If you choose to wear rose-colored glasses, travel’s magic, mystery, and miracles might appear more often and synchronistically! Consider these five ways to make summer travel your new spiritual practice:
1) Follow a Morning Routine. Whatever you do at home, repeat while traveling. The familiar routine anchors you for the unknown adventures ahead. Get plenty of sleep, and upon waking, sip some warm lemon water (or coffee) from your travel thermos filled at dinner the night before by a kind waiter. Sniffing my favorite scent of lavender takes me home. What is your favorite scent?
Grounding is the essence of a traveler’s spiritual practice.
2) Write Two Gratitude Lists. I pack a mini-writer’s altar in a fabric clutch to hold my pen, lavender oil, candle, matches, and sacred images. This is tucked into a larger Ziploc bag with my journal and mini-flashlight. So wherever I am, I just grab this bag to settle into a cozy, lobby chair or poolside lounge chair to write in the pre-sunrise hours or whenever. It’s heart expanding to review the previous day and write a gratitude list.
Then, visualize the day ahead and write what I call an AAA List: Always Advance Appreciation. By setting the positive intentions for the day, you are sure to attract only happy energies! If you can’t or don’t write, then at breakfast with yourself or loved ones ask these three questions: What did you appreciate about yesterday? What would you appreciate seeing happening today? What role will you play to insure this happy day?
Gratitude is the unwrapped gift of a traveler’s spiritual practice.
3) Give Gifts Galore. At every hotel or vacation site, consider leaving a generous tip along with clothing and toiletries for your maid or hotel staff. What you think of as inexpensive items are often very expensive, especially in third-world countries. Pack what I call “donation cargo” and leave with a charity for that country or state. Involve your friends and family.
We did this on the Vision Quests that I led to Bali and Peru. For example, VisionQuester Charlotte from Florida, secured the unclaimed, lost and found clothing from her elementary school. When we delivered our donation cargo to a Balinese orphanage, they were especially thrilled with her 35 donated hoodies. Divine timing! The next day the orphanage staff was driving to northern Bali where it’s cold to help another seven orphanages.
Generosity is the expression of a traveler’s spiritual practice.
4) Explore More. Ask hotel and vacation staff where they practice their faith or feel spiritual. You’d be surprised at their answers. Because I’ve asked, I’ve been invited to an evening chanting ceremony at an ashram in Bali and, an afternoon revival in Alabama with a fried chicken feast afterward.
Openness is the heart of a traveler’s spiritual practice.
5) Create a Complaint & Compare-Free Zone. Make a sacred contract with yourself (and fellow travelers) to pinky-swear that complaining and comparing serves no-thing. They aren’t allowed to be a part of the travel itinerary. Non-negotiable.
22 | ElementsForAHealthierLife.com | May 2016