In today’s world, we often live life at high speed. Continual low-grade stress or anxiety is our constant companion. Often we’re worried about work, finances, or family life.
This sense of pressure, both internal and external, leads us to shove more activities into or squeeze more productivity out of each day. These are all reasons to consider going on a spiritual tour.
We’ve forgotten how to slow down and simply be. How to breathe deeply and relax and how to turn off our thoughts for a while. Productivity becomes so routine that we forget to consider another perspective, the perspective of peace.
Intentional spiritual travel helps us change our way of thinking. Wellness vacations are specifically designed to shift you out of current habits and provide tools to help you create new ones. Whether you choose a spiritual tour to experience a new culture, learn something about yourself or others, or unplug from the daily responsibilities, one thing is true, you’re seeking a state of inspiration, revitalization, and heart-centered connection with your higher-self.
We could choose to unwind at home. We could meditate five minutes at a time during gaps in our busy schedule or attend a yoga class after work. But self-care in these small blocks of time may not be enough to help us reset our brain patterns and shift our mindset and perspective.
Travel for spiritual growth creates space and time away from everyday distractions. It is an investment in your well being.
It provides an opportunity for learning about other cultures, thoughtful conversation, introspection, and peace of mind.
Self-care and personal growth become the focus.
You are supported in that process because everyone you’re traveling with is doing the same. You’ve slowed down. You’ve unplugged. You’ve chosen to take care of yourself so that you can return home renewed and refreshed.
Unlike the moments of quiet we occasionally drop into the middle of our usual routines, spiritual travel, wellness vacations, or sacred travel retreats, whichever name you prefer, offer full immersion into contemplation and open-heartedness.
While embarking on a spiritual journey, you begin to find improved self-awareness and stillness of mind that isn’t present during your ordinary busy week.
Beach lounger or bucket list vacations may offer short-term improvements in well being; however, spiritual travel improves mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health for the long-run.
Consider a spiritual tour, wellness vacation, or sacred travel retreat the next time you book a holiday. Below are nine excellent reasons you’ll be glad you do.
Explore Beautiful Destinations With a Purpose
Each spiritual tour is unique, even if you return to the same place and spend time with the same leader.
The moment you touch down in the new destination, your intentional exploration of life paths and values combined with that of your fellow travelers creates an opportunity for unparalleled conversation, personal growth, and insights.
All the planning is taken care of. Immersing yourself in the new location, exploring the world around you with open-hearted curiosity, and deepening your meditation and qigong practice is your only job. You needn’t worry about booking reservations, arranging transportation, scouting places to visit, or any other logistics.
Your responsibility is to show up each day, ready to engage with whatever comes your way, and everything else is handled. Though you may skillfully manage travel planning in daily life, it can be a source of stress in new and unfamiliar locations.
Allow yourself to soften into the flow of the tour, be moved by the beauty of your surroundings and fellow travelers, and connect deeply with your inner wisdom.
Spiritual tours are generally held in beautiful places that host vibrant sacred traditions, including the mountains of Peru, the highland landscapes of Scotland, or remote jungles and beaches of Cambodia. These sacred journeys combine an awe-inspiring vacation with thoughtful conversations and practical tools for personal growth. The insights gained on a wellness vacation may lead to long-lasting profound benefits.
Authentically Immerse Yourself in Different Cultures
In this age of global transformation, stories and wisdom from our collective past may hold vital lessons and insights about our future.
On a spiritual tour, you’ll witness and perhaps participate in sacred rituals to help you gain a new understanding of the world, both past, and present. You’ll travel with a local, and you’ll feel like one too.
During these spiritual adventures, you’ll explore cultures different from your own, yet at the same time recognize you’ll begin to understand the commonalities between all people. Just like you, all the people you meet while on retreat have joys and fears. Just like you, all people experience sorrow and joy.
Spiritual tours introduce like-minded travelers to destinations known to be among the world’s most sacred places for thousands of years and create opportunities for spiritual growth and personal awakening.
