There’s a certain hesitancy that is encountered when anyone says they’re going to go traveling alone. Is it safe? What happens if you get lost? Won’t you get lonely? This doubt is compounded into downright incredulity when that traveler happens to be female. After all, how can you ensure your safety as a woman alone on the road? The truth is that there’s not someone waiting to pounce as soon as you leave your country and comfort zone. More often than not the opposite is true; people are generally friendly and most would no doubt help you in a crisis. It’s for this very reason that a woman should go traveling by themselves. It’s a journey that will empower you more than you ever realized, and here’s why.
You’ll Learn To Make Decisions And Trust Yourself
When planning your trip, no one is going to tell you where to visit or which locations you should check out. The same applies to when you’re on the ground; there’s no one to pick your hostels, decide where you should eat, how to get home if the local transport stops running after a certain hour or look out for you if something goes awry. In this way, you learn completely to take your own wellbeing into your hands and trust your choices and their consequences.
You’ll Have Time To Self-reflect
Traveling will invariably involve a lot of walking, biking, busing and flying. In short, you are going to have a lot of time by yourself and this should be utilized as a period for thought and self-reflection. An effective means of channeling this is through journaling or blogging. It allows you to document interesting thoughts and events, write down ideas and really streamline your thought process. If carrying around a bulky journal doesn’t sound appealing, then blogging is an ideal route to head down. Here’s a good place to look if you want to start the process of owning a blog. This method allows you the freedom to write anywhere you have an internet connection.
You’ll Gain Different Perspectives
Of all the reasons to travel alone, perhaps the most important is that traveling to different countries and cultures will make you realize just how diverse everyone is. This scope entails everything from religion to education, the way people dress, local customs, and right down to the food that certain people in a specific region eat. It will also make you aware that some people aren’t as fortunate as you (and that some people are more so), and the conditions in which they live are vastly dissimilar. It will make you grateful for the opportunities you have to travel, and as well as highlighting the differences between people, it will also highlight the similarities that make us human.
You’ll Learn To Conquer Your Fears
Traveling alone can be intimidating for anyone, and it’s not something to be taken lightly. It’s often the fear of the unknown that prevents us from getting out there and taking in new experiences, but when you travel alone you’ll find that you force yourself to get over this hurdle. In fact, you’ll discover that there was likely nothing to fear in the first place. For example, the idea of staying in a hostel with a bunch of strangers might seem scary at first, but when forcing yourself to stay there, you realize it’s nothing more than a collection of like-minded travelers sharing a space together.
You’ll Learn New Skills
If nothing else, traveling alone will teach you how to plan in advance as well as how to think in the spur of the moment. In general, traveling alone will teach you how to adapt to a lot of situations, how to open yourself up to strangers, how to communicate with people who don’t speak the same language as you and how to empathize with others. If you’re on the road long enough, you may even end up learning a different language. It’s important to be receptive to new skills wherever you are, to ensure that a moment to learn never goes past unnoticed. It’s these things that we take back with us, and these things that shape us as people.
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