Travel has become one of those goals almost everyone shares. The next vacation. The next retreat. The next chance to get away for a while.

But after hearing the same thing in coaching conversations over and over again, I started wondering if travel is really what we're craving.

This conversation looks at why getting away can feel like the answer when life feels heavy, and why that feeling often disappears so quickly once you're back home.

It's not because travel isn't worth it. It's because a vacation can't carry the weight of the fulfillment we're hoping it will create.

Travel can be a beautiful reset. But if everyday life only feels manageable when you're planning your next escape, it might be worth asking what you're really longing for.

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Welcome back to Beyond Awareness. Today we are talking about something that I've been finding so interesting. And it's that almost everyone that I meet has a goal to travel, which, same. I love traveling. I've done so much of it. I feel so blessed, truly, as to how many places I've been able to go. But recently, for some reason, I've just been really thinking about why that's so common. Specifically, even like on dating apps, everyone wants to travel.

And even on coaching calls, everyone wants to travel. And I got to thinking, is it is there something beyond just traveling and getting away and exploring new cultures? Is it something deeper? Because when I talk to my coaching clients and have the opportunity to go a little bit deeper into travel and like why you want to do these things and also why I want to travel to certain places, there is an element of just

Relaxing and getting away. It's not just I want to explore X, and Z specifically. It's I just need a break. And so that's where I really started connecting the dots of I don't think travel specifically is for, you know, the culture and just visiting new places. I think a lot of us equate travel to mental load. And so as I was thinking about this, I

J was just reflecting back on some of my past clients who also wanted to travel and what we have worked through together. And what we came up with is the realization that continuously booking the next retreat or going on the next trip, it feels really great. It feels really exciting, especially the anticipation that's like the best part is leading up to the trip. And then going on the trip feels great. But then

You come home feeling the same. A common phrase is you need a vacation from the vacation, right? Especially if you have kids. Like you just need a date that you wish that you could relax instead of parent again or continue to parent. And that's because it's this external experience that you had from this retreat or this big trip, or honestly, even like a big dinner out.

Anything this that's like this bigger gesture, that external experience does give you this sense of relief and joy and break from your mental load, but it's temporary and most importantly, it doesn't touch the internal source. Like I said, a lot of the women that I work with, they want this trip for a break, for that relief, but so somebody else can maybe.

Clean their house while they're gone, or that they just don't have to think about it because they're not home. So being away feels great. And when they come back, that internal pressure, that internal load, internal responsibilities, all of that hit heavy. They might even hit heavier when they come back. And so I truly believe that travel isn't necessarily the goal. It's a nice to have, it's a wonderful reward.

Definitely keep it on your list of goals and things that you want to do and and and work towards for sure, but from a stemming from a different place. Because what the real problem is that we should be looking to solve without travel is that we don't know what fills our cup on a random Tuesday. On that random Tuesday, when you're feeling heavy and tired, and I don't mean heavy, like

Weight-wise, that's that just popped into my head. But you know, just like the world is on your shoulders and you need an extra latte. And my gosh, your kids had a meltdown and it was taking forever to get out of the car, out of the house to get into the car and go wherever you needed to go. And your mind is just spinning. All of that, that's when we're like, we get to the office and we're Googling the quickest time and place that we could travel to. And

Instead, we could focus on A journaling through that, just brain dumping it out, processing it, because when you allow yourself to feel it, it can move through you quicker, but that's a different episode. So B, we can allow ourselves to tap into what would actually make me feel better now or later today, right? There's no urgency on it. It's okay to not feel okay. So what would make me feel better later today or later this week, knowing that.

This feeling won't last forever, knowing that I don't need a vacation. And I almost think that putting the weight of a vacation to be the thing that erases all of this mental load is even worse because that puts even more on the expectation and the outcome of the vacation. And then when we get back, that makes it even heavier. So again, that the problem that I think we really want to tap into is knowing what

Could fill you up on that random Tuesday, that random Thursday that you wish it was a Friday, or Sunday night, the Sunday scary is really what can you do on a Sunday to feel fulfilled then, to feel excited for the week? Because fulfillment and happiness and that feeling of feeling whole depends on you feeling whole, right?

That depends not on an event. An event isn't the thing that creates fulfillment. An event is a reset. And resets wear off. Resets are great. A lot of people do resets for their nutrition. They do resets at New Year's, right? But those always wear off. And when you set the expectation that this reset should last forever, like this diet that you start in the beginning of the new year.

should last forever. Of course, you're going to be bummed when you stop and then gain the weight back. When you set this expectation that you're going to go on this retreat and it's going to be the thing that changes your mindset and you're going to come back and you're going to parent differently. You're going to run your business differently. You're going to everything is going to change and then it r wears off. You're going to be upset about that, right? Resets are expected to wear off. But when you can understand the belief underneath where your fulfillment is stemming from,

why you're unable to tap into that and or tap into it consistently, that's something sustainable because that means you have something to fix it, to solve it, to lean into anytime you're not feeling that way. So the real question that you can ask yourself isn't where should I travel next? What is the retreat that I should be going on? Or anything like that. It should be the question of why do I need to

Escape my own life? Why do I need to wait so long and let things pile up before thinking I need a full-blown trip or retreat or girls' night out annually or whatever it might be for you? So that is my recap on trips and my perspective on if how they can be most beneficial for you in your life.

was so close to signing up for it. And then my boyfriend at the time was upset that he couldn't go with me. And so I was like, yeah, no, you're right. I shouldn't do this. And I'm I still kick myself for that. And it was in Bora Bora. It was a yoga retreat. So I'm right there with you guys. And I I think that they can be beneficial again without all of the expectations attached to it of being the thing to sol solve our life essentially. So

I hope this was enlightening, and I hope that you come back for Thursday's episode because that's where I'm going to give you five strategic journaling prompts that you can either journal right with me or just think through on how you can create more fulfillment and happiness specifically this week without booking that expensive retreat or again escaping your own life. So stay tuned for this Thursday, and thank you for tuning in today.