Through these adventures, you will gain a greater understanding of what Neolithic or Inca life may have been like. They will help you deepen your awareness of what current life is like. Through your local tour leader, you’ll find hidden gems that many tourists never see.
Learn to Meditate or Deepen Your Practice
Regardless of whether you have practiced meditation for years or are brand new to it, spiritual travel provides an opportunity for personal transformation. Perhaps you’ll learn new techniques or tips, or maybe daily meditation practice during the journey will help you deepen and strengthen your existing practice. Either way, your body, heart, and mind will be nourished as you step out of daily routines and into intentionally focused present-mindedness.
Starting with morning meditation helps you carry that calm, slower, peaceful way of being throughout each day and the entire spiritual travel retreat. You take time to let the past stay in the past, the future stay in the future, intentionally focusing on the present moment. You have an opportunity to steep yourself in becoming a human-being rather than a human-doing.
Another reason to embark on a spiritual tour, especially if you are new to meditation, is access to one-on-one instruction. Part of the trip investment is the opportunity to address meditation questions, perhaps including: “thoughts keep popping into my head, am I doing this wrong?”; “what do you mean when you say breathe into your belly?“; “My right leg keeps falling asleep, what can I do?”
Connect With Nature, Both Within You and Outside of You
Spending time in and connecting with nature is crucial to our health, well being, and longevity.
Living in urban environments without access to the natural world increases our risk of depression, stress, and anxiety. In contrast, natural landscapes are profoundly inspiring and healing. From time to time, all humans need to reconnect with forests, mountains, oceans, or deserts.
Attending a spiritual tour provides opportunities to discover and explore some of the world’s most beautiful settings. They allow you to set aside your busy, sometimes urban, life, and settle into a slower way of being.
Connecting deeply with nature and the energy that flows through it is an integral part of spiritual adventure tours. Intentionally engaging with the life force found in natural settings helps us rejuvenate our internal energy or qi.
Recent research shows that immersing ourselves in natural environments positively affects our brains, bodies, emotions, thought processes, and social interactions.
Basking in nature is shown to reduce the production of cortisol—our primary stress hormone.
Nature often induces awe, wonder, and reverence, all emotions shown to produce benefits ranging from well being and altruism to humility to health.
If you join me on a spiritual tour, you’ll engage with nature almost daily by visiting sacred sites or taking hikes across beautiful landscapes. When possible, we’ll practice meditation and qigong at ancient sites and outside.
Harmonizing the energy we receive from nature with our own internal energy allows us to connect deeply with our inner wisdom or higher self. This, in turn, helps us cultivate our peace of mind, vitality, and joy.
Spend Time With Like-Minded People
A supportive, like-minded community helps enrich everyone’s life and supports you on your path to personal growth.
As you travel for spiritual growth, your fellow travelers become your support system as you work toward your goals.
They also provide a sounding board as you uncover and resolve personal challenges.
Most importantly, these supportive people help you realize that you are not alone as you work through new ideas or ways of looking at yourself or the world.
When like-minded people come together with a common purpose, uplifting and enriching conversations arise. Sharing stories of your personal perspective and experience may help others find insights they wouldn’t have arrived at on their own.
As we practice qigong, meditation, and converse about self-acceptance, compassion, and joy, unique group energy arises. Thoughtful discussions and new friendships blossom quickly through shared experience. After returning home, many travelers stay in touch and develop life-long friendships.
View the World with Joyful Curiosity and Gain New Perspectives
Going on a spiritual vacation not only helps you learn about yourself but also provides an opportunity to learn about other cultures.
These tours combine exploration of cultural wisdom, both current and ancient, beautiful and sometimes challenging landscapes, with intentional conversations, and a hearty dose of laughter.
Sometimes learning of someone else’s way of life helps you see your personal circumstances in a different light.
Each day brings the exploration of new places and is facilitated in a way that releases judgment or expectation. In turn, each group member can embark on a personal journey that feels individually appropriate.
