Travel even if you don't like it

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Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges.
Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for you. Go! 

The Explorer
Rudyard Kipling 

You are a homebody. You like staying grounded at one place, not in a spiritual sense, literally speaking!  But deep inside, all of us remain an explorer, and you are no different. Your disinterest with traveling in your initial years has its roots in laziness, but its not just your story. It's always easier to stay at home and live vicariously through other people than pack your bags and explore unknown territories. But once the bug bites, it itches forever...

Traveling is not about the laurels you collect to upload on your Facebook account to garner likes, it's more rooted in its benefits than that. New surroundings, people, cultures, food, sceneries open our mind and heart to a newer pattern of thinking. Our minds prefer a myopic view of the world, that way it has a more manageable set of patterns to play with. It likes to work with a limited sample of data so that it can skew and bias our analysis of the world. Traveling and exploring invites many new possibilities in the mix and in the process gives us a more holistic view of the world, unbiased and not limited to heresy. 

My travels have taken me to places where I went in with some level of prejudice. In every case, I had come out with a different perspective. Traveling changed my approach to countries, culture or people. But most importantly, it gave me the perspective that we are inherently the same. 

We grew up learning that we are separate from each other and survival of the fittest requires us to be different, superiorly different from the other. Exploring other parts of the world and meeting people from different cultures, starts to scrub out the notion of separateness. Every culture has its idiosyncrasies and customs, once you go beyond them, we are all the same. We need this awareness to save this world from the wars and infighting. Imagine a world where everyone believed the other is no different from them and what affects us, affects the other person equally. Pretty miraculous, eh?

And of course you can't forget the awareness that we are so deeply alive when we are one with nature. And the gratitude we feel to be part of this stunning and awe inspiring ecosystem. 

So pack your bags and go! Go and find it! That 70" television set can wait...

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