Traveling was always in the center of my life and part of the essential plan.

Traveling is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever given to myself. Working from a young age to be able to save to pay my winter vacations and any escape I could.

When traveling became more than just a long vacation, it became a central part of my lifestyle. I realized that this had a cost.

And that cost was not small.

At least for me, it was not … and I think for many travelers it is not super easy or cheap.

 

Everything has a price.

Every thing in life has a cost and nothing happens without having a currency of exchange.

Even fulfilling your dreams.

That cost is sometimes too high for some and they prefer not to pay it, but there are others for whom paying this price is worth everything.

To achieve a goal you will always have to deliver certain things, leave others and accept that you deserve to have what you want. But fulfilling the traveler dream means most of the time leaving behind … leaving much behind.

The price of a travel life

When you leave behind a place, a situation or someone who does not fit in your life, the process becomes natural and even longed for. You leave behind something that limits your life or that you know is not benefiting you in any way, then that act of leaving behind becomes refreshing and liberating.

But when leaving behind means leaving places, people or situations that do you good, that fill your soul with joy, and you know you feel good but you have to cut because it is indispensable to realize a greater dream ….. it hurts.

It hurts a lot to have to stop hugging your loved ones, your soul friends that light up your day with a single smile or an accomplice look that understands everything.

It hurts deeply not to be present in the important milestones for your family or your friends and above all, it hurts to know that every day that you are away you lose the connection with some of them.

 

Probably after a long time being away, you will have very few friends in that place, because you change, but they will not and you will be in totally different tunes.

 

 

 

 

It hurts a lot to leave the land that knows your story so well, knows your sorrows and also your joys. Leaving a country that you like a lot hurts because you know its pulse and its smells, you know its flavor and its colors.

It hurts to know that every time you return you will have fewer ties attaching you to that land.

But you know what?

It hurts even more not to be able to face that pain and avoid trying to fulfill your dreams because you are afraid to feel that pain.

It would hurt me much more to figure that out of fear of pain I didn’t fight against the momentary suffering of leaving behind. Because I know I would be a deeply unhappy woman, as at some point I felt I was living, living day by day to fulfill the dreams of another person.

Just as butterflies have to totally change their skin in order to fly, travelers must transmute our souls, deal with our immediate desires, and our falsely created needs in order to be free.

Because deciding to lead a life of travel means freeing yourself

 

 

In order to move freely, we must first release the chains that bind us and prevent us from making that movement.

It means dealing with physical chains, but also with emotional chains.

When we don’t want to see what our heart really desires we protect ourselves by convincing us of having fictitious needs that fill our day to day with a false sense of security and satiety.

We tend to depend on so many things, situations, flavors, even people, that all they do is prevent us from developing our potential and being who we want to be.

 

It took me years to understand this and there are times when I forget it, but today I am very clear that I want to live my life as best I can.

You still can not imagine how hard it is sometimes to get rid of material things that I have bought over the years, some are still kept in my parents’ house. Somehow, things have stories behind them and memories that are associated with them. In my case, from becoming a collector of things, I began to collect moments, photographs and experiences.

 

There was a time when I bought my happiness with handkerchiefs, shoes, necklaces, and rings, collecting elephants, lotions and beauty products and books …. many books.

Books are those things that I still can’t get rid of. I love to have a book in my hand. I love the possibility of gaining new knowledge by simply exploring its pages. I love the possibility of stories happening inside that cover.

 

 

Our brain moves based on survival control. It activates hormones and chemicals that warn us when we are in danger in order to stay alive.

Exposing us to an unknown situation and beyond our control puts us in a physical and emotional emergency situation.
Travelers live in a state of permanent alert and it is partly also for that reason that travel becomes so addictive for some: although we are terrified, we like the adrenaline of facing the unknown and feeling those butterflies in the stomach whenever we step on a new place of the planet.

 

 

 

Some time ago I made a promise that I try to fulfill in the best possible way, I promised myself that I would do everything that was necessary to become a better person every day, that I would live to do everything in the best way I can do it … And if I don’t know how to do it… I learn it!

I decided to live by being honest with myself, no matter how hard it is sometimes and never be afraid to fulfill my greatest dream as a girl: BE HAPPY.

I can’t ignore and to recognize how immensely fortunate I am to be born where I was born, into the wonderful family that allowed me to strive to be myself. I don’t come from a wealthy family but from a family immensely rich in people who have done different things and who taught me that being the best version of yourself you will always be successful.

Because not everyone can have the privilege of deciding to take care of fulfilling their dreams. Circumstances sometimes force you to live a certain reality, but the beautiful thing is that clearly, those circumstances can also be changed.

 

 

Traveling has allowed me to put this into practice every day, to learn a lot about the world, about others and, above all, about myself.

Traveling I have managed to catch a delicious taste at that indescribable, terrifying and exciting sensation of throwing you into the unknown.

 

Traveling I have managed to listen to what my soul needs and to trust that everything it wants will be a reality if I believe it.

Traveling I connected with an inner place that I had left behind hidden behind the terror to lose control, to the unknown and when I decided to embrace it and accept it life became magical and funny!

Because the famous freewill I heard so much as a girl is about this, to decide if you will live your day to day happy, marveling and enjoying … or surviving and accepting your destiny as if there was nothing to do about it.

 

 

That’s why today, although leaving behind hurts deeply for a moment, becomes an infinite joy for every minute lived, each long and tight embrace, every night of eternal conversations, every look of love from my puppies, every laugh and remembered memory.

Because when you decide to release, you open the space to receive new opportunities, new moments, new experiences and above all, you open the space so that the people who best resonate with your soul come to your life, so that you can live the wonder of connecting with Other human beings from heart to heart …honestly, without fears, without ties, and without doubts.

In addition … we are so fortunate to live in this digital and connected age that we are only a WhatsApp away!

 

 

Have you ever had to let things behind to make your dreams true?