Hello and welcome to the Cosmic Nomad.
I'm your host, Bailey Rushlow, and this is a space for the
curious and the heartlet where we explore the human experience
through travel and nature, spirituality and real life
transformation through beautiful conversations.
As I discover my way of living what I call an inspired life, I
share the practices, stories, and perspectives that have
helped guide me back to myself. In today's episode, I'm going to
be sharing 6 things that traveling the world has taught
me about being human. OK, so we have been on a journey
in this podcast so far. Very internal through my
internal world. Hopefully mirroring your
internal world as well. Have been getting some
incredibly insightful and beautiful messages from you,
which I'm so grateful for. Please don't stop doing that.
Don't stop leaving comments and reviews, sending me DM, sending
me emails. I'm I'm loving it.
I'm loving seeing the reflection We've been on this inward
journey right of through the mind, through the subconscious,
through the cycles, through the body.
And now we're moving out into the world of travel and it's
still going to be about, of course, our relationship with
travel and how that affects us internally.
But we have to, we have to go somewhere to experience the
world. Even if go somewhere means walk
out your front door, right? It's impossible to do these
things just from the comfort of your own home.
It does require some bravery. It does require a leap of faith.
And I'm going to start today with a little story that
happened this week. So I was sitting on the beach
last night with some new friends and one of the guys said to me,
travel is not a reward for working.
It's an education for living. And I looked at him and I said,
Anthony Bourdain because yeah, Anthony Bourdain, you how did
you know? And I was like, of course I
know. If you don't know Anthony
Bourdain, he's a world renowned chef, author, world traveler who
documented his journeys and I love his quotes and his
perspective about travel because that's exactly how I feel about
it. It is not a reward for working,
it's an education for living. It's like a bomb for my soul to
hear these words. He also has another quote that
he said travel changes you. As you move through this life
and this world, you change things slightly.
You leave marks behind, however small, and in return life and
travel leave marks on you. Most people are taught to see
travel as a short escape, like a A1 week whirlwind trip somewhere
of of sightseeing and selfies and souvenirs and you return
home exhausted and then you end up with this quote of I need a
vacation from my vacation, right?
And there's nothing wrong with that kind of trip.
That kind of trip can be wonderful, and there's a place
and time for that too. But I also feel that travel can
be so much more than just a break from our routine.
And in this episode, I want to explore the kind of travel that
shifts your perspective, the kind that actually changes how
you see the world and how you see yourself in the world.
Since 2021, I have spent about 5 months of each year traveling
abroad, learning through experience and being humbled and
challenged and just cracked wide open in my heart and deeply,
deeply inspired. And I love when strangers tell
me I can tell that you've travelled.
And that reflection means so much to me because this path has
shaped me in a way that a classroom or a one week trip
somewhere never could. And I'm also speaking from the
point of privilege where I don't work a nine to five.
I have only worked 2 jobs for other people in my whole life.
And the rest I've built myself from my creativity, from courage
and a lot of self trust and from my music, from my art.
My whole life is funded from this.
All of my travels have been funded from this.
I don't come from a wealthy family.
I don't come from money. I don't have a trust fund.
Like my family always did well for themselves.
And we always went to beach vacations and little trips to
Dollywood. And you know, I'm so grateful
for that because it gave me a chance to see something outside
of my hometown. And I don't share any of what
I'm going to share in this episode to brag.
I just want to offer another way of living.
And just a quick pause to share something really special.
I am reopening my Patreon this month, which feels like a full
circle moment because Patreon was actually the first platform
I ever used as a creator, back when I was just starting to
share my music and build something on my own.
And now I'm returning to it with a whole new energy.
More intentional, more me. And if you've never heard of it,
Patreon is a membership based space where you can support the
creators that you love and receive exclusive content in
return. So on my Patreon, I'll be
sharing monthly guided meditations, private podcast
style voice notes, and behind the scenes glimpses into my
creative world that I'm not sharing anywhere else.
So there are different tiers depending on what feels right
for you. And it's honestly such a fun way
to stay connected and help support this podcast and my work
as an independent artist. So if that feels like something
you'd like to be a part of, please check it out at
patreon.com/bailey in Rushlow. You can also find the link down
below. I really love to see you there.
