Have you remembered yourself?
Forgotten yourself?
You know, your child self.
Yourself who lives in pure joy and wonder.
Yourself who knows magic.
Yourself who trusts what you feel, what you desire, what you believe, what you dream.
Your true self.
Your natural self.
So many of us have forgotten. Through the patterns we inherit from our parents and their parents, the trauma and limitations passed on by our peers, our education system, and the media, we squash the innate, authentic voice within who knows what we want and why we’re here.
As we “grow up” we lose the magic that we felt as kids until eventually we find ourselves numbed out leading a pretty mediocre life, feeling quite stuck and de-motivated to do anything about it.
Which is why we get so itchy.
We notice ourselves craving something without really understanding why.
And it’s this seeking, this desire for something more, that sends so much of us traveling.
Out on the open road
suddenly
we find ourselves
remembering.
When we travel, we forget who we were taught to be and we come back to who we truly are. We enter new landscapes, we engage with different cultures, and by separating ourselves from the voices that have dictated our lives, we have space to nurture and discover our uniqueness.
We play. We explore. We get uncomfortable. Stuff goes wrong. Stuff goes right. We figure it out. We learn. We grow.
We forget who we were taught to be, and we see ourselves reflected in our unfamiliar surroundings. We recognize ourselves in pieces of other cultures. We recollect forgotten pieces of our ancestry, our soul’s history, our collective human journey, as we cleanse ourselves in water temples in Bali or drink cacao with Mayan shamans or get lost in ancient forests and jungles.
In natural paradise receiving the wisdom of the hawk, the sloth bear, the wild cat, the hummingbird, the snake, the butterfly, we remember how it felt to live in harmony with the Earth. We remember our natural habitat.
And then… something within us awakens. We remember a way that we once lived and connected. As one tribe. As one piece of this diverse planet. One particle in this vast universe.
Once we’ve woken up this light within us, there is no going back to sleep.
So, travel changes us.
Completely.
It shatters what we thought was reality and we began to question everything.
Then we go home.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
Maybe we even wish we could go back to sleep.
Some of us feel stuck in this moment.
Struggling against our surroundings wanting so badly to get out.
Fighting and fighting to break free.
Some of us run away.
We let everything go.
We roam and we roam and we roam.
But eventually, no matter if we go back to our old lives or we keep seeking around the globe, we all find ourselves in the same place. Wanting to feel that same high, that same expansion, awakening, aliveness that we used to feel when we traveled. And finding ourselves… lost… unable to get back there again.
This is when our journey actually begins.
This is when we stop seeking. We stop looking. We stop searching.
Outside.
We start turning. We start tuning. We start feeling.
Inside.
We feel the rolling hills, the sand dunes, the mountains, in every peak and valley in our form.
The power of waterfalls and volcanoes in our perseverance and strength.
The waves of the ocean in our ever changing emotions.
The stillness of the Earth and every rock when we just slow down and breathe and be.
The beauty of flowers and butterflies and all of life’s sweetness when we soften open to love.
Our
bodies
hearts
and minds
become
our vast terrain.
We begin to know the world through ourselves.
Because we began to know ourselves by first knowing the world.
Travel wakes us up.
But that’s not where the road ends.
The path to truth and inner fulfillment reveals itself
when we remember
that the whole point of life
isn’t traveling forever
it’s actually love.
So travel isn’t IT
Travel isn’t the KEY
Travel is just the CATALYST
In every journey towards AWAKENING.
As we tune in and heal, use everything that happens in this life, every easy moment, every hard moment, every piece of pain, every burst of pleasure, we return home to our true nature. Beyond place. Beyond experience. Beyond circumstances.
We make feeling good, authentic, and loving our key priorities. We take care of our bodies, minds, hearts, spirits. We nourish and nurture ourselves. We let go of everything that stands in the way of loving ourselves, however uncomfortable or difficult or scary.
We free ourselves to move and travel as we please. To live in a high vibrational beautiful natural place that feeds our souls. To manifest the financial resources to care for ourselves and live our potential. We work as little as possible and create as much we feel inspired. We have fulfilling friendships and relationships and become part of loving community.
