Not your typical participation trophy 🏆
Within 5 months, I traveled to 16 cities within 11 countries and 2 continents. Would I do it again? Hell yes, I would.
Participation: the action of taking part in something.
Since being back, the main questions I’ve continued to be asked are:
Would you do it again? What did you learn? How was it? And as we enter into the second half of the year, what better way to reflect on the first 6 months than to answer those 3 questions.
Heads up, I had a lot to say ☺️
Would I do it again?
Within 5 months, I traveled to 16 cities within 11 countries and 2 continents. Would I do it again? Hell yes, I would. I would honestly recommend, if possible, that every single person take time away from their established norm and go deep into self exploration. Change your environment, go somewhere for a period of time where no one knows you, do something that’s off script, and challenge yourself to confront things that make you uncomfortable.
I say that because I’ve returned back to the States with a newfound inner confidence, comfort, and sense of empowerment that I never knew existed.
What did I learn?
Everything I believe to be true about myself is true
How to be a participant instead of a spectator
A newfound trust in my intuition
New ways to express myself
“What do you believe to be true about yourself?” My best friend asked me this question early into my nomadic journey and I honestly didn’t have an answer. However, I was in an ideal position to figure it out.
What I appreciated about being unknown in a big city was the sense of anonymity that came with it. I could wake up every day being a completely different person and no one was there to judge or criticize me while I figured it out. This allowed me to explore different avenues of self and self- expression to get to my truest form.
I played around with how I dressed, with my hair and nails, with different genres of music I’d listen to as I walked around, different crowds of people and means of entertainment, and different avenues to express myself all until I found something that I knew was a true extension of me. Then I began to see what things would consistently show up for me as I traveled to different places.
This is how I can confidently say that what I believe to be true about myself is that wherever I go, I will always find my people. In each city I went, I would make friends or find community extremely easy and it wasn’t in a way that was superficial or a means to past the time. The more I operated in my truest self, the easier it became to be recognizable and to recognize those who were for me.
What I quickly learned though, was in order to be recognizable or find things that were for me, it required me to be fully present, willing to participate, and be in tune with my intuition. I call moments of realization like these ‘God moments’; moments when I feel God speaks directly to my spirit. And when I had this moment, I was stumped because how is achieving those 3 things at once even possible?
But it started off little by little. Urges that typically went ignored, like a feeling to bring an umbrella and still choosing not too, only to get rained on later or having a feeling to turn left instead of right and still turning right, only to realize that left was the right way, was enough for me to say okay let me start listening to these urges. What really did it was going through TSA and my intuition told me to keep my favorite sweatshirt on and I still took it off, only for it to somehow come out of the tray and end up on the conveyer belt covered in grease. I was pissed!
So I began bringing an umbrella, following where my body led me, and doing things that were on my spirit like complimenting others even when I didn’t want to speak and reaching out to people that had crossed my mind.
After several weeks, it was like my whole world shifted and life became much easier. I operated in a lightness I hadn’t felt in a long time and experience many serendipitous moments. The more I participated, the stronger the connection I felt not only to myself, but the world.
It got to a point where I began to seek out ways to be of help and of service. Even friends began to notice how frequent I’d get approached when we were out or the random acts of kindness I would experience while with them.
Gavin de Becker talks about this in his book The Gift of Fear (which I highly recommend reading if you haven’t already). He says, “Contrary to what people believe about the intuition of dogs, your intuitive abilities are vastly superior… The problem, in fact, is that extra something you have that a dog doesn’t: it is judgment, and that’s what gets in the way of your perception and intuition. With judgment comes the ability to disregard your own intuition unless you can explain it logically, the eagerness to judge and convict your own feelings, rather than honor them.”
I encourage you to watch the first 5 minutes of this video… But let’s keep going.
The ability to slow down and be in tune with my body helped me understand that not every lesson has to be a hard-taught lesson. I was missing out on ease and blessings all because I chose to not honor my intuition.
The result of me acknowledging and honoring my intuition was self-advocacy. I found myself expressing my feelings and desires without fear, caught myself no longer doing things that I didn’t want to do to avoid hurt feelings, and willing to have hard conversations because I no longer feared the outcome of rejection.
A seed of inner-belief was planted and what I now also believe to be true about myself is that I am enough and advocating for myself will only remove what’s not meant for me.
How was it?
So how was it? It was life-changing. I learned more about myself in 5 months than I have in all 28 years of living. I made life-long friends and memories that I will forever cherish. I’m more connected to God than ever before and my understanding of what it means to have faith is something I can no longer put into words.
I’ve gotten a true taste of my full existence and who I am when I actively participate with the world around me. I have no plans of going back to being a spectator.
With love always,
Jamie ✈️ 🌎
Questions I’m thinking through:
What do I believe to be true about myself?
How can I best participate with the world around me?
Am I a spectator or participant when it comes to my own life?
How often to I listen and act on intuitive urges?
Links I’m loving:
The Gift of Fear - Book
What is intuition - Video
This thrilling to see Jamie!