The bridge between leadership and solo travel

How travel can make you a leader

A bit far out you say? I believe it is a lost ritual that can still benefit us in this day, and moving forward.

Why a lost ritual?

Because many cultures used to send their young adults on a journey or a quest, to be grow stronger and more confident into adulthood, with more wisdom from within, with more skills and connection to their intuition. This is a ritual that can be found in many ancient and even in recent cultures throughout the world.

What would happen is, when a child came to the age of adulthood or came to a set of capacities that deemed ready for the tribe to send the child of on a quest, the child was send out on its own to undertake a journey through the wild, knowingly to be set up to face several important challenges that would require both physical and mental strength, clarity, creativity and most of all certainty of intuition and guidance of the collective spirit with which one is always connected. When a child succeeds the quest, the tribes know that the now young adult, has been able to overcome obstacles that may be life threatening. To overcome everything that has come on across the path has required the child to be brave, smart, strong, creative, used all the gathered knowledge, and surrendered to the faith of the connection with the universe through intuition which required a deep dive into its own soul and face its own shadows, transforming them by believing.

How can it still benefit in this day and moving forward?

Today we have access to information over the internet, to an incredible abundance of tools, food and life supporting goods, to people in any moment of time. All that access has created an abundance that is bigger than what we can grasp, which means rather than getting more inventive, stronger, skilled, braver, … most of us get overstimulated and choose the easy way. Another consequence of this overload of abundance we experience is that we have no feeling of connection with our intuition anymore, as it seems to be unnecessary. There is always someone to tells us what to do, how to do something, what to believe, what to use to grow. We do not even need to think anymore about how, we do not need to be creative anymore, we do not need to access our knowledge from within… so how can we still make a deep dive into our soul, that give us confidence and the absolute certainty about our own strength and intuition, intelligence, creativity, bravery, …

Today we experience the highest rates of low self-esteem, the highest rates of feelings of unworthiness, the highest rates of suicides, the highest rates of loneliness, yet we have access to everything and everyone at every time on every level… We do not decide for ourselves any longer, we do not create our lives anymore, we do not take charge over ourselves anymore, as someone will always have a solution for us for anything we find uncomfortable. The doctor has a diagnoses, the pharmacist has a pill, the store has food, the tv or social media have stories to entertain…

The same goes for travel, everything is arranged for us, we don’t have to rely on ourselves, and we don’t even want to rely on ourselves, as we want a break from all the thinking and pressures our jobs and social lives require from us. So we take a plane, and a taxi to a hotel where we can choose from 5 dinner restaurants to feed us in the evening, a few options for breakfast and poolside or inside for lunch. The only challenges we face is finding a chair to sunbath, what to eat and when, and whether to go out from the hotel for a walk or not…

But what would happen if you would accept my challenge to become a empathic, creative and maybe even inspiring leader?

A leader that stands firm on their ground, knows their worth and is able to create a safe haven for their own emotions and the emotions of those around them, able to use creative tools with empathy for themselves and others, and along the way may inspire some people to follow their unique path?

I am telling you that travel, especially solo travel can do exactly that for you!

Getting to understand all layers within you requires bravery, bravery to admit that you carry shadows that need transforming, bravery to admit that you create your own reality. Coming across challenges and having the space to dig into your bravery, to dive deep into your soul and face the shadow that can overcome the challenge ahead if you understand that it needs to be broken down and rebuilt in a new way.This is very often not possible in the society we live in today, due to the fast pace, the abundance of information and tools. To be able to deep dive, break down, and recreate, we need to step away and find a silent place, a slow place that provides us the opportunity to go within. We need the opportunity to deal with challenges without knowing ahead what the challenge will be, what tools and information you have at hand, and without knowing if people are even around to help you overcome the challenges. Not knowing all of that might sound scary, however is the way to connect with ourselves, with our intuition, our skills, our bravery, our knowledge, our creativity, our faith.

Traveling solo to a destination where possibly there is no wifi connection, no power even at  uncertain times and duration,  you don’t speak the language, you have no knowledge about the habits and beliefs of the people are not imbedded in you, where you are considered to be the odd looking one, moving from one place to another, will definitely provide you a whole lot of challenges that will force you to grow your comfort zone, to connect with yourself and your believe about who you are and what you know to be truth. It will force you to question everything you know to be reality, and you will stand in you shadow looking for a way out… The only one you can rely on to calm your nervous system is you, the only one responsible for that is you, the only one to overcome your anxiety is you, the only one to shut up all the voices in your head and the monkeys on your shoulders is you. YOU will be responsible for finding your courage, your creative skills, your communication skills, … and that will happen if you slow down, thrust the connection with your intuition and the collective spirit to find the answers. Thrust, faith, believe … the key to hear your inner voice, feel, see, know, … the answers to overcome anything that lays ahead. Slow down, shut out the outside world and listen. You will hear it, you will feel it, you will see it, you will know it.

Do you believe you will, when you answer my challenge to become a leader? Do you thrust yourself enough to continue forward with the guidance of your intuition?

If you want to lead, you first need to know, need to understand who you are, what shadows live within you, which shadows are important to face so we can grow. You need certainty, faith in you and your intuition if you want to start leading, if you want to take charge over your life again.

Only then, when the question rises to lead others, you can answer that call  to start a basic understanding of others with empathy, creating a safe haven for them to be who they are and follow their unique path.

Leading starts with you! Lead your life according to what heart tells you to take action on and what not, make choices based on your inner voice that is connected to the deeper wisdom that lies within!

That is the power of learning true solo travel!

©️Serenity - Natalie Verstappen