OK, let's jump into today's episode.
OK, so let's dive into the first of the six lessons we're going
to talk about in today's episode.
First thing is that people, people are mostly good.
People really are out here in the world just trying to do
their best. And you experience a lot of
different types of people when traveling.
But I will say that the amount of times I have been helped by
strangers is more than I could count.
From people giving me directions to giving me meals, helping me
out in situations where they they didn't have to.
They went out of their way to show me kindness in unexpected
moments. A few stories come to mind when
I think of this. So the first one is the first
time I ever visited the UK. I'm in Waverly Station, the
train station in Edinburgh, Scotland.
And this might sound funny to someone who has grown up taking
public transportation, trains and buses and whatnot, but I had
never, I come from a small Southern Bible Belt town in the
US. Like we don't have public
transportation. You don't walk places like you
have to have a car, you have to drive somewhere, right?
It's very, very different. So for me being in the UK, I'm,
I still am in an English speaking country, you know, but
it feels like I am in the, I'm in another planet.
Like there's a train and you have to read the 24 hour time
and it's all, it's so foreign. And I got really overheated in
the train station and I have my suitcase and my bags and my coat
and my just, I got really overwhelmed and I actually
started crying in the train station.
And looking back, I'm like, oh, poor, poor Bailey.
Because I thought that I had just barely missed my train.
And I was just like, Oh my God, this travelling thing is really
hard. And I don't know if I'm cut out
for this and I'm trying my best to show up.
I'm trying my best to be on time for everything, trying my best
to read this 24 hour time. I don't know how to subtract 2
and add 10. And I it's really over
complicating it. But this guy came up to me and
he was like, hey, like, are you OK?
And I was like, I'm sorry. I'm really embarrassed.
I just, I missed my train and I feel so silly.
And I he was like, are you American?
I was like, yeah. And he loops his arm through
mine and helps me grab my suitcase.
He's like, come with me. And he helps me all the way down
the escalator. And he's talking to me and like,
really calm, really kind. And he walks me to the ticket
information booth and he goes, these people will be able to
help you all is going to be OK. And I was like, thank you so
much. You're an actual Angel.
And he really was. I honestly, I was panicking.
So I get to the ticket station and the guy is like, what's the
problem? Like I here's my ticket.
I just missed it. I don't know if I can get a
refund. It's an expensive ticket.
You know, I was going all the way up to the north, very north
of the country. And he's like, Oh no, honey,
you're, you're 2 hours early. Like all is good.
And I let out this Oh my God, sigh of relief.
But I realized I was just not in the best headspace in that
moment. I was incredibly overstimulated.
But the kindness that this man showed me, it opened my heart
and my soul. And I really was like, wow,
people are good in this world. And no one else in the station
stopped for me. I was just a random person
crying in the train. Happens every day.
But this guy saw me and responded and I was so grateful
for him. Another example that comes to
mind of Philip and I travelling in the Philippines and we're
going way up north to this tiny island called Malapascua.
And we are on a boat that I am nearly seasick on.
It was, I mean side to side rocking and it starts pouring.
I mean pouring, monsoon pouring. And we get to the the island and
we are just, I mean, everything is soaked.
The bags are soaked, We're soaked, backpack soaked through.
Like, yeah. And I'm just worried about my
laptop. I'm worried about, I'm trying to
keep my phone dry. We get to where we're going and
we've the boat can't go to where it normally docks.
So it'd be easy for us to walk to where we're going.
It goes to the around the whole side of the island.
So we have to figure out how to get from where we are all the
way to our homestay. It's not a typical island where
there are like roads and streets and stuff.
Like there are alleys and pathways, like foot pathways.
These guys come up to us on motorcycles and he's like, where
are you guys going? Like we'll give you a ride.
And we're like, for real? Are you sure?
Like screaming through the rain? And they're like, yeah, hop on.
