The revolution of travel

Why do we love to travel so much, and how can we get that same feeling of being “untethered and free on the road” in our day-to-day lives back home? Writer, director and former nomad Shebana Coelho has this to say on the topic — advice gleaned from a trip she took to Mongolia in 2007 and then shared in the short story “Snow in Mongolia,” published in The Best Women’s Travel Writing: Volume 10 (edited by Lavinia Spalding):

Mongolia changed everything — how I live, how I see the world, how I see myself. When you travel, you tend to cultivate a persona different from that of your everyday life. You’re open to everything, and you take better care of yourself emotionally. Because you know you’re out of your comfort zone, away from home, you work on letting go of whatever you can so that you can move with ease. . . .

At different points during my time in Mongolia, I remember thinking: one, what if I lived with the same persona I traveled with, and two, if I could manage here by planning only one step ahead instead of ten, instead of trying to see the whole road — well, couldn’t I manage my life like that too?

And that’s really what I’ve done since Mongolia — followed what calls. It’s led me . . . into a period of creativity that I would never have imagined for myself and that only came about because I was able to let go and fully follow what moves me. This has felt like a revolution. For me, it is.

Tags: life, perspective, self definition, Shebana Coelho, travel