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These blogs are a way to share my thoughts and insights with you. Feel free to comment and share.

Hit the road without leaving your street

9/2/2015

9 Comments

 
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Photo by Zack Miloff
A wall-sized map of the world animated my childhood kitchens in Edmonton, Winnipeg, New York and Montreal.  Geography was a favorite family game. We had vacations in Rome and London in the 1960s. I grew up seeing travel as a source of fun, adventure and escape. 

The lure of travel is often accompanied by a hope. A hope for change, for personal metamorphosis and for discovering a more inspiring version of ourselves. A hope for something and someone new and improved. At the very least, a change from our routines.

The lure of the road

Recently my brother’s family took a road trip in Arizona and Utah. Their photos were amazing, so now I want to take the same kind of trip. I want a great adventure with incredible scenery.

There’s just one hitch: I can't stand sitting in a car for hours each day.  The inactivity is counter to my nature.  My back aches just thinking about it.  I also worry about "unhealthy" roadside meals and bad beds in airless motel rooms.  I fear a road trip will bring on bouts of the restlessness and worry that travel is designed to conquer.

It's a real shame.  Because being on the road means experiences and people of the unexpected and unforgettable variety. All this captivates my imagination, especially in deepest February.

How to hit the road without leaving your street

All my travels to date have taught me that, once the trip is over, we are back to where we started.  So how can we capture the transformative feeling of travel – the adventure, the unexpected, the new – without taking a trip?  
I have a few ideas on the subject:

  • Our personalities and conditioning shape much of how we think, feel and behave. If we can become more conscious of our unconscious sides – if we pay more attention to our automatic habits, responses and reactions – we can learn a lot about ourselves. And this can transport us into new realms of thinking and feeling. Something like a road trip.
  • A change to our home environment can have significant impact on how we feel. Throwing out, rearranging or buying something new to improve the aesthetics of our homes can feel really good. Something like a road trip.
  • We can get bored with ourselves, especially when we get repetitive. When we tell ourselves the same stories over and over. Or when we keep telling ourselves, “that's the way I am.” Trying on new ways of behaving and thinking can subtly influence the way we respond, internally and externally. Something like a road trip.
  • Talk to people – anywhere and anyplace.  Ask questions. Share something about who you are and what you care about. Be interested in the response. Again, something like a road trip.

Hit the road,
Coach Minda

9 Comments
Oog
9/2/2015 11:27:21 am

Exactly so , Coach Minda . I know from experience that you work wonders .

Reply
Coach Minda link
11/2/2015 10:25:31 am

Aw-shucks Oog! Thanks

I like the idea that I can coach anyone, from anywhere in the world and at anytime. This might mean my client is on the road or I'm on the road, or if we are both kind of lucky, and "on the road". Now wouldn't that be great! I think Coach Minda will become On The Road Coaching... (it's mine, and no one can take it....)

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Maury Miloff
9/2/2015 12:18:29 pm

My family and I spent 16 years abroad in Africa and Asia. After a while, I realized with great pleasure that travelling is, as you say, basically a state of mind. You can be living abroad but be walled in by routines, habits, pre-conceptions and fear -- to mention just a few limiting factors! I still remember the rush of excitement when I realized, while walking down a street during one of our summer visits back to Canada that the travelling state of mind I crave is attainable anywhere and anytime I am open, excited, optimistic, feeling fun-loving, exploring, expressing myself and reaching out to try new things. Thanks for the reminder! Of course, when you can combine a traveller's state of mind with real travel to inspiring places, that's a double win!!

Reply
Coach Minda link
11/2/2015 10:40:28 am

Maury, you captured what I was trying to say just right: it is a state of mind that we crave. And it is attainable when you get into that special sort of groove of openness and exploration. For me, it is helped by having warm interactions with people especially who I don't really know! Thanks for sharing your insights as a world traveler. You are also so right that a special mindset coupled with a real inspiring place is ideal. Thinking about South Africa and Southern Spain these days...

Reply
Charles Levin
9/2/2015 12:37:51 pm

Dear Minda,

What a lovely metaphorical tour of life's journey you have written! And such a shockingly beautiful, existentially splitting photo by Zack! Maury's comment is also inspiring and eloquent. Whence this brilliance of the Miloff gang?

(Sorry to be so superficial - just wanted to say hello.)

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Coach Minda link
11/2/2015 11:28:39 am

Charles, you have blown our cover. Our brilliance is no longer a secret! Zack's photo was the inspiration for the blog post. And, tis true, Maury has a way of saying things very well. Thanks for dropping by!

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Laura Malbogat link
11/2/2015 01:20:21 am

I am actually on another trip while I read your blog and thought - it is true that I bring myself on my trips, I will return home to face the same challenges I did before I left. I like your suggestions, changes to make while still remaining home…and then thought about how come I will go to such lengths to travel and thought I would share another perspective......
What travelling does do, at least for me, is provide a distance from the ongoing challenges we face in daily life at home. That distance can be precious in providing a different perspective, a change and chance to breathe without having to face the daily grind of the challenge. It is also being able to take myself out of myself and see and be in a different way, for example travelling for me involves photography and generally more movement (hiking, going to more unusual places) when I am busy taking photos and working hard to find that just right shot, I am immersed in another time and level of being, everything is flowing and perhaps that is also why travelling can so regenerative.
Being in another place provides breathing space so I can rewrite the script and narrative back home.

Reply
Coach Minda link
11/2/2015 11:00:50 am

Thank you for reading this blog while traveling and for taking the time to write a post. I do appreciate it. I like and respect the idea that travel does give people a break from the daily grind and a break that people surely need. And, sometimes we do see ourselves in a different light when we are away, enabling us to get a new perspective that can help us recalibrate our lives once back home. I am an advocate for travel. I think it has huge potential to bridge gaps in understanding between people, and it allows us to indulge in the great natural and cultural beauty of the world. I pour over maps and atlases all the time. And when it is cold here in Montreal, I want to get a break from it. But, years of traveling has brought me to the conclusion, that whatever we want to escape, it follows us back and that if we can "fix" things before we go on the road, we have a better chance too of enjoying the road trip. Happy travels!

Reply
Fred G
12/2/2015 06:46:49 am

Really enjoyed the blog and even more the discussion which feels like a journey joined by many. Journey is such a powerful metaphor - both in terms of destinations and the trip itself. May you travel well
Fred

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