Can Spiritual Travel Make You Younger?

I was five months shy of my sixtieth birthday as I flew to join The Peru Odyssey 23 day adventure in May of this year. I’d upped my minimalist fitness regime beforehand by walking up to four miles per day, had altered my diet and lost a few pounds, but somehow still felt the ageing process was seriously underway. Being the oldest & least fit of our sixteen strong group re-inforced the looming big 6–0.

Needing arms and hands either side to help me up many of the steep Andean hills we had to climb to explore the awe-inspiring sacred sites, made me acutely aware of my age. Rather than extending my focus outwards to embrace the landscape my attention drew inward to aching muscles, panting breath and my slow recovery.

This inner focus is beneficial when we choose to use it to reflect and grow from insights gained. But it is detrimental when it endlessly catalogues each apparent indication of increasing age-related challenges however minute. The same goes for any other issue too like health, family or even money concerns.

I huffed and puffed daily up magical hillsides, climbed ancient Inca stairways and accepted hands reaching out to help me from the youngest in their twenties to the oldest just a couple of years younger than me. After two weeks I was leaner, a little fitter and falling in love with the country, the group and the whole concept of this guided spiritual tour.

By the time I’d explored the Andes without dying of extreme altitude sickness, and handled a week in the intense humidity and heat of the Amazon Rainforest while participating in four Ayahuasca sacred plant ceremonies, I’d realised I didn’t need to get old just yet.

You see I got it. When we are curious about people, wildlife, nature, landscape, different cultures and everything else which piques our passionate heart we focus outward. We stop noticing, and embellishing, the ailments or worries which may usually dominate. Instead of shrinking our awareness we expand it. Our world view stretches out.

As we raise out conscious awareness, letting go of the need to categorise ourselves as ‘old, or ‘in difficulty’, or ‘ill’, we experience more of life and its energy. It worked for me. I feel a good fifteen years younger and am ready to follow my heart in to a few more adventures…

Join me?

Originally published at outertravelsinnerjourneys.com on July 15, 2015.