Breaking Free: How Solo Trips Transformed My Life  E163

September 17, 2024

solo trip

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Welcome to this podcast episode, where I’ll be sharing something deeply personal and transformative— my annual solo trip dedicated to inner work. If you’ve been following along, you know this is the fourth year I’ve committed to taking time away from the hustle and bustle of life to focus on self-discovery and growth.

It all began when I burned out and decided to make a fundamental change within myself. That first experience was so powerful, it became a yearly ritual. From cross-country solo trips to paragliding challenges, each journey has brought new insights. This year, I’m returning to my roots—deep inner work. Join me as I explore what it truly means to understand what you want from life, embrace meditation, journaling, and a bit of nature, and reconnect with my inner self. Perhaps this episode will inspire you to embark on your own journey of self-discovery. Ready to dive in? Let’s go!

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Yearly Ritual: How Solo Travel Became My Path to Inner Transformation

I’m taking a solo trip again to do inner work. If you are in my world, then you know that I am doing this every year and this is the 4th year. The first time was when I was burned out and I locked myself away to fundamentally change something about myself. And it worked. It was so transformative, that I promised that I would do more of that.

The following year, I travelled by myself through the US for weeks – I did that on 2 occasions. It was a good mix of doing inner work, meditation and journaling and at the same time exploring the different parts of the US by myself. I’m very grateful that I had this opportunity.

And then last year I was away for 2 weeks by myself to learn how to paraglide which I have a vlog about for you to watch. But that 2 week training was in itself inner work because it was physically and mentally so challenging. It was great and lots of fun. But I am missing the focus on deep inner work which I did in the first week 4 years ago. So I will be focusing heavily on inner work again this time around.

Returning to the Essentials: Deep Inner Work in Solitude

I booked myself an Airbnb apartment just over an hour away from where I live. It has a nice view and it’s in the middle of nowhere in a hilly area called Eifel so I can go for a lovely long walk each day. But for the rest of the day, I will put myself deep into inner work. And you are probably wondering what I am going to work on. What does it mean to do inner work during such a week? Let me share that with you.

The first and main focus will be on the question: What do I want? What do I truly want from life and what do I want my life to truly look like? It’s easy to say what we don’t want or that we want something different. But it’s not really that easy to put it into words. So I want to meditate and journal on this topic a lot this week. And that could mean that I discover more things to let go of. It might mean that I want something completely different to what I thought I wanted. I am so open to being surprised by my inner voice or my higher self or the universe – whoever wants to provide me with this information.

I even got myself some helpful materials or better the universe sent them to me. Funnily in the last weeks, I came across 2 resources exactly on this topic, one from my favourite manifestation teacher Kathrin Zenkina and her Freebie workbook to create clarity about your dream life. And the other resource is from Mel Robbins and it’s the What Do You Want workbook. I will take both of these with me and use them as a helping hand to get me inspired. It’s always good to not just swim in your own soup aka your thoughts but listen to other voices and opinions and get inspired by how people think about this stuff. And obvioulsy I respect both of them highly as great self-development and spiritual teachers.

The other topic is of course my surrender experiment, so the relationship with my body. Since my last episode which was Part 3 a few weeks ago, not much has changed or happened, so I want to check in with myself and listen to my inner voice or my higher self to get some guidance to take the next steps or to let go of something again. Or maybe there is currently not anything for me to do. That’s ok, too. But of course, this week is the perfect opportunity to check in on this subject.

Tools and Techniques: Meditations, Workbooks, and Surrendering

I will be doing a lot of meditation during the day. As usual, it will be a mix of guided meditations from Dr Joe Dispenza or I will meditate for myself or sit in silence and go within. I will do for sure 3 of those a day, if not even more. I will take as well my yoga mat to do light exercise and stretching as with this kind of inner work, stuck energy can be removed more easily. This work is not just emotional and spiritual, it’s as well mental and physical. It’s all linked with each other.

And then I am planning to do a walk a day, where I get out in nature and enjoy the outdoors. This is great to clear your mind, to move the body and help energy to move inside of you. Great way to let the body realign itself and connect with the energy of the earth and nature around you.

I am not going to distract myself with anything. I will take books with me if I want to take a break from my inner work and get some new inspiration but I am not going to watch TV, use social media or talk to people back home or where I am staying. I want to treat it kind of like a silent retreat without truly being in a silent retreat with other people. But that’s fine. You can do it by yourself, right?

Disconnecting from Distractions: Creating a Silent Retreat Experience

And because I don’t want to distract myself too much with cooking, going for meals or shopping either, I will try to buy everything I need for 6 days upfront and take it with me. I will even cook a few meals back home that I can use for the first few days. Otherwise, I will take easy-cooked meals or salads with me that won’t take me long to prepare.

I think the hardest bit will be not speaking for 6 days and not watching any TV. But because it’s going to be hard, I am really looking forward to it to challenge myself. I know for lots of people this does not sound like fun and for sure not like a holiday. But I love it. I just know from experience how life-changing this kind of work and focus can lead to and I am so looking forward to it. I can’t wait.

Maybe have a think if this is something for you to do, too. I inspired already quite a few of my friends to start travelling by themselves and challenge themselves with it. Doing new things, doing it alone and spending time by yourself is not as easy as it might sound. That’s why not so many people actually do it. But I can tell you it’s so worth it.

I can’t wait to tell you all about it in one of my next episodes. So look out for it to find out what kind of experiences I had. I know I kind of have a plan, but most of the time it goes pretty differently than what you have planned. And I am up for that. Happy for the universe to throw my plans overboard and provide me with a totally surprising inner journey during that week. Bring it on 🙂

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