How many times have you told yourself you need a break from reality? I’ll tell you a secret. Almost every trip for the past few years felt like an escape plan. All my trips were incredible but I was running away from New York as if my life depended on it. Traveling was equivalent to you getting an extra life in a video game. Or if a Harry Potter reference is more relatable, it was like I was Voldemort and traveling was my unicorn blood. It gave me a half-life and I needed to keep traveling in order to stay alive. Jokes aside, traveling gave me a chance to hit pause and regroup. It gave me time to breathe and be free. It gave me moments of clarity that I couldn’t find in New York. But ultimately, I was still running.

Don’t you feel amazing when you’re traveling? You’re happier. You have more energy. You live your best life. Me too. I started to notice that when I travelled I was so much healthier, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Do you also dread coming back? I did because I would slowly regress to this feeling of unrest and it would lead me back to the chalkboard where I would plan my next getaway. It wasn’t a very viable way to live.

After many countries, I’ve come to a place where for the first time, I’m not looking for an escape. I’ve stopped running. This will be the first time I am traveling for the sake of exploring and also the first time where I could stay in NYC and look forward to it. So what’s changed?

To answer that, you first have to ask, what was it about traveling that recharged me and fed my soul? This is what I came up with:

1. The outdoors. Everyone knows that the outdoors has been my saving grace for the past few years.
2. No responsibilities or expectations. I have lived in New York my whole life and I got stuck in this box of who I had to be and what I had to do. I was pressure free when I traveled. I was just me doing me.
3. New people & environment. Meeting new people, experiencing new things, and trying a lot of “firsts” on my own terms.
4. Photography. I was so inspired to shoot when I travelled. You couldn’t catch me without my camera whether I was on a mountain, in an ocean or in a restaurant.

For a while, I thought “Okay, New York just isn’t for me. I need a change. I need more nature. Nothing makes me feel alive here” so like Houdini, I kept escaping and living my life on extremes. I’d work hard and be miserable and travel even harder and live my best life. Eventually, you’ll run out of fuel and once I ran out, I needed a plan B.

Plan B was understanding and figuring out how to translate and apply the things I loved about traveling to my life in NYC:

1. Right mindset / challenges & gratification. The outdoors always puts me in the right headspace. I became grounded while taking on emotional, mental, and physical challenges with a strong mentality and in return I got amazing gratification for pushing through. The outdoors overwhelmed me with feelings of gratitude, life, and inner peace. This nourished my soul and body which is why I felt so much healthier during my travels. The right mindset is the first step to feeding your soul and body anywhere, even at home.
2. Freedom. While I was getting to know new cities, I began to know myself without all the external factors of who I was expected to be. I was free to be me when I travelled and it felt like I was taking in that first breathe of fresh air after my head had been submerged in water of expectations, unattainable goals, stereotypes, and insecurities. I felt trapped in my own body because I was living a life that didn’t align with my core self. That is truly what I was trying to escape from and the only way to do so was to finally break free and start living my own story.
3. Unleashing my inner child. Every time I travelled I felt like a kid who was trying something new for the first time. Moments of pure authenticity is what excited me. That sense of adventure and childlike spirit is something that I was chasing after. The best version of yourself is when you are carefree, happy, spontaneous, and adventurous, like a kid. That’s where we take action and usually have the best outcomes. When we love and live life with the sense of openness, where we can say “Wow this world is great to us,” that’s when all the abundance and goodness comes our way. There is so much the universe has to offer if you live with gratitude, openness and align with your truth. If you feel like your life is boring and nothing is new, it is time to spark that inner child and go play!
4. Inspiration & Passion. Once I’ve managed to make it down the list, I inevitably started to get inspired by NYC again. I realized I was so inspired when I travelled because I loved the moments that made me feel alive and free. I was chasing those feelings and as a result, freedom and life inspired my photography. Now, it’s quite the opposite and photography gives me freedom and makes me feel alive as I use it as a form of self-expression. It gives me the freedom to create, share, and connect with others. Self-expression is so important. We must accept, love and know ourselves to be able to express ourselves effectively. When we suppress that part of ourselves, we start to feel unaligned and unfulfilled.

Traveling is awesome but it’s definitely not a great escape plan. In the end, you’ll end up right back where you started, the reality you wanted to escape. If you feel like you’re doing this, it’s okay. You are not alone and you can stop running too. Take a moment to ask yourself “What do you love about traveling?” and “How do those things make you feel?” Those feelings are really why you love traveling! It’s not necessarily the traveling aspect because really traveling is a lot of work. You love it so much and put the work in because of how it makes you feel. We are constantly chasing feelings. Think about it. I guarantee you, if traveling made us feel sick, unhappy, stressed, we wouldn’t want to travel. Lastly, see how you can create those feelings into your everyday life. Traveling gives you time to express yourself, be yourself, and treat yourself. If you know that, why limit it to vacation days? Take that same mindset and make it your everyday. Make it a lifestyle.