We got on the back of their motorcycles with all of our
stuff. And I mean, I don't even know
how we managed it, but we told them we were going and they
start driving us. And I mean, we are driving
through people's backyards like chicken coops and, and go boots
and in the monsoon. I mean, it was, it was a whole
journey. I can barely see.
I don't know how the guys driving the motorcycles are
seeing. We're driving through inches of
rain and, and mud. And we finally get to where
we're going. And, and I turned to them.
I was like, thank you guys so much.
And I just pulled whatever money I had out in my wallet and gave
it to them. And they were like, oh, like,
surprised that we would pay them.
And I'm thinking, of course we would pay them.
Like, they just went out of their way, picked up two total
strangers on a beach and drove us halfway across the island.
Like, not going to not pay you, you know?
They were so surprised. This is also such a testament to
the kindness and sincerity of the Filipino people.
Truly, they are wonderful. And we were so blessed by these
guys. So people really are mostly
good. I've also had experiences that
were not so good with people who were not so kind.
People who robbed me, people who broke into my place of living
and stole things from me. People who broke into our van,
ransacked our van side of Barcelona.
I've had things overpriced and cheated and bargained and all
that stuff too, of course. But the goodness and the
kindness of the people that have helped me far outweighs the
negative experiences. And Contrast is an incredible
teacher. OK, the lesson #2 connection.
Connection doesn't always need a shared language.
Some of the most meaningful moments of my travels have
happened with people I couldn't fully speak to, and eye contact
and laughter and presence speak so much louder than words
sometimes. When I first came to Mexico, I
rented a little place that was right on the water.
So every morning it was like a ritual for me to wake up, make
my coffee, go downstairs and onto the sand where I could sit
and watch the sunrise. Oh my God, what a dream.
I had never experienced anything like that at this point.
And it was, it was magical and it was, it was such a ritual and
it was, it was so mine. And every morning when I'd go
out really early, I would see the local fishermen going out on
their boats and we learned each other's names.
We'd say hi to each other, Hola get that, you know, And it was
so wholesome. And I remember 1 morning they
came back with a huge tuna, like massive.
I was like, Oh my God, that is a huge fish.
And we, we do not speak each other's language.
Like there is no English spoken. There's a few words of Spanish
folk from my, from my end. But, and I, I just just like,
wow, like really big, you know, holding my hands up, went on my
walk down the beach like I normally did.
And by the time I came back, fish was gone.
I was like, Donde, I was like, where's the fish?
And they said oh, oh, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait here and went
and brought back a Tupperware. And in the Tupperware was fresh
made ceviche. And when I say fresh, I mean
that fish was brought back on the boat an hour ago and it was
chopped up with tomato, red onion, jalapeno with lime
squeezed on top of it. And that was it.
Fresh tune up. And I'm like, OK, it's a little
early to be eating raw, raw fish, but I got like 5-6
fishermen with a, with a thing of Tupperware handing me the
topos. They handing me, handing me
chips that are like, try it, try it.
You know you'll like it. I'm like, I got to try it.
This is an amazing moment. I would be sad looking back if I
said no to this. So I took a big bite and it was
one of the best things I have ever had, the best of EJ by far.
But like one of the most quintessential Mexico moments
that lives in my heart just rent free.
And they watched me so carefully, like, does she like
it? Does she like it?
And I was like, and they're like, yeah, she likes it.
It was. It was just so wholesome.
And no language was shared, but food was and smiles were, and
connection was. And it really shows you that the
presence speaks so much louder than words.
And you don't have to be in another country to have
experiences like this. It is just easier to have
experiences like this because you are out of your normal
comfort zone. You're not in your routine.
You're not in your day-to-day, you know, this is what I do and
this is how I do it, and this is how I drive to work, and this is
the route that I take and then I come home and then I, you know
it. It's like you're not in the same
game anymore and you're on a totally different, totally
different rules. There is so much I could say for
this one, so many stories I could share, but I want to move
on to #3 which is that joy. Joy is so simple.
How many times I have teared up and smiled, recognizing the
simplicity of the joy of watching kids play football
together in alleyways barefoot, buying a coconut for a dollar on
a beach somewhere in Thailand. Travel reminds you that joy is
usually free and it's widely available when you choose to be
present. I remember sitting on the beach
few years ago and watching 2 little girls play in the water.
