trip reveals new perspectives and questions. Questions that encourage you to move forward because they help you discover the answers you most need to know.

You may have had a question for years. You keep searching, never giving up. One day, bam! the answer comes to you in an instant. How do you know when this happens? There is no doubt, no regret, no pain, no negativity. Above all, there is no hesitation or fear. You don’t have to force yourself to feel ‘courage’ or ‘be brave’ about it. You are fiercely focused on continuing the journey. Being in the present is no longer a chore. You accept each moment for what it is.

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart!” – Confucius

How do you embark on this journey? Go where you feel most alive and free. Spend a little time every day thinking about places and dreams that make you feel lit up; about people who make you feel bright and clear; do a little of what makes ‘work’ seem delightful. You will gradually be pulled back to the present instead of living in non-existent places like the past or future. As you spend more time feeling joyful, your next step will reveal itself.

Maybe you are floundering in the murky fog of your thoughts, emotions and life pressures because of expectations that have been thrust upon you. Perhaps you are driven to prove your place based on society’s definition of who you are expected to be. You could be striving to define yourself based on numerous external messages. Or others stronger than you may have defined who you are supposed to be. When you constantly work against yourself to satisfy external expectations, you feel out of sync. Nothing brings fulfillment. You keep striving, but nothing seems enough.

It is like owning a book with all the answers you seek but not knowing how to read it. It seems like you are always turning to the wrong page. You keep looking at the book, thinking, ‘I know the answer is in there. Why can’t I get to the right page and learn what I should be doing to feel good instead of going through the motions?’

So you plod along holding your precious book. Anyway, everyone you know is in the same boat. Like you, they seem to be running in the same place, however hard they try. And they never look at the book either. By now, they assume that it does not have the answers they seek.

As you get older, the book seems to get heavier. It becomes a burden but you still have to carry it. You try to ignore it as much as you can and look to external sources for inner peace. You buy, you acquire, you save, you seek new company… Just like everyone else. It doesn’t work. You feel cheated because you have everything you thought you were supposed to have but don’t feel fulfilled.

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal.” – Paulo Coelho

You feel like you are forced to watch random television channels. You are bored and don’t understand much of what is going on. After a point, you feel miserable. How do you get to the channel you want? By tuning in to the right one, of course. Once you get to the channel of your choice, you can sit back and enjoy the show.

To get to your right internal channel and increase your self-awareness, you must first accept that you are not nurturing your inner self as much as you should be. Thinking about who you are and what you really want can help remove your self-created smoke screens and open up the path that is yours to follow.

What happens then? You take one step at a time, your heart as light as a butterfly. You consult the book more because you now understand how to use it. You don’t worry as much. You know that there will be ups and downs. You’ll laugh, you’ll play, you’ll cry, you’ll fall.

The road will never be straight but you know that the elation of moving on is what the journey is about. You stop cocooning yourself in the same place. You stop being afraid to move. You step out, take a deep breath, and start tasting life in all its colors.

If that sounds like fun, you can take your first step right now. I wish you an adventurous and fulfilling journey.

And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling. – Shanti