How Travel Will Make You Flow Fluidly
The beauty of the mind, soul, and body. The connections within. It’s all about perspective.
While traveling, I have had several unfortunate incidences which prevented me from going on side trips that I had been excited to check out. But what came of it was more beautiful. I shifted my perspective and learned to live with abandoned verve.
Without stress or worry, I began to live in flow and became fluid with whatever life threw at me. I accepted what others may have considered “terrible” or “horrible” circumstances and stayed open to what life had in store for me. Instead of fretting over what had happened, or what already was, I took a deep breathe and allowed for the universe to unfold perfectly for me.
Illness, Injury, and Lost Wallet
My first month with Remote Year started in Split, Croatia. There were 50 of us in our group, Kaizen. All of us, new to this experience, fresh faces that were to soon become a family unit that we’d be traveling with for the next year. 12 countries in 12 months with a full spectrum of people, personalities, and careers, from various parts of the world. I didn’t know what to expect. So I set out with no expectations, no plans other than to have fun and to enjoy the experience.
Only a few days after I arriving in Split, several things went awry. I caught one of the worst colds/flu I have ever had. There’s something about European colds that my body wasn’t used to and had no immunity against. Having a cold/flu like that would have been difficult to deal with in the comfort of your own home, with easy access to health care, comfort foods, and surrounded by family and friends. Let alone in a foreign country where you didn’t speak the language, didn’t know the culture, and had no one to take care of you. A few days later, I sprained my ankle so badly — while rock climbing — that the ER doctor turned his head away immediately after looking at it. He told me that he worked with the Croatian football (soccer) team and had never seen such a bad sprain before [3 months later, it is still not healed]. And to top it all off, I lost my wallet a few days after the sprain.
I love exploration and adventure, especially while traveling. The injury, illness, and wallet-loss prevented me from going on various side trips throughout Croatia. I was bummed to be missing out. Yet, I was happy to listen to my intuition. My body did not feel up for travel to Hvar and Vis islands to see the blue caves, while I was sick. My foot was not in any condition to walk up and down the hills and castles of Dubrovnik, by doctor’s orders. And it was nearly impossible to rent a car — to go check out Krka waterfalls or Plitvice lakes, a 3-hour drive away — injured and without a driver’s license or credit card. I wanted to do all of these things; however, I knew everything inside of me — my mind, body, and soul — alerted me not to go.
I had to stay in flow. I remained fluid and listened to all of the signs and indications not to go on these side trips.
People started reaching out and offering their help. The first time it happened, I was taken aback and quite befuddled. The kindness of these “strangers” who I had only met a few days prior, was baffling and overwhelming at the same time. Coming from LA, that’s not something you’re used to. It’s more typical to hear, “I hope you feel better soon!” before they’re gone. However, complete strangers, some who couldn’t even speak English, went out of their way to help me.
Were my walls that far up? Or were we all just in a vulnerable state? Being in a foreign country, wanting to connect with others, extending our help… I could have analyzed the situation in depth, but decided to just allow things to unfold as they should.
What ensued was healing, openness, and awareness.
I had forgotten how compassionate and generous people could be. Living in Los Angeles for so long got me jaded and oblivious to the warm intricacies of human connection. Complete strangers, bystanders, and people I had known for a only few days were offering more than people I have known for years, without wanting anything in return.
It was out of pure generosity and love. There was no reciprocity expected.
That’s what travel does. It allows you to be vulnerable again. To tear down your walls. Being in a foreign country, not knowing the culture, the language, the rules… You become reliant on others for help, almost as a child is around adults. And as long as you’re open and accepting, you’ll see that genuine people want to offer it…their smile, their benevolence, their generosity. Pure love. That’s human nature. It only gets twisted when something else is expected in return. It becomes a burden when it’s forced, uncomfortable, or no longer in flow.
This taught me a huge lesson. There were still magnanimous people in the world. Whatever their reasoning for helping me, I was touched. Had I not come down with a cold/flu or if I had forced myself to go on my side trips, I would not have experienced amazing connections nor appreciated this life lesson. My walls would have stayed up. And I began to realize that I love genuine connection and love to help others out, so why wouldn’t others offer the same to me?
Remember to reflect, meditate, search for meaning, and learn.
Find meaning in the bad — why were you given that lesson? Life lessons are constantly thrown our way, be open to all of them! A lot of times so much more good comes from plans not having gone our way.