Two sisters, they're probably three and four years old, and
all they have is a plastic bag. That was it.
No fancy beach toys, no expensive sandcastle making
stuff. Plastic bag like a zip lock.
And they would take turns filling it up with water and
pouring it on each other's heads and covering each other in sand
and then washing it off with the zip lock full of water.
They probably did that for an hour or more.
And their parents are chilling, you know, back in the beach,
just just watching them. And it's so beautiful how simple
things can be, especially in other cultures where they might
not have access or funds and finances for all of these
expensive toys and gadgets and things that we have electronics
and the, the life is very simple in a lot of places.
I remember being in the Philippines somewhere else.
Where was it? Quran, I think.
And we were staying in a, a really rural part of town, not
touristy. We're staying around the corner
from the water pump. And in this town, the water pump
is where everyone goes to bathe to wash their clothes.
And it's basically it's a water pump that's that simple.
But the houses don't often have running water.
So you go to the pump to fill up buckets of water, bring it back
to your house, or you just stand there in the street where this
pump is and you shower, wash your body, wash your hair, wash
your kids hair, wash your clothes and.
Every time I would walk past, I would just be like, wow, like
these kids are so happy and they have so little in comparison
with the Western world standards of having a lot.
And what we have is just, it's so normalized to have the newest
things and the newest, you know, iPhone and car and clothes and
all this stuff, which is also fine.
It's great if you if that's your thing, but like joy can be
experienced with a zip lock bag of water too.
And when we bring it back down to the basics, we remember being
kids ourselves. And I mean, when I was a kid, if
I had like a stick and a Frisbee that I could turn upside down
and make mud pies in and like use the stick to like, you know,
attach pine needles to it and make a broom that I could sweep
my tree house out with. I mean, like, it's you need so
little. You need so little.
One of my favorite things is trying different foods and
fruits, especially fruits in other countries because there
are so many that do not exist where like I'm from.
Like eating tropical fruits typically need to be imported,
you know, to the States and blah, blah, blah.
But living and, and going to, you know, Asia for example, and
you're eating fruits that I have never seen in my life.
I'm like, what is this? What, what is this fruit?
It's so weird, like mangosteen, you know, it's like this hard
purple shell that you crack open inside.
There's 5 white pieces of like this really tender, super sweet
fruit. What I ate my weight in mango
scene and was like, I was so happy.
Anytime I would see a street vendor, like we have to go, we
have to go over there, we have to get mango scene.
Just the joy that comes from those little things really
lights you up. I find so much joy in watching
local life unfold like elders chatting on the front stoop and
laundry waving in the breeze, hanging from a, you know,
building to building and just remembering how simple and and
sacred the human experience can be.
I love journaling. So I love to take my my journal
different places, maybe under a tree or by the ocean or in a
little courtyard and just writing down my thoughts.
And I always write where I am in the journal.
So when I look back through them, I see like I'm in the
grass in Saint Dunstan in London, or I'm sitting on a
beach in Thailand, or I'm sitting in a little pub in
Edinburgh watching it rain, looking up at Edinburgh Castle
towering above the city. Or I just drank a mushroom shake
on Gilly Tea Island off Indonesia and I'm about to go
swim with sea turtles. And like, I mean, there are some
incredible journal injuries that I have with some amazing places
titled, you know, where I was when I, when I wrote them.
And I had a really cool experience in the Philippines
when I was journaling in the cafe and I heard myself singing
on the radio. I took out my headphones and I,
Oh my God, I'm playing in this cafe and I'm here.
It's happened to me a couple of times before, but this was my
first time being on the other side of the world and hearing
myself. And I ripped out my phone really
quick and I took a little video and I started tearing up in the
video. And I will remember that
forever. The joy that I felt hearing
myself play on an island in a country on the other side of the
world is a is a pretty crazy feeling.
Jumping into #4 home is a feeling.
It's not a place. The more places that you go, the
more you realize that home is an essence that you carry with you.
