How to Exercise Your Travel Muscle

There has always been, and always will be, a portion of  humanity that is unable to shake the primal itch to travel that sets in after too much routine has taken its toll. Given the opportunity to move away from our everyday surroundings, many of us would, in an instant, pack an overnight bag and journey forward.

But the truth is that the ability and desire to travel, the longing to discover new places and cultures, is a muscle. For a great many of us, this muscle has atrophied, either by financial circumstances, complacency, or a continuously shrinking perspective on the size and scope of just how much there is to see in the world. I know this because it happened to me.

For years I, like so many of us, was intrigued by the prospect of wanting to explore more of the world. Given the right opportunity, as I told myself time and time again, I would pack a bag and venture out to scratch the itch that I was so utterly convinced I felt.

Traveling Helps Us Remember What is Important

I had forgotten, or more likely never known, that traveling means leaving behind many of those comforts which so many of us indulge in without giving things a second thought.  Words like comfortable, relaxation, planning and organization are right at home in describing the way most people choose to get away from their everyday lives when really these ideas should be shunned and avoided.

To travel is to live another life, one that is far removed from the mundaneness that so many of us tend to confuse for security and protection. We are, all of us, explorers and journeymen at heart. Our species has thrived and come to dominate the planet because of our insatiable appetite for looking beyond the horizon. More often than not, in today’s modern times and in brutish prehistory, the land and water over the horizon were clouded over with uncertainty and doubt, not lavishly appointed with the comforts of home.

How Travel Can Change Your Life

So if you are given the opportunity to move about this stunning planet of ours, try and do so with the knowledge that we are meant to be uncomfortable in our exploration. We have evolved to adapt, learn and enjoy all the variety that exists in the world around us. And to scratch the itch for investigation, even if it is at times painful.