OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES:
The Art of Mindful Baking
The Art of Mindful Birdwatching
The Art of Mindful Gardening
The Art of Mindful Reading
The Art of Mindful Silence
The Art of Mindful Singing
The Art of Mindful Walking
Einstein and the Art of Mindful Cycling
Galileo and the Art of Ageing Mindfully
Happiness and How it Happens
The Heart of Mindful Relationships
The Joy of Mindful Writing
The Mindful Art of Wild Swimming
The Mindful Man
Mindful Crafting
Mindful Pregnancy and Birth
Mindfulness and Compassion
Mindfulness and Music
Mindfulness and Surfing
Mindfulness and the Art of Drawing
Mindfulness and the Art of Managing Anger
Mindfulness and the Art of Urban Living
Mindfulness and the Journey of Bereavement
Mindfulness and the Natural World
Mindfulness at Work
Mindfulness for Black Dogs and Blue Days
Mindfulness for Students
Mindfulness for Unravelling Anxiety
The Mindfulness in Knitting
The Practice of Mindful Yoga
Zen and the Path of Mindful Parenting
Mindful Travelling
Journeying the World, Discovering Yourself
Sarah Samuel
First published in the UK and North America in 2019 by
Leaping Hare Press
An imprint of The Quarto Group
The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street, London N7 9BH, United Kingdom
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Text 2019 Sarah Samuel
Design and layout 2019 Quarto Publishing plc
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright holder.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Digital edition: 978-1-78240-930-4
Hardcover edition: 978-1-78240-929-8
This book was conceived, designed and produced by
Leaping Hare Press
58 West Street, Brighton BN1 2RA, United Kingdom
Publisher S USAN K ELLY
Art Director J AMES L AWRENCE
Editorial Director T OM K ITCH
Commissioning Editor M ONICA P ERDONI
Project Editor Claire Saunders Design Manager A NNA S TEVENS
Designer G INNY Z EAL
Illustrator M ELVYN E VANS
INTRODUCTION
Mindfulness happens effortlessly when we travel. When we take time to step away from our daily routines to enter new surroundings, we naturally become more present. We open up to the exciting and the unknown, forced to pay attention as our senses respond to new stimuli be it witnessing unusual landscapes, tasting exotic foods or watching local people. As we effortlessly respond to the now, we also open up to different aspects of ourselves, expanding our appreciation of not just the world around us, but the world within us, and the joy of being alive.
TRAVELLING THE WORLD, FEELING ALIVE
We live in an awe-inspiring world. If I stop for a moment to ponder the myriad of landscapes, cities and cultures that I could potentially visit, I feel like a child in an Aladdins cave of wonders. It fills me with a sense of possibility, excitement and freedom.
T RAVELLING IS A FEAST FOR THE SENSES , giving us the opportunity to explore and find something new and exciting every day. There is a plethora of possible destinations to choose from palm-lined beaches with turquoise waters, jagged mountain ranges and plunging gorges, bustling cities with vibrant markets, tropical jungles and barren deserts. There are Buddhist temples, skyscrapers and medieval hilltop villages. There are people of different languages and cultures, and cuisines with an array of flavours and scents.
When we transport ourselves from one culture to another we naturally become observers, able to bring stillness into the hustle and bustle of the world around us. Our senses become heightened as we respond to new sounds, smells and sights.
The Perfect Trip
Now, more than ever before, people from all walks of life are taking the opportunity to travel. Modern media enables us to find out anything we want to know about most places in the world how to get there, where to stay, what to do, where to eat. We can buy flights and book hotel rooms in an instant. Other travellers reviews verify these places so that we know what to expect and enable us to tailor-make our perfect trip.
Wonderful as these resources are, the perfect trip cannot be found in a guidebook, map or web page. The perfect trip is found in the ability to be open and present to all we experience, and it is often the unplanned experiences that delight us the most, from chance encounters with friendly local people to the hidden nooks we find when we get lost.
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.
FROM HASIDISM AND MODERN MAN MARTIN BUBER
Connection with What Makes Us Feel Alive
Above all, travelling is really about connection. By taking ourselves out of our ordinary daily lives, to connect with loved ones, with the Earth or with ourselves, we gain perspective on our own life and what is important to us. In the awareness of each stage of travelling, be it the patience that is required to board a plane, or the appreciation of sinking our teeth into a ripe, sun-warmed fig, we shake up the mundaneness inside ourselves, so that our lives become broader and our knowledge of self deeper.
A common misconception about mindfulness is that its purpose is to help us feel more relaxed and happy. This is only a half-truth. In our awareness of all that is, we disrupt the status quo, confronting aspects of ourselves and the world around us that we would otherwise prefer to avoid. Our world is both a beautiful, miraculous place and a heart-wrenching, unjust place. We cannot shut ourselves off from one and feel only the other. Travelling with an open heart, we embrace both the pain and joy of the world and our lives.
About This Book
This book is not so much about where