Time spent on a wellness vacation or spiritual tour pulls you out of life’s quick pace and provides an opportunity for self-reflection and self-evaluation. Often answers to the challenges with which you struggle become more evident when time and distance are applied. When coupled with the awareness of and insights from cultures completely different than your own, ah-ha moments become even more profound.
Creating space and time in our days for mental stillness often leads to a peaceful and profound sense of clarity.
Perhaps you’ll find it is time to do something different in your life, or you’ll uncover a solution you’ve never thought of to a problem at hand.
Initially, meditation may be intimidating, as people often believe it requires having a silent mind. As humans, it is natural for our brains to process all the time. However, we do have a choice about what we think and how we go about it.
Daily meditation helps us intentionally manage our minds. Choose to minimize chaotic overthinking and embrace intentional attention to the present moment.
Intentional thinking opens the doorway to a positive mindset. We choose to release negative thoughts and activate positive ones. Self-reflection is like a blossoming flower. It starts as a small seed, but when nurtured by time, space, and fresh air, it spreads its petals wide and transforms into something beautiful.
Embracing then releasing mental and emotional challenges or fears can be uncomfortable. In busy daily life, we may not want to acknowledge challenging issues. It is easier to push them aside or ignore them altogether. However, time spent on a spiritual travel retreat creates an environment of safety, support, and thought-provoking conversation.
We then begin to look more closely at our fears and challenges, and have the courage, strength, and stamina to face them, embrace them and resolve them.
Disconnect From Technology
Another benefit of attending a spiritual tour and stepping out of your daily routine may mean disconnecting from technology.
Though not a requirement, wellness vacations may double as a digital detox. Many of us are expected to be available 24/7 by jobs, family, or friends. A spiritual vacation may provide a welcome change of limited access.
Creating this break helps you minimize distractions and settle fully into the present moment and place.
In fact, spiritual travel retreat settings often have limited connection to the internet and breaking news. Locations are chosen intentionally to help you relax into serene landscapes, harmonize with the physical world, focus on face-to-face social interaction, and spend time on inner reflection.
Take Time For Yourself and Fully Relax
On a spiritual tour, your health and well being are the primary focus of your time away from home, and days are designed to create balanced and purposeful self-care.
You step into a slower pace of life and out of your busy daily routines, which encourages you to engage in physical activity, deepen your meditation practice, and modify your mindset.
Taking time for yourself and with yourself is an essential part of the itinerary.
Often journaling while on retreat is a perfect way to spend quality time with yourself and at the same time, record your emotions and thoughts to reflect back upon later.
Mindful vacations help us dissolve chaos and clutter from our minds, allowing new ideas to bubble up to the surface. Frequently, fallow time, quietly gazing at a beautiful landscape, is just what you need to spark meaningful life changes. Embrace the opportunity to recharge, relax, and reflect. Enjoy learning new concepts or strengthening ones already familiar to you. Spend time daily entirely focused on your well being, mindset, open-heartedness, self-acceptance, and self-compassion.
Return Home Refreshed
Have you ever come home from a vacation feeling like you need another one? A spiritual tour might have you booking your next one as soon as you’re back home, but only because you’re relaxed, refreshed, open-hearted, and can’t wait to do it again!
Not only do spiritual tours provide time to relax and recharge, but they also are springboards for ongoing inspiration.
While on the trip, make notes in your journal about the day’s events. What were the day’s conversation topics? Did those discussions lead to new perspectives? What did you learn about the local culture and environment that day? What feelings arose during meditation and qigong? Use these notes to keep the inspiration going when you go home!
A great vacation can be life-changing, but returning home refreshed and rejuvenated takes a unique blend of creativity and precision, as well as a commitment to honoring your higher self. You, and your well being are worth the investment.
All wellness vacations, spiritual adventure trips, and spiritual tours share a common goal. They create and support a foundation of spiritual practice which can be carried forth into daily life. Long-lasting results arise as you learn and practice tools and techniques which empower you to live a life brimming with peace of mind and resilience.