Then life asks us to share.
Life asks us to give our medicine to others.
Life asks us to stand up in our light.
We become beacons leading others home.
We share the message that there is so much more to life
than “ok” or “good enough”.
We share the message
that we all deserve to open wide to life
and create a world
of magic and bliss.
Which begins
Continues
And ends
With traveling the world.
So whether you’re
an enlightened guru
a powerful leader
a perpetual nomad
a brand new backpacker
an armchair traveler
a romantic dreaming up your escape
a perfect soul who feels lost, confused, and afraid
You must travel the world.
You must travel
To remember
To forget
Yourself
One another
This World.
To begin again.
I nearly cried when I read this post. “We feel the rolling hills, the sand dunes, the mountains, in every peak and valley in our form.” This is exactly how it feels. Thank you as always for bringing truth and beauty into this world. It definitely makes my journey easier and more inspired. Enjoy your time in Seattle 🙂
xoxo
Oh my goodness thank you so much for your sweet words you are such a treasure and a blessing! I receive and appreciate you deeply and dearly <3
Beautifully written, Camille! “Travel is just the catalyst in every journey towards awakening” – I absolutely love that
Thank you so much beautiful sister. Thank you for receiving me! May we continue this journey in awakening one step at a time <3
Beautiful story! Thank you……. are these photos from Costa Rica??
Thank you so much Kathy, I appreciate you! These photos are from the Phang Nga Bay National Marine Park in the Andaman Sea of Southern Thailand 🙂 I led a retreat there last February. Magical!
Beautiful article, moved me. So many people don’t understand what it means to be one with everything, still yet we are all one, one with eachother, one with this planet, one with the universe. <3 it's beautiful madness.
Eeeee yes it is beautiful madness hehe! I see and feel you and understand you sister. Thank you for feeling, seeing, and understanding me <3
So perfectly expressed.
These are the exact reasons I love and crave travel. Nothing sets my soul on fire like becoming part of an unfamiliar landscape.
One of my favorite travel moments was on Isla del Caño off the Osa peninsula. I met an old French couple on the beach. They barely knew English. We both barely spoke Spanish and I only speak a minuscule amount of French. Regardless, we strung the three languages together and they told me how they had witnessed turtles hatching on the beach in Tortoguero and we talked about how beautiful Costa Rica is.
Travel helps to foster magic <3
Mmmm wow that sounds incredible! You sound like such an adventurer! I love your courageous magical spirit 🙂
This was so beautiful! Touched my soul deeply. Thank you.
Aww thank you so much <3 You've just touched my soul with your kindness! I appreciate you xo
Wow this gave me shivers! Amazing writing, thank you (:
Thank you so much, I feel honored <3 Thank you for feeling my words.
This is so beautiful Camille <3
Aw thank you so much Sandy I’m blessed for you to read it!
This is the reality of life. We all want to satisfy our mind, it runs unnecessary and we often get bound to work to accomplish but real happiness comes with taking calculated risks, Travelling and doing mistakes. I loved reading your blog and support your statement to travel The World.
Thank you so much for your support! 🙂
I teared up reading this… It resonates so deeply with my own experience. You said it so beautifully. Thank you for your words <3
Wow thank you so much for your comment! I am deeply touched <3
I love this. I was travelling a couple of years, went back to England for 3 months then saw a cheap holiday for a week in NY, skipped my return flight went to Canada for a while then to Mexico. Living the beach life.
Such an inspiring post, sooooo many people live in a bubble afraid to explore the unknown. Keep going x
That is so cool, and thank you SO much. I very much appreciate you and the light you shine in this world <3
this sounds great and makes me want to travel more.
Thanks for your message in email this morning. Just what I needed to hear. While I’m only metaphorically traveling at this time, I am in an extremely challenging situation that’s bringing up tremendous fear and stress, and I appreciated the reminder about trusting life, that everything always works out, despite what the mind would have us believe.
Hi Brent, mmm thank you for being who you are and facing life with such courage and compassion <3 You rock!!!