Travel comes with side effects

Travel is the one thing that brings out the best and the worst in us. Because we put ourselves in a situation where everything is different than usual.

When I say travel, I do not mean a three day business trip or a two week vacation in a hotel in one place (although this can be quite challenging too!). What I mean is being “on the road”, being away from our routines at home. Because consciously or unconsciously, it puts our system in stress. Nothing is as we are used to, nothing works as it normally does or “should”. And despite the fact that we do enjoy or even seek the new, the unknown, the adventure, when it comes, it comes with side effects.

We have been away together for almost four weeks now and wow, we had the most amazing moments, and the ones where we started questioning our relationship. Because we all have individual mechanisms to cope with the unknown, the unusual.

I am not saying that this is bad. In contrary, it is actually quite healthy and interesting to see what happens when you can take some distance. Who we are when we are not living business as usual. What fears or problems are still alive that we thought we didn’t have anymore? Because we have found ways to live “around” them, to avoid them in daily lives.

What do we enjoy and want more of? And what in there is actually not as exciting as we thought it would?

We are taking home a lot of insights about ourselves, our relationship and about what we want in life. We certainly want to be away more. We want to live in warm countries (but not too warm). We love discovering a place and making it our home. We find it super challenging to change places every three or four days. We do need time to adapt and also some routine – or the possibility for it. I (Lisa) cannot enjoy eating out every day. I still have my fears about money and about food. And that’s ok. It is actually good to be aware so I can adapt and deal with them.

Putting ourselves out of our routine – in whichever way – and even in just doing something different than usual is a great tool for self-discovery – of who we are, what we need and what we love (or don’t).

“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” ― David Mitchell