Travel can do just about anything. It’s kind of like the MacGyver (the guy who could fix anything with a bandage, a piece of gum and a pencil) of life. It can even help you find the love of your life!
Photo of Lovers, New York City © Guian Bolisay
Travel, like love, is always an adventure. Sometimes it’s a grand adventure and sometimes it’s a challenging adventure but it’s an adventure, nonetheless. Here are 7 ways travel can actually help you find the love of your life.
1. Learn to be more comfortable with yourself
Traveling puts you into a wide range of situations that can allow or force us to do things we may not have done at home. We can reinvent ourselves in every moment while traveling because every moment can bring something new.
When traveling, you may find yourself doing things you thought you couldn’t do. You may need to drop the facade of your ‘image’ and let the messy and uncomfortable you be seen by necessity of not being able to do anything else at that moment.
Learning that you aren’t just what you currently define yourself as, or realizing that letting your messy side show can help you be more comfortable with all aspect of yourself. Feeling comfortable with yourself can allow you to drop the walls you may have built up around yourself, which can then allow deeper love into your life.
2. Understand a wider range of people
Traveling is a great way to debunk stereotypes and prejudices. So often people have an idea about what a country or group of people are like through what they hear and see through media. These stereotypes and prejudice smay be so deep that you may not even realize you have them.
The reality of people and places can often be widely different than these preconceived ideas and traveling can be the best way to let go of them. This can help you to be more aware in your everyday life about where you buy into stereotypes and prejudices and then let them go, which will open you up to a whole new set of people, communities and possibilities.
3. Become open to experiencing new things
Travel encourages new experiences and the more new experiences you have, the more you will be willing to be open to new experiences. This can help you to be open to people and places that you may not have been open to before.
Being open to experiencing new things opens up new worlds and can help you find love in places you may not have been open to before.
4. Become happier
Travel is fun, exciting, relaxing, invigorating. Being on the road having planned a trip or jumping on a place spur of the moment is a happy adventure and happiness is attractive.
Happiness attracts happiness. If traveling makes you happy, then you’ll radiate happiness which will attract more happiness which can lead you to finding happy love.
5. Meet a lot of people
It’s so easy to meet a lot of people when traveling. Without one’s network of friends and family, reaching out to strangers for help and companionship becomes necessary.
People you may not have even noticed at home can become close friends. This can help to stop our snap judgements of people based on how they look or dress which teaches you to be open to more people.
6. Let go of fear
Traveling can put you into all kinds of uncomfortable situations. Sometimes it’s feeling uncomfortable not knowing the local language or customs and sometimes it can be more serious emotional or physical discomfort.
Most of the time, this discomfort is something that has to be dealt with while it’s happening. Without the safety net of home, it’s hard to escape it. This can be a really good thing as it can help you realize that you can make it through the discomfort and that you have the inner resolve, resources and will to face challenges as they come up.
7. Become more present
Traveling helps you to stay in the present moment rather than always living for the future. Being in new places and new situations often forces us to be present, either by interest (because everything is new and exciting) or by necessity (because everything is new and possibly in a different language).
Learning to stay present can help you to be more aware of what is rather than what you wish it was or hope it will be. There is beauty in living in the present moment and it can help you to be open to all the possibilities of the moment rather than living in a time that doesn’t even exist yet.