It's in your body, it's in your rituals, it's in the people that
you meet along the way. And I think we always will have
this longing for home. As humans, we are always
searching for something because I think we know that we've
experienced so much more than just life on this earth.
I believe our souls have traversed many lifetimes and
many places, and we spend a lot of time looking for what home
really is. And when you're on the road,
you're travelling, you're experiencing new places and
cultures and people and language and all of things.
Home can sometimes feel really far away and you almost feel
homesick, but maybe for a place you've never been, or you could
feel like you found home within yourself.
I seem to kind of oscillate between the two, between feeling
homesick but not really for a place and feeling like home is
within me. And it's an interesting
dichotomy. But I've learned that it's not
about the geography, it's it's about how my body feels.
It's about safety and, and feeling alive and presence and
sometimes home can feel like cooking your own favorite food
in another country or maybe meeting someone that you have a
friend in common with from your hometown, you know, or I mean
that that literally happened to me.
I was, I was again in Scotland, a lot of Scotland memories.
And Day 1 I had just arrived and I sat down at this cafe.
I was like, can I just get a table?
And they're like, sorry, all we have is the community table.
Like great. The community table, you know, I
wasn't really into that at that point in my, my travelling days
was day one of my first ever solo trip.
And I was like, I just want to sit at a table by myself.
I just got off a 10 hour flight. I'm tired, I'm jet lagged.
It's 6:00 in the morning. You know, they're like, well,
the community table has some spice spaces available.
So sit down at this table across from this woman.
We start conversation. She tells me she's from
California, I'm from Tennessee, and we somehow discover that my
neighbors are her clients. I'm not even kidding you.
The people that live like across the street from me in my
hometown are clients of hers. And I, I couldn't believe it.
And we, we started this beautiful friendship and she was
leaving Scotland that day, but she took me around and showed me
some of the some of the Old Town and we walked the Royal Mile
together and it was just, it was beautiful and it made me feel
like home in that moment. Home was an essence, an energy
and we Co created it together. And I see it when my partner
meets someone from Bavaria or even from his specific, you
know, town and region and dialect that knows specific
German words that nobody else in Germany would ever know.
Even people from a few, you know, kilometers away might not
even know it, but they do. And it's like they speaking in
code. I mean, it's so cool.
And, and it really is this sense of, of home and, and rough
remembrance. And I love that.
I think it's very cool to be out there in the world and knowing
that you could find home in all different places and people and
faces and memories and foods and most importantly within yourself
#5 is you are more adaptable than you think.
This takes me back to what we're saying earlier with normally we
live our lives on autopilot. You know, we make the same
routes through our life, going to work, going to school, going
to church, going to whatever. It's the same thing over and
over and over and over again. And we're just living on on
autopilot, you know? And when you travel, your brain
is constantly exposed to new stimuli.
So unfamiliar languages, foods, smells, landscapes, cultural
norms that you're not used to. This is a crazy activator of
neuroplasticity. We learned about neuroplasticity
a few episodes ago, the the brain's ability to change, to
grow, to heal. When you're travelling, you are
forcing your brain to build new neural pathways instead of
relying on the familiar ones that you usually have in your
daily routine. We see this when we are making
decisions in new environments like which train do I take in on
the subway or even ordering food in another language, which helps
to strengthen your problem solving skills.
But it teaches you to be present because it is unpredictable.
When you are in a new place, you have to look up, you have to ask
questions, you have to pay attention, you have to look at
the street signs, you know, you have to watch where you're
going. It feels like your senses are
awake again for the first time. It feels like your body is alive
in real time, and it's kind of humbling and it's refreshing and
it's something we don't really do a lot when we're just at
home. Everything is regular.
It pulls you out of autopilot and into presence.
A few years ago, I was living in Malta and I wanted to fly to the
UK to go to Stonehenge and spend the summer solstice there
because there's a huge celebration.
And it's one of the few days of the year where they actually
remove the rope barriers and let you go next to the stones.
Like you can touch the stones and be right there next to them.
And I was like, I have to experience this.
