“Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert
The inspiring motto ‘catch flights not feelings’ that millennials all over the world use has really got me thinking.
Does travel really help reach true happiness? Does it improve the way we see ourselves? Does it teach us how to form relationships?
Well, yes, in my opinion, catching flights not feelings can definitely be the best way you can choose to live your life.
People have somehow become overly focused on the relationships they form and are generally too eager to find that one person to fulfill their every need.
Sorry for breaking your bubble, but that kind of person doesn’t exist.
You’re the only one who can complete yourself, and one of the best ways to do that is to travel. If you’re wondering how and why, you should keep reading.
5 Reasons ‘Catch Flights Not Feelings’ Should Be Your Life Motto
You’ll get to know yourself better
Every day of travel will bring new opportunities to learn new things about yourself. You’ll be surprised about the things you can do and about the ways you react to new surroundings.
Travel helps you discover completely new aspects of your personality.
The things you’ll find out about yourself while you’re away from home will definitely help you figure out the way you want to spend the rest of your life.
You will meet new people and through your relationships with them you’ll get to know so much about yourself.
You might find new hobbies and realize that your interests and dreams are completely different to how you envisioned them while your mind was trapped in the troubles of your everyday life.
It’ll also help you disconnect from your everyday life
Talking about rising above the troubles of your everyday life, traveling will help you think in a completely different way.
The people, customs, and culture that’s around us is what we know.
It shapes us into who we are as people, but there can be so much more to our personalities and our lives if we give ourselves the chance to explore.
I’m not saying you should get a one-way ticket, but leaving the world you know for a while will be beneficial for you.
You’ll have the opportunity to get out of the fog of your everyday experiences and regain clarity. Use travel to refresh your tired soul.
Travel challenges you
Traveling isn’t always pretty. Even when you’re trying to keep it low key, things that are out of your comfort zone will still happen.
Once you’re out there, you’ll deal with stuff you’d never encounter at home. This will challenge you and give you an opportunity to grow and become stronger than ever before.
If you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and your life seems to be going in circles, the best thing you can do is break the circle and follow a completely different path.
Embrace challenge and growth. Change is the only constant in human life and traveling will help you accept that and customize the way you see the world accordingly.
You’ll get a whole new perspective
Once you’re out there, you’ll notice that the way you think about the things in your past or whatever was a part of your life is completely different.
It’s not accidental that people always feel their wanderlust setting in whenever something difficult happens to them.
Going away from home gives you a completely new perspective, a fresh set of eyes. It gives you a chance to take a different look at your life from a more objective point of view.
When you’re in the middle of things, it’s hard to look past the messiness of your own emotions, but when you’re traveling, every piece of your story seems to fit perfectly.
You’re suddenly able to verbalize exactly what happened to you and also comprehend the feelings it awoke in you.
It will help you move forward
Traveling is truly a healing process. While it can be hard to move on from certain things when you’re still stuck in an environment where those things happened, getting away for a while helps you recover.
The experience of meeting new cultures, seeing new beautiful landscapes, learning more about the world and other human beings is truly remarkable.
It shows us how many different people live in this world and how many different kinds of lives and destinies exist.
We realize how small we are in comparison to the universe and that shows us how little and solvable our issues are.
There are ways to travel without spending too much…
You might think that traveling is hard: you need a lot of money, you need to take time from work…
Catching flights, not feelings might seem too expensive for you. But, there are so many ways to have a travel experience without spending too much.
You can follow an airline’s website and try to get tickets at the sale price and save a bunch right there.
Also, there are so many beautiful places in the United States, there’s no need to visit the world’s trending destinations in order to get what you need out of traveling.
I’m absolutely certain that there’s a beautiful natural landscape near where you live. You can create a meaningful travel experience right there.
Put on your leggings and t-shirt, grab your favorite hoodie, and go backpacking to the nearest hill or mountain.
Who says you need to cross half the world for your trip to make sense? You absolutely don’t. You’ll be surprised how much better you feel afterward.
As for the time off work, there are ways to travel even on business days.
Find an interesting pub you’ve never been in before and step out of your comfort zone by meeting the people that go there – especially tourists and travelers.
Listening to other people’s stories and experiences is like reading a book and very similar to travel – it gives you a new perspective.
How did the ‘catch flights not feelings’ motto change my life?
Living life this way made me appreciate everything I had so much more. It made me realize that my time should be used to do something meaningful, to create a life worth living.
I’ve learned that, no matter how satisfying our everyday circumstances are, exploring new things, new landscapes, and new people gives me more than anything else in my life.
Hoping for love is not forbidden. But love can be found in so many different forms.
The traditional way people see love, love as an attachment, didn’t fit me. It was a huge burden and I’ve found a way to incorporate love into my life in ways I find fitting.
I didn’t want to spend another day wondering whether my boyfriend loved me, if I was good enough for him, and whether he would call me at the time he said he would.
I was lucky to realize how empty I was.
I decided to stop looking for someone to make me into the person I was hoping to be: happy, strong, satisfied, inspiring…
At first, I was lost. I didn’t know where to go or how to motivate myself to become that kind of person. Luckily, I’ve found my motivation in traveling.
There is no person out there who can give you everything. There is no person out there who can teach you how to live your life in order to be content. Only you can do that.
I know you’re probably trying to find ways to get to know yourself better and improve your life.
I know you’re making the exact same mistake I made… You’re looking inside your own mind.
This may come as a surprise, but to find yourself, you have to broaden your view.
Learning about others will help you learn about yourself.
Having new experiences will help you understand your past.
Accepting differences in the outside world will help you make peace within.
I know what you’re thinking – I’ve had my doubts too.
Is this ‘catch flights not feelings’ thing just a way for people who are unhappy in their relationships to represent themselves as strong while inside they are suffering?
That’s what I thought at first… I can now honestly tell you that that’s not how it is.
There’s enough time to find love, you have to find yourself first.
