I love traveling, and I used to travel a lot. To me, first and foremost travelling meant exploring others and myself, learning about life, the world and this incredible feeling of freedom that came with this process.
But in the last few years it seems that the relevance and the value of what it meant to me has been replaced by and shifted into something with a negative connotation.
Seeing how crazy the whole world has gone about traveling, masses of people invading places sucking out their charming authenticity and leaving a trace of rubbish and disregard for the locals, without a sincere interest and respect for the other cultures, all these points mean that a lot of the appeal that traveling had to me has somehow been destroyed in an erosion of negativity.
Traveling in many ways has almost become like a capitalist monster, never full, until it has eaten up all around it. I feel that I no longer want to be part of exploiting places, nature or people; that I cannot enjoy if I contribute to a development only for my own personal pleasure. Does that mean I can never travel again? Well, I hope not. But it means that I have decided for myself to slow down. To not consume traveling like another mass merchandise, to not take part anymore in that travel rat race.
I love exploring. And I am still exploring a lot. And it´s incredible how many places can still be explored so close to us, without the stress of planning and booking and searching and mass check-in.
One of the main things that I learned from my past travels was to adapt myself to circumstances. And in this present moment this means for me to contribute my part to mindful travels for the sake of nature and people.
Photo by Edan Cohen on Unsplash