So I thought, I don't know how I'm going to get there though,
because I, I don't know. I'm, I'm going to fly into
London and then I want to be, you know, at Stonehenge for
sunrise and it's hours away from London.
I have no idea how to do this. But I also want to go to
Glastonbury, this other beautiful, ancient, incredible
portal in the UK. And it's, it's not that far from
Stonehenge. It's still like, you know, hour
and a half, two hour drive, but I'm going to figure this out.
And so I literally got on Instagram and was looking up
posts of people who had been in the previous years.
And I saw a post from this one woman who was like, Stonehenge
is incredible. You know, I love going every
year. I love living in my van, blah,
blah, blah. I was like, OK, she seems cool.
So I literally sent this stranger a message and said, hi,
I'm interested in going to Stonehenge for the solstice.
Do you have any recommendations on how to get there?
She's like, well, I live in my van, so normally I just drive
there and you're welcome to come with me if you want to.
I was like, you know what, 100% new opportunity, new adventure.
I'm adaptable, I can do this. So I flew to the UK, took a
train to Glastonbury, spent a couple days there, met up with
this girl in the middle of the night, her and her friend, and
we drove all together out to Stonehenge and got to see the
sunrise between the stones. And it was absolutely magical.
There were people drumming, there were people of all
different nations and cultures and languages singing in,
welcoming the sun, welcoming in the longest day of the year,
welcoming in a point when our ancestors would have been
celebrating for millennia. And I just had this moment of
standing there with these thousands of people in
celebration of this beautiful day, celebrating the earth.
And I thought, wow, if I hadn't taken that risk and been
adaptable, I might not be here right now.
And you know what we did? We spent the rest of the day
going to different stone circles around this part of England.
And we also found my very first crop circle, which is one of the
coolest things I've ever seen in him history of ever.
It was otherworldly. It was larger than life.
It was a massive sun shape that was carved into this field.
And when I say carved, I mean no human made machine could have
done what we found and what we walked into.
The way that the wheat was laid down in this pattern in a
perfect spiral, in a perfect swirl, like it would have taken
a human weeks to do what we found that popped up overnight.
Otherworldly, magical, taught me to be adaptable.
Laying in the center of a crop circle on the solstice in
England with two strangers that are not my friends.
That is some crazy stuff, and a lot of my travels have been
made-up of memories like that, and I would need a much longer
podcast episode to tell you all of them.
But this leads us to the last and final one, Number six.
The world is both bigger and smaller than we can imagine.
It's crazy to realize how vast this planet really is.
I have so many languages, so many landscapes and customs and
histories that you've never even heard of.
And yet at the same time you really see how deeply connected
we all are. Because we all want the same
things. We all want love and safety and
purpose and belonging. And sometimes you meet strangers
who feel like old friends and, and sometimes you meet strangers
who feel like old friends, which is weird when you have old
friends who now feel like strangers.
And the world really stretches your imagination and it
minimizes your sense of separation because separation
really is an illusion. We are all connected.
Everything's connected and it's crazy how things can be true at
once. You know?
Like two things can be true. You know?
You could feel alone, but not lonely.
You could feel like you missed the sense of home and yet you
are home in your own body. Or maybe you wish you just knew
where to go and where to walk and not have to look at your
maps all the time. But then also, that's the fun of
it. Getting lost, finding yourself
in a weird part of town and realizing this is Paris, baby.
I can, I can go anywhere, I can do anything.
I can be anyone. The dichotomy is crazy, and I
think this is what helps expand our awareness of ourselves and
of the world. I'll never forget a few years
ago I met a woman on the beach and we were wearing the same
bikini and she came up to me and was like, hey, we have the same
bikini. I was like oh hey look at that.
The next day we went on a road trip together.
The next day we got tattoos together.
A few months later we got certified in scuba diving
together. In my normal Bailey life, that
shit would never happen. But traveling opened my mind and
opened my perspective to that being a totally possible
timeline for me. And when I say it to someone, it
might sound insane. When I tell it to a traveler,
they're like, yeah, cool. They're not even fazed, not even
not even like, wow, that's a little crazy.
I'm like, no, that's just, that's just experiencing.
