10 tips for the mindful traveller

For a mindful traveller, the first and foremost thing to do is to go at your own pace. Remember that you're not running a race but simply following your heart and taking things slow. It is all about exploring new terrains, new culture, new lifestyles and a new you. You do not have to prove anything to anybody but yourself. This mindful travel tip will certainly come in handy to you.

As a mindful traveller, it is especially important to keep the environmental consequences in mind. Often travellers do not realise the impact their trips and lack of sustainable habits have on the environment. The Great Barrier Reef is in peril because of bad diving habits of travellers. Similarly, there are many other habits, and traveller's culture followed needs to be altered. It is important to ask yourself how you are helping the environment by changing some of your own habits. Try to leave only your footprints behind, at the end of the day and not a carbon footprint.

It is always rewarding to connect with the locals and to socialise with people who reside in the vicinity you're visiting. Not only do they have delightful stories to tell, but they also provide with the best hospitality. The luxury of a lavish space could give you temporary happiness, but for a mindful trip, it is the experience of indulging in a social setting with new people. It is acceptance and homely environment that they provide that would be a learning expedition to you.

One of the travel tips for a mindful experience would be to resist the cities and opt for a rural setting. Interestingly, many rural areas actually have interesting projects such as permaculture farms, grassroots NGOs, intentional communities and agroforestry projects, to name a few. What makes this a mindful travel experience is how you are closer to nature, to tranquillity, to a diverse community and to learning new things that you never knew before.

While travelling is predominantly recognised as a leisure activity, you can make it a mindful trip too. Here's a travel tip that you can choose to pick, you should try to be part of an experience where you can contribute. Participate in volunteer activities, visit grassroots NGOs, check out places with social and development activities and contribute your time instead of just money. You would be elated mentally, emotionally and also physically.

Understand that travelling is a learning expedition. For a mindful travel experience, you should try to take back some knowledge. It doesn't mean just to know a place perfectly well or to know what food or culture they follow. You should try to seek for potential learning skills and how you can use them in your day to day lives. Take up cooking classes, know about one's own artistic abilities, pick up a new language, basically, enhance your life skills while you're on the go!

By light or free itinerary, we mean that you keep your schedule open during your trip. One of the tips to be a mindful traveller is to make sure that you are flexible about your plans. Sure, the lack of a plan might attract the word boredom, but to many, it is actually attention to detail. With not many distractions, you can take your time to understand your true self by being one with the environment. Take up meditation, silence and other such activities. You will be surprised by the results they provide. There are various blogs where travellers have stated how indulging in these activities has brought forth a renewed attitude in them regarding life.

We seem to have gotten too comfortable in the complexities of life. Stress and a busy life have become an accepted way of life. However, adopting simplicity could be the first step to feeling happy in life. While it might be a difficult feat, you can always start applying it by travelling in the most basic way. Push away the luxury and opt for a simpler milieu. Maybe choose a more rural setting instead of the city's hustle-bustle? Reside with the locals and know more about their lifestyle. Take in the experience and learn the nuances of simplicity. It is so pure would take you miles ahead in life.

A resource-intensive experience would only keep you happy for a short period of time. You would talk about the places you've been to, the food you gorged down, the people you met, the fun you had but what else? Surely, it is not just the material pleasure that makes you happy, right? Indulge in an emotional experience, find yourself in your journey, take back some knowledge and transform yourself in the process. Travelling, to many, is a life-altering experience. People find themselves while being lost in tranquillity. What's your story going to be like?

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A trip shouldn't just be about seeing new places and meeting new people but also reflecting on the experiences. This would be possible if you socialise more. Many locals have lots of stories to tell. But what do you infer from these stories? What do you understand from them? How rewarding or educational has your trip been? These are some of the questions that you should think about as you return from your trip. Further, whatever you have learnt during your time in a foreign environment, how has that contributed to your life is another pertinent question that you must address. Often these trips leave a long-term meaning and even makes one wiser than before.

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