Are you looking for a transformative trip
Why do we go on the road to begin with? What’s the attraction of the road?
As a professor of religion as well as psychology and culture, I am interested in the experiences that fall at the crossroads of the three of them. As I study travel, I am fascinated by its intractable paradoxes. We all want to escape in order to experience the moment and to be present. We rush to places in order to reduce our speed; we might consider the impact on the environment but create carbon footprints.
In the end, many people wish to be transformed upon returning. Travel is usually regarded as anthropologists describe”a ” rite of passage” that is, rituals that allow people to be separated from their usual surroundings, experience change, and come back rejuvenated as well as “reborn.”
However, travelers aren’t just focused on their interests. The desire to explore could be a characteristic of humanity, as I explain in my most recent book. However, the ability to travel is a privilege that could result in a price to the host community. In a growing way, the tourist industry and academics alike are looking into ethics-based travel, which reduces the harm that visitors do to locations and the people they meet.
The media flood tourists with information and suggestions on where to go and what to do. To achieve the goals of transformational ethical travel, the “why” and “how” need to be considered more deeply.
In my essay ” Just Traveling: God, Leaving Home, and a Spirituality for the Road,” I read travel stories from sacred scriptures and studied research from psychologists, sociologists, economists, ethicists, and tourism experts. Meaningful travel can be recognized not as a three-stage ritual but rather as a 6-phase practice founded on the most fundamental human experiences. These phases can be repeated and overlap in the same trip in the same way that the journeys twist and turn.
Anticipating
Traveling is a long way off before departure when we plan and research. However, anticipation goes beyond logistics. The Dutch are apt to call it “voorpret”: literally, the joy that comes before.
What people think about and how they will react to a given scenario can affect their experience, whether for good or worse – especially in the case of prejudice. For instance, studies in psychology have demonstrated the fact that when children are more likely to anticipate collaboration among groups, they are less likely to have prejudices in favor of their group.
However, Phenomenology is a subfield of philosophy that examines the human experience and consciousness and argues that anticipation can also be “empty”: our desires and hopes for what’s coming can be fulfilled or shattered in the future by a moment.
To keep this in mind, travelers should remain open to the possibility of uncertainty as well as disappointment.
Leaving
The experience of leaving can trigger deeply felt emotions that are connected to the first experiences we have of separation. The types of attachment psychology psychologists study in infants that determine how secure people feel about their relationships remain a part of our lives as we grow older. These experiences also impact the level of comfort people have in exploring new places as well as leaving their homes, and this can affect how they travel.
Certain travelers depart with excitement. Some travelers leave with excitement, while others feel anxiety or guilt prior to the joy and relief of going. Being aware of the phases of travel may help reduce stress.