That's just adventuring, right? So I'm curious if any of the
stories or any of these things that I've shared about travel
have inspired you, made you question something, made you
remember something from your travels, giving you a spark of
life. I want to give you 3 mindset
shifts that you can incorporate into your life to travel deeper
and also cheaper. So I had someone asked me this
week, they're like, how do you afford to travel so much?
Like how, how and why and where and how do you choose where to
go? And just all the things I said.
The first thing is to shift your mindset from escape to
immersion. So instead of asking just where
can I go on a vacation, think where can I go to expand myself?
Where can I stay a little longer?
Where can I learn from locals who are going to give me more
experience than a resort ever could?
There's nothing wrong with going on a vacation to relax.
That is awesome. If that sparks you and makes you
feel alive, go for it, enjoy it, enjoy every moment.
But if you're looking to travel, like what I've been talking
about in this episode, deeper immersive experiences, it's not
about escaping your life back home.
It's about how can I expand and activate my mind, my body, my
heart? How can I say yes to every
opportunity that feels aligned with me?
And the second thing is you don't need to be rich, you just
need to be creative. OK, so for example, I wanted to
live in the UK. It's very expensive to live in
the UK. Here's how I did it.
This idea came into my world of house sitting.
What if I could go somewhere not pay rent, not pay for
accommodation, Airbnb, cleaning fees and all this other stuff
and just I could house sit or pet sit for someone who already
lives in the place I want to go to and they're on a trip?
And I can stay in their house for free.
That sounds like a plan. So I got on this website called
Trusted House Sitters. This is not an ad, I'm just
sharing literally what I have done around the world.
I have travelled to many different countries doing this.
It's an amazing experience. And I'm also going to put a link
in the show notes where you can get two months for free off of
the membership fee. So that's my only plug, but
that's an amazing way to expand your awareness.
I wanted to go to the UK and live there but it's too
expensive. What if I house it?
So I literally house that for months, months, back-to-back to
back-to-back all around England. And it was amazing.
And I got to do it for free. You're not getting paid for it,
but you're getting to stay in someone's home in exchange for
watching their pets. It's such a great travel hack.
You can also travel to countries with a lower cost of living,
like Southeast Asia or Portugal. You know, rather than going
somewhere that's really expensive and overpriced, travel
somewhere that has a lower cost of living.
This will cut down on your expenses a lot.
Also flying with budget airlines or tracking flight deals with
tools like Google Flights using DuckDuckGo to look for flights
that doesn't track your history, so you're able to search for
flights without the airlines jacking up the price.
If you're just looking for flights on regular websites,
it's storing all of that information of your searches and
it's actually raising the prices when you go back to look at
flights next time. So avoid that.
I just booked a flight from New York to the UK for $260.00.
So like direct nonstop. Another option, if you're a bit
more flexible, is doing programs like Work Away or World Packers,
where you volunteer in exchange for housing.
My partner Philip did that, living in New Zealand for nine
months, working on random projects and farms and all kinds
of stuff in exchange for housing.
New Zealand's expensive and having to pay for nine months of
accommodation there would cost a lot of money and he was quite
young when he went there, so it would have been impossible, you
know, for him to go as a student.
But he could go volunteer in exchange for housing.
You will be shocked how far your money can stretch when you stop
needing luxury. You don't need to stay in the
beachfront place. You can stay in town and walk or
take a taxi. Right.
OK. And now the third and final
piece of this episode is that home can move with you.
I see a lot of people waiting to travel until they have
everything figured out. Like, you know, I don't have to
have the perfect amount of savings in the the perfect plan
and I need a partner to do it all with.
And what about my cat? And what about, OK, what if home
wasn't a fixed place or the perfect setup, but something
that you can carry with you? You know, when you know how to
create comfort and ritual and grounding wherever you go, then
you stop waiting for the quote right time because that doesn't
exist and you just start living now.
I think this mindset absolutely changed my life and freed me up
to travel more slowly, more meaningfully, more often.
A lot of people have no idea how I could travel for half the
year. I don't even know how I could
drop for half the year. I actually don't think I'll be
doing that anymore because that is too long for me.
