Travel, Routine, & Mental Strength
“It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects so compactly that, if the enemy takes the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety.” -Thoreau in “Walden,” loc 299
What is a routine?
Essentially, a routine is a person’s outsourcing decision-making regarding how to act or behave in certain settings. Think wake-up/bedtime routines, cooking routines, or driving routines, and how not too much thought or decision-making goes into performing them. A routine is what people use to get through days, and a standard definition describes routine (noun) as either “a regular course of procedure,” or “habitual and mechanical performance of an established procedure.”
Although routines are different for everybody, they are still universally present for people across many walks of life. In philosophy, something like a routine that constitutes a meeting spot between universal and particular is called a concrete universal. Another example of concrete universal is emotion, something everyone experiences, but in their unique way.
Why Routine?
Routine makes us freer. However contradictory the idea may seem, that regimenting ourselves is the best way to obtain freedom, read on and I’ll explain.
Think back to learning how to drive a car, how using the turn signal was not exactly natural. Now think about today, and how your hand naturally flicks the turn signal without much thought; using a turn signal is routine and abets a driver in safely traversing swathes of distance. And yes, I do sincerely hope the turn signal is routine for everyone.
When a routine develops, a good routine, acting in a certain way becomes second nature and this good action residually strengthens our bodies and wills. Hence the effect of a beneficial routine overflows into other aspects of your life and well-being by freeing up your computing power for other tasks or problems, reducing stress, and quite literally making the body physically stronger.
Routine aids in making families closer, creating greater meaning in life, and even improving mental health during pandemic-related lockdowns. Check out these studies if you’re more interested.
How can I have Routine Travelling?
This is a great question I have thought about for years — beginning with my arrival in China.
Travel routines have different roots than sedentary routines. For example, frequently changing dwellings necessitates logistical foresight and an ability to find relaxation, a sense of home, anywhere. To develop and maintain poise while traveling long term requires a routine that cultivates calmness, alertness, and absence of reliance on some familiar bed at home; a travel routine must cultivate reliance on the ability to find and make any place feel like home. Home is where the heart is, and a sense of home lying internally only manifests through real-life, routinized practice.
Failure to rest at night or find decent food can make or break a traveler’s will to go on. I developed routines like investigatory walks to find markets and reliable, healthy food sources like fresh juice bars. I also developed routines like researching neighborhoods by reading fellow backpacker’s blogs to find the ideal residences to satisfy present needs like sleep, stimulation, or study. Mental routines come first for a traveler, and they create a maintainable meta-comfort throughout the passage of fleeting physical routines.
Impermanence is a reality of travel demanding routine to accommodate constant change, and fostering internally oriented routines oriented towards caring for the mind is essential. I love meditation because it allows an opportunity to turn off my ever active senses, and adding affirmations with breathing exercises each day begins with a healthy mindset predisposing me to relax and maintain composure anywhere.
In many ways the routine of a traveler is to move, see, and listen; but the routine is mostly to use skills of self-care, not just completely automate or outsource certain processes and behaviors. Ultimately, the dynamic nature of travel requires an equally dynamic and adaptable routine, otherwise unnecessary in more sedentary lifestyles. My solution is relying on internal processes for routine.
Why push myself to change routine and travel?
As humans, we thrive and feel most alive when facing the unknown. The unknown calls to us by stoking fear and anxiety, and some people run from these stressful feelings when they should press on towards them. Facing down the stress of unfamiliarity and growing more deeply attuned with angst is the path to being a philosopher, to rising above the self-imposed limitations of attachment to material items and being attached only to your mental wellbeing. To feel comfort with frontiers is the mission of any traveler and formulaic for a healthy, strong mindset and body in any lifestyle.
When the routine is successfully and prosperously framed around mental health and stability concerning rapidly changing environments, something mystical happens. All the night buses become relaxing, 30-minute laps in pursuit of sustenance through unfamiliar territory become a pleasure, and each bed you encounter becomes the comfiest bed in the world.
When people hear I’ve been traveling for four years, they consistently ask “aren’t you tired?” The truth is yes, sometimes. But so is everybody! The truth is that my routines, for years, have been geared towards eroding any reliance on specific material items, on specific conditions, and on expecting things from others.
In conclusion, being the angst-free philosopher who walks out of a city with nothing but what is comfortably carried on the back is what my routine strives to cultivate. With a simplified life, a life traveling, the eyes open to what is actually important. Venturing outside the bubble of your society exposes what is and isn’t necessary, and it does so by pushing you to survive and flourish in new settings without luxuries — many of which you were unaware even were luxuries!
The margin of error traveling is far less forgiving, and as a result, our senses produce stress, angst. Overcoming these obstacles can only be done through routinizing their solutions, to become the wandering philosopher striving towards strengthening the mind and soul, to break a Mental Sweat.
Feel free to message me for tips, conversation, and engagement.
