I’d wanted to travel the world since I was little girl and watched Skippy The Kangaroo. The Undersea World of Jacque Cousteau and Flipper The Dolphin. Each programme provided me with the desire to explore more this wonderful planet of ours. Yet it took a long time for me to get moving. Due to life, the challenges, curves and bends it provides.

What I learnt when I travelled, was that I had actually stepped into my comfort zone not out of it. Which was a surprise.

This comfort zone I discovered, was one where I could be me and in movement on a daily basis. From one location and destination to the next, under my own steam and through my own choices, which provided me with personal freedom, allowing me to connect fully with myself, rather than be more engaged (or owned) societally.

Yet. I also had my husband and tween children with me, which meant I had a responsibility and a chance to deeply enjoy their company, parent also, whilst connecting with different cultures and people along the way. Allowing them to become global citizens. Showing them the differences between other countries to ours and in my mothers mind, giving them evolved, experiential choice and allowing my husband and me to recover from the grief and loss which had sat heavily upon our shoulders for a few too many years.

It had me looking at personal growth a little differently, as we are told by so many that to step out of our comfort zone is the place where growth happens but my discovery, was stepping into my comfort zone was the place which provided that growth, yet that meant for me, stepping out of society fully.

Gave me room to breathe as a person.

Allowed me to experientially understand with my therapist head, how connecting with the five building blocks of resilience and wellbeing in positive psychology – Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment can all be achieved by stepping into your personal comfort zone and stepping out into the world.

We don’t always need to be connected to our societies and cultures and I found that the further away I was from England, the more connected I was to being an English Woman and how proud I was of that fact.

I’ve a background as a Humanistic Therapist, so existentially began to explore the meaning of travel through the prism and psychological understanding of this personal experience, which then enabled me to self actualise and shift to another level in my life.

It provided valuable insight and learning.

To understand that a lifestyle designed because it is thought to be right societally and to then discover what is really required from a personal perspective (so to redesign a lifestyle) is something really beneficial and allows the wonder of a vision to unfold.

Our travels enabled me to explore the world, develop a deeper, richer relationship with our children (which is why I believe holidays with families should not be penalised if taken inside the school term), got to know myself and what I wanted and allowed me to REALISE as a person that I had created the trip I’d wanted to enjoy since childhood.

I manifested it. If you choose to use those terms.

So why not take a step back.

Think a little and decide if stepping into your comfort zone is the best way to step out of it and create your own vision of living.