I think like 1-2, even three months is good.
And then I'm like, OK, I'm good. I'm ready to go back into a
place where I can have my my projects.
That's a really big thing for me.
So like, I make kombucha and I want to make banana bread and I
want to have my sewing machine and I'm making, you know, clay
art and painting in my music studio.
And like, there's all these things that are harder to travel
around with. And I have done it.
I have. But having done that for a long
time, living on the road, doing these things, I'm really
enjoying this season of being in one place and getting to live
and and record and sit in my home with my cat and make this
podcast episode. And after this, I'm going to go
make some dinner and probably hang out with a friend and watch
This Is Us and sleep in my bed. And that is really, really nice,
especially from having been on the road for for a while, you
know. But I can say that because I
have already experienced what it feels like to be on the go for
many, many months at a time in many different cultures and many
different languages. And now this is my season to
create stillness and softness and slowness.
And do I do that on the road? Yes.
Is it possible to do on the road?
100%. I would not have survived if I
couldn't have done that on the road.
I'm not like going, going, going from place to place to place.
You know, I'm taking it slow. I really love slow travel.
That is a big thing to me. I don't like to get to a city
and go, OK, I've only got 3 days.
I have to figure out everything I'm going to do.
No, I like to fly to a city and know that I have a week, two
weeks, however long I want. Maybe some things are booked and
prepared. Most of the time I don't like to
book anything in advance, which was not the case for me when I
first started travelling. I was like, I need a plan.
I need to know the flights, I need to know the details and the
hotels and all that. I need a full itinerary.
I need everything on a Google Doc.
Like I was so prepared. And then I met Philip, World
Traveller, who took his first flight by himself when he was
four years old, who does not plan anything.
He books his flight and that's it.
He's like, I'll figure the rest out when I get there.
And he met me, who has everything on a Google Doc.
And I was like, OK, we don't have to do the Google Doc thing.
But I also cannot just show up to a city and not know anything.
Like, he didn't even know where he's going to stay that night.
And I was like, OK, we need to compromise.
Like a meet in the middle, you know?
So he actually helped me so much loosen up my grip on what I
thought travel had to be. And I helped him create a little
bit more structure in his travel to optimize his time.
And I think we balance each other out really well.
So we travel really well together and it's nice to have
someone like that that you do feel confident and free to
travel with. So although I am a huge, huge
advocate for solo travel and I definitely think everyone should
if you can at some point, if you're able to, but I also love
being able to travel with someone that you feel so
confident with, that you feel comfortable with, that you can
totally unmask with and be yourself with.
And it's going to be aware of you if you get over stimulated,
if you feel overwhelmed, if something is not the right
environment for you, that you can agree that you're on the
same page. And I think that's also really
important when you're traveling. Also, traveling in groups can be
really fun, but you have a lot more variables that way with
what different people prioritize, what different
people's schedules are, and needs and preferences.
So it might take some trial and error to figure out what you
like and what you want in your travels.
But if anything, I would really recommend if you do have the
opportunity to go somewhere by yourself, do it.
Sit in the Cafe alone, sit in that park by yourself, Go to
that ABBA Disco night and dance. Speaking from personal
experience, take the train breakdown in the train station
if you have to. Everything will be OK.
But if you need to feel it, you know, feel it all.
Laugh with the kids playing football in the streets and
breathe in all of the smells and all of the foods and all of the
people and all of the love and all of the romance and all of
the joy that awaits you outside of your autopilot normal
everyday life. Because you will learn so much
about yourself. And I'm excited for you.
I really am. Thank you so much for taking the
time to be here with me today. And if today's episode spoke to
something in you, please feel free to share it with a friend
who you think would also resonate or leave a review.
It helps more than you know. And if you want to support the
podcast and go deeper into the work that I'm sharing, you can
now join me on Patreon. Each month, Ioffer guided
meditations, private voice notes, and little glimpses
behind the scenes of my creative world.
It's a really beautiful way to stay connected.
So I'll be back next Tuesday with another episode.
And until then, open heart, open mind.
Stay curious.