Tips for travelling with awareness

by Alice Alessandri and Alberto Aleo

Travelling is a vital part of our business and has been for a long time. By spending extended periods abroad, we have developed a sense of “extended citizenship”, which makes us feel at home wherever we are. Observing the world around us at a distance, picking up new habits, and experiencing life within a new cultural environment not only broaden our horizons, but they even allow us to see ourselves with fresh eyes. In fact, every journey is a multidimensional experience – horizontal and vertical, social and intimate – especially if experienced with awareness. This article is our chance to share what we have learnt by travelling with awareness so that you can find some useful tips to tackle the summer and your holidays with a new perspective.

First Tip – Uprooting as a means to self-discovery

“Travelling is brutal. It forces us to trust people we don’t know and to lose sight of the familiar comfort of our home and our friends. It makes you always feel off-balance. Nothing belongs to you, apart from essential things such as air, sleep, dreams, the sea, and the sky. Everything stretches out into eternity, or towards what we see as eternal.”

Cesare Pavese

You are born in one city, you grow up in another, you go elsewhere for your studies, and then your job requires you to move again and so on… Those of you who know the feeling of being uprooted due to these stages in life also know that it isn’t always pleasant. However, we live in a society where this condition is more common than sedentary life. Feeling nomadic and “stateless”, never belonging to a particular place or land, on the one hand can be alienating, while on the other hand, it helps us focus on our real essence. We can no longer rely on the identity of a nation, a city, or a place to answer the question “who am I?”. This, in a way, liberates our true self, forcing us to question what really matters to us and helping us decide where to settle down. 

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Therefore, when you travel, let yourself go. If you really want to go out to sea, don’t look back towards the shore you just left, turn round and face the open sea: it’s by looking ahead, not behind, that you will find the answers you are looking for.

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Second Tip – Travelling with value-based awareness

Have you ever thought that in the wealthiest countries, most of the GDP is produced by what we might call “first generation immigrants”, i.e., people who have recently moved to that country? It’s something to reflect on, and it’s definitely related to their desire to start a new life and their flexibility in accepting humble or tiring jobs. However, we also believe it’s due to the strong bond that these people have with the country that welcomed them. 

We should therefore ask ourselves what this bond is based on, considering we are talking about “new” citizens, and how this bond can at times be stronger than the connection that people who have lived there for generations feel.

It cannot be based on a sense of belonging to the land, but it must be related to something intangible and, at the same time, more powerful: the values represented by that part of the world, which might be a source of inspiration to the new inhabitants even before they move to that country.

Here is, therefore, a new idea of homeland that isn’t land-based, but value-based. This is something we can appreciate because it’s more modern and current as it’s rooted in us rather than in a place. There are areas in the world that, for historical or cultural reasons, embody certain social values better than others, but here we want to emphasize that our home and our homeland are the places where we feel comfortable sharing our vision and our principles.

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This summer, take your time to reflect on your values and draft a sort of “inner constitution” that defines the founding principles of the country that resides in your heart.

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Open the borders of your “nation” to anyone who shares its spirit and allow the ones who don’t share it to at least go on a “sightseeing tour” to get to know you better. Do you need help? Watch the videos on our YouTube channel specifically devoted to values.

Third tip – Change the pace of your journey

In Italy, we tend to concentrate all of our holidays in specific periods of the year, which is detrimental to our wallets and contributes to stress. Therefore, we end up travelling when we are extremely tired, possibly visiting overcrowded locations, standing in neverending queues, and facing astronomical prices. Travelling should instead give us a new time dimension, change our usual pace, or start new rituals. In fact, as our readers already know, the quality of our life is strictly connected to our relationship with time. Why not therefore change our “pace” when we travel?

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Our advice is to travel in “small steps” taking your exploratory breaks more frequently even if they are a little shorter. When you are travelling, focus on the quality rather than the quantity of your experiences.

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Resist the urge to see, experiment, or photograph everything solely to post it all on social media. Allow your memory, and not your smartphone, to record that feeling.

Travelling with awareness is one of the most educational experiences ever. Consider exploring new countries, new cultures, and new places as a treat for your evolution. You will find yourself richer, more open, more creative, and more productive. We are also talking to the ones who brag that they “haven’t been on holiday for years”, the well-known workaholic. Are you really sure that you’ve embarked on the right road to success, forcing your life into the same old boundaries?.

We wish you all to enjoy the summer and your journeys, with awareness.

PSThis year we will be in Sweden for research, and we’ll stay there on holiday, too. Anyone who wants to come and visit us is most welcome. Continue following us on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

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