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Melissa Sandfort's avatar

“Adventure is Worthwhile In and of Itself” — Chris Guillebeau

This is also true of inner adventure. Getting to know yourself in the deepest ways available to you, with whatever resources you have — from meditation to Internal Family Systems to doing weird detoxes like the Hubbard protocol to t’ai chi or ecstatic dance or authentic movement.

Whether the door in is stillness or movement; whether it’s psychedelics or psychedelic doses of niacin; whether it’s using liminal mind states like dreaming or connecting to your parts right before bed / upon waking or journaling in a wide-awake state in the middle of the day — whatever you use, however you travel inward, it’s all worth it.

No effort to get to know yourself is wasted. Reading, listening to podcasts and watching TV and movies are also part of inner travel because they expose you to imaginary lands inside other people’s minds, which helps you build frameworks for understanding your own.

Not everyone is called to travel to real-life place like Djibouti and Nigeria, although outward travel can be an amazing way to open up to the human experience in real time. But we are all called to travel inward in the ways that suit us best. And it doesn’t have to be with a destination in mind — an outcome of “healing” or fixing ourselves. Sometimes we travel inward just for the fun of it, the joy of self-discovery and self-mastery; the courage to be more fully who we are a happy by-product.

Here’s to the adventure of travel, in and of itself, both inward and outward!

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Tom Bentley's avatar

Adventure is Chocolate Croissants for Dinner. No, I meant adventure is so worthwhile! I am finishing an article on Malta today, where I spent a month or so house-sitting a while back. My girlfriend and I are nowhere near the travelers you are, Chris, but we've house-sat for stretches in many countries and fabulous places in the world, and despite there being some calamities on some of the ventures, the travel, the sights, the people, the cultures—so worthwhile!

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