Loneliness in Travel

Loneliness creeps in at the most unexpected of places and times.
I stand out looking around, my balcony is a portal into the universe.

I don’t need to know where I am, what city, what country or even what solar system. The sounds outside only mask the gaping silence in my soul. The footsteps are quiet and I am alone. This world and the next can feel indistinguishable when you are lonely, no light gives shadows to your thoughts and a night without shadows illustrates my loneliness.

I read that loneliness does wonders for the creative and spiritual soul. A life of solitude is something I always crave but can never fully or comfortably lean into. I crave the ability to be alone to my thoughts and have those thoughts help me to examine and refine my inner world — to discover what it is that makes me simultaneously dive deeper and jump out to touch others.  Yet somehow I find discomfort in it because it forces me to leave my attachment to worldly things behind. It leaves me with just me.

What then do I do with those reflections and thoughts I’ve pondered over — how does it transcend into some external manifestation, if any?

In traveling, loneliness is something one can expect.  It’s not only an important emotion to understand and experience, but a requisite state of being to progress you deeper into your journey. It leaves you to your own mental devices, to dig, explore, question, rip apart, build, and every other imaginable action in order for you to probe deeper and bring you closer to that elusive “destination”.

Traveling does not help you escape your loneliness, if anything, it brings you in closest contact with it. But don’t let it frighten you, be curious and allow it to guide you down that shadow-less rabbit hole.

Just walk mindfully. 😉