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Let the Travel Bug Bite

Doesn’t everyone dream at one time or another about just taking off, about hitting the road for an indefinite period simply to travel? Maybe your fantasy is about backpacking through the mountains, visiting new cities and countries, checking out new cultures, or simply wandering aimlessly like the bear who went over the mountain “to see what he could see.”

Think about how the wandering instinct manifests in your life. There are many ways you can wander, travel, or explore. You can do it on foot or in a scuba-diving outfit, through a microscope or a telescope, a history book or a natural-history magazine. You can do it in your own town, in the jungles of Africa, or on the surface of the moon. It can lead you to discover the lost city of Knossos or a great Hungarian restaurant in the next block.

Take a few minutes of every day to fantasize about how you would wander, travel, or explore if you could. If you find this hard to do because you are telling yourself that it is irresponsible to want to wander around on this planet, stop! Remind yourself that heeding these instincts is important for your personal fulfillment, as vital as eating or sleeping.

Take your exploring fantasies seriously. See which of them you can follow up on. Maybe you can’t take a spaceship around the sun just yet, but you can go camping, or you can drive down a country lane until you run across a barn where the farmer is pressing cider from a new crop of apples. You can make up your mind to take another ten minutes and drive a different way home from work or to take a vacation at a new location this year. If you use your imagination, you will find that your fantasies of exploration and your possible experiences of it are literally endless.

Remember that exploration means being open to all kinds of variety in your life as a whole. New foods, new friends, new hobbies, athletic pursuits, music, art, or whatever, all will indulge your instincts for wandering, traveling, or exploring and give you a more well-rounded and abundant idea of what human life is about—fuller almost than you can imagine.

I have never met a person who wasn’t at least secretly excited about the prospects of traveling and exploring. But sadly, I have met a great many who squelch or deny their wandering instincts. If you find that you have been fighting your nomadic instincts, perhaps because you equate any indulgence of them with irresponsibility, you are cutting off that one set of instincts for which all of the others may have been made—your opportunity to move out into the world and discover it in all of its limitless glory and mystery.

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Comments

Nancy says:

I am at this time in my life living a nomadic lifestyle. I live in places 2-4 months at a time. I don’t know anyone and then make friends for myself and touch lives. May the possibilities of today excite us all!
Nancy

parvin says:

Having new experience gives you an opportunity to get to known yourself better. Traveling has a versatile attribute. Every moment of your life could be a chance to put yourself in a adventurous situation. Daydreaming is the most pleasant activity that puts you in a fulfillment status, at anytime, in anywhere,

Joshua says:

CONTINUED: I had a similar experience a few years ago on Assateague Island. This is back when I lived in WV. I live in HI now, so I guess Kaua’i is the new Assateague (for me, anyway).

Joshua says:

The travel bug is the only insect I’m glad bit me…lol. I spent 5 days on Kauai hiking and kayaking with a group, helicopter riding, and exploring and contemplating on my own. I even read a couple of your books, Dr. Dyer. One of the best experiences of my life, and a real opportunity for psychological transformation. Sounds crazy, but true.

Mark Edgar Stephens says:

Thank you for the reminder of all of the different ways to explore. Lately, I have been on a journey that is taking me across an internal landscape that I was unaware that existed. It’s nice to cross paths with fellow travelers.

With purpose,
Mark Edgar Stephens

Dale says:

Exploration today took me into the despair around the stories I tell myself about needing familiar ground. In letting go of what has been for the discovery of what might be, I come face to face with new possibilities emerging through old expectations. I am remembering now that darkness offers great possibilities for new light.

MariaJosep says:

Queridisimo Wayne, en el dia de San Francisco de Asis, mis mejores deseos para tu vida: El Senor te bendiga y te guarde, te muestre su rostro y tenga misericordia de ti, te mire benignamente y te conceda la PAZ. Con todo mi amor. NAMASTE.

Judy says:

I have been lost for the past few years and am finding my way back as a result of reading your book. Thank you and the Source for the reminder and lesson.

All the best to you,

Judy

Joan says:

Thank you Dr. Dyer,
I live to see what is around the corner of life!!! There is a great big world out and I will want to see all of it!!! I have become better person to see what on the other side of each corner!!

Joshua says:

Erie that I should come across this message. I teach on Oahu and we have a 1-wk break coming up. I just decided to book a flight out to Kaua’i for 5 days. Just going by myself to contemplate. This was just before I encountered your message….spooky…lol.

Wilber says:

How did you know I was thinking about this??

catherine says:

Once again, your blog is so inspiring. I always dream about travelling. Part of me would like to just get in the car and drive around the country side, seeing new areas and meeting new people (but hey, this would be totally irresponsible!!). thank you so much for this. I will find ways to fulfill my unmet need to travel.

Joseph Wadas says:

When we are open to new experiences life takes on a new vitality. We open ourselves to new discoveries and surprises. We are enabled to see ourselves and our world in a new way. We can then approach the world with childlike wonder. Namaste!

Penny says:

🙂 Thank you! I loved your radio show this week. Still slowly getting thru “Sacred Self” I so appreciate the energy and wisdom you’ve put into this book.

Mucunda says:

EVEN IN MEDITATION AND THROUGH OUR DREAMS WE EXPLORE THE MOST REMOTE AREAS

NMASTE

patti says:

Too funny Dr Dyer, I am listening to you from a You Tube station, you are reading poetry. Love the sound of your voice echoing thru out my home on this much needed rainy day. I love to travel especially with my buddy, husband and love of my life for 40 yrs.We are headed to St Thomas, VI 10/10/10.

Jess says:

Yes, but I have the travel bug in the extreme. I just returned from 2 years in China because in my 5th decade it occurred to me — in that family-oriented culture — that I had really no family. I’m settling down in a small town in New England & trying to resist my adventuring ways. It feels foreign & frightening. But I’m doing it.

Connie H. says:

Thank you for the reminder!