We’ve become so adamant on being a strong, independent person — or people in society as a whole — that we block ourselves from being vulnerable, from being in flow…from allowing things to happen as they should. We get stuck in traditional “responsibilities” and come up with excuses as to why you can’t be in flow. Why you have to go to a 9–5 job to pay for the house and the car and the family. Why you don’t have time to do the things you love. You get lost in the daily rut and start to lose yourself. We no longer prioritize ourselves — our mind, body, and soul — yet we prioritize our responsibilities.
We try to prove ourselves to others, fighting and pushing our minds + bodies to do something just to show that we can do it, to demonstrate that we’re not weak. I reached a huge, pivotal point by listening to my intuition, but that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that by being open, by going with the flow — and not forcing myself to do something that my mind, body, and soul were telling me not to do — I was able to make connections with people that I wouldn’t have connected with (in the same way that we did), had I ebbed instead of flowed. That moment in time would have been lost. There would have been missed connections and missed opportunities. All it took was a shift in perspective.
Stay open and fluid. With flow + fluidity, amazing opportunities arise.
There’s no reason to get upset if something doesn’t work out as planned. Just breathe and see what happens next. A better circumstance or situation may appear because of that flubbed plan. An unexpected connection or business opportunities may emerge. You might meet someone that has the information that you needed.
An example of this can be seen by a side trip that occurred while in Portugal. Four of us went down to the Algarve, on the southern coast of Portugal, for a long weekend getaway.
I had been followed by @coworksurf on Instagram and wanted to check out their co-work / co-live space in Sagres. It was a space that I was planning to check out and possibly stay at for a few days since the first week that we arrived in Lisbon. On our road trip down to the Algarve, I was browsing through Instagram, my hand slipped and it opened up @coworksurf’s feed. And thus, I was reminded again that I needed to go. We had already booked an Airbnb, but I wanted to see what their space looked like.
We set out on Saturday morning to find their space. The address was not showing up correctly in maps and the map on their website led us to the general area, but not the exact house. After driving through road blocks + construction, dirt roads + roundabouts, and circling around for over an hour, we decided to stop and look at some cliffs. And those cliffs were gorgeous!
I reached out to them on Instagram and didn’t think anything would come of it. We decided to head down to the beach in the meantime, to enjoy the relaxing sound of waves and enjoy a beach picnic meal. Unfortunately, we were in the south coast during a thunderstorm, so there wasn’t much sun to soak up that day.
As we got back to the car, I noticed that Joe, one of the starters and brilliant masterminds of @coworksurf messaged me with the correct address and clear directions on how to get there. My phone had lost reception on the beach and it was nearly 9pm by the time I received the message. After a long day, we decided to stop by CoWorkSurf on the way back to our Airbnb.
What came of it was beautiful.
We could have easily said no, it’s too late. We were tired + hungry and could have ebbed, said it was bad timing and just gone home. But we didn’t. We stayed in flow. For whatever reason, that was the time that we were supposed to go. There was something pulling us to go there. And I am so glad that we did.
We met a few of the people who were staying there, co-working / co-living. They were super friendly and open. They offered us food + drinks, and Pier, an awesome guy from the Netherlands, showed us around the space. The house was fully booked up for the month. After our tour, a few of us sat outside and started chatting. Joe, a fantastic Brit who started CoWorkSurf, strolled up with another dude as they were just getting back from surfing.
You might be in the right place at the right time because of flow + fluidity, not because of coincidence.
Accept, reflect, find meaning, learn, grow, and stay open.
The conversations that we had these guys were motivating. It inspired us to create. Without any intentions of networking, business connections were made. We were in flow. We were fluid with the events of the day, and just allowed things to occur as it was meant to happen. Job opportunities came about, future collaborations were planned, and ideas and thoughts began to brew.
Had we found the right house early on, we may have missed the opportunity to meet everyone at once — Joe may have been out surfing, Pier may not have been at the space — it would have been a different experience. We arrived when it was dinner time and they were all gathering around for family dinner. Everyone was home, in a sense. Had we not stayed in flow and decided to ebb, we may have lost out on connections, collaborations, and business ideas. The conversations would not have been the same if we were not in flow. If we were not fluid, if we had just gone home, what would have been?
accept, reflect, find meaning, and stay fluid with flow
[other travel examples of flow and fluidity to come…]
More words on flow + fluidity
flow + fluidity,
life will provide abundantly
live and flow,
to learn + grow
stay open, be fluid,
stop ebbing or treading
just let go and see what happens
travel safe and flow with the waters
forget about all of the others
remember the good,
always the good
learn from the bad,
and grow from the past
keep on keeping on with
flow + fluidity,
and you’ll find a life full of bliss and ease with
fluidity + flow…
What have you learned from your travels?
What experiences have you had with flow/fluidity while traveling?
Comment below
