How Traveling Helped Me Heal

“What you don’t heal will haunt you.”

Let me tell you a story real quick. Let me get vulnerable with you real quick. Let me share with you how traveling helped heal me. I was traveling the world before, during, and after my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, fortunately he died and 3 weeks later I picked up my shit and moved across the country. Now most of you are probably saying fortunately? Yes, fortunately, he’s not suffering, he served his purpose here in this dimension and now FORTUNATELY I have someone who gets it guiding me.

 

I was going city to city, country to country while my Dad was battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer

I was going city to city, country to country while my Dad was battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, it was a choice. I made that choice because one, my dad understood and two I was setting myself up for success, I was aware of the outcome, my father was going to die. I was preparing myself both on the inside and the outside.  I didn’t spend a lot of time with my dad while he was fighting, I really didn’t, but I don’t regret it, he wouldn’t want me to either, we had many good times together. If you’ve lost a parent to cancer, I know you’re with me, and even more, I’m with YOU. I’m writing this for YOU. Im writing this for those of you that lost a parent and continue to struggle with coping and not even just a parent, anyone you LOVE.

Maybe you don’t understand how to cope with the loss

Maybe you feel like you don’t understand why your parent was taken away from you, maybe you don’t understand how to cope with the loss, maybe you feel like you should’ve spent more time with them, maybe you wish you could’ve loved them better, maybe you feel guilty, maybe you feel lost, maybe you feel one or ALL of these things. Im here to tell you, either way its ok. Im here to tell you, the journey is long but the journey is different for everyone.

A lot of us want to cope in unhealthy ways. I’ve been there, I’m guilty too.

Im here to be vulnerable with you, Im here to share with you what’s helped me with the hopes that something I’ve found comfort in, maybe you will find comfort in too. When it comes to coping I think the most important thing to ask yourself is, what can I do to cope that’s healthy?  I say this because so often a lot of us want to cope in unhealthy ways. I’ve been there, I’m guilty too. We want to drink, we want to do drugs, we want to binge eat, we want to beat ourselves up emotionally, whatever it is, we want to do it, but we need to stop. 

We need to redirect the emotions. Emotion is energy in motion. A lot of the ways I was able to heal and cope from the loss of my father so quickly is because I’m constantly moving. Im constantly changing my environment and filling myself with new experiences. Movement is key, I moved across the country first and then I continued to move. I did the things that fed my soul, the things that helped me to cope with the emotions. I kept traveling, I kept hiking, I kept exploring, I kept creating, I kept writing, I kept working out, I kept MOVING, my mind, my body, and my soul by doing the things that brought even a little bit of light in the darkest of the night.  

 

The difference is how you CHOOSE to deal with it.

The thing is guys, it’s not easy, the pain isn’t easy, its there, its real and it fucking hurts. The difference is how you CHOOSE to deal with it. I choose to use my dads death to drive me even more in my passions and life endeavors. I made the sacrifice to keep traveling and working during his last days and you know what, it fucking hurt to choose that, but it feels even better to know that, everywhere I go, my dad is with me, everything I do, my dad is proud of me, everything I do, he sees.

The fact of not being able to see them, doesn’t mean they’re not there

The power that comes along with putting yourself in a place to acknowledge that and FEEL that is unfathomably empowering. Just like my dad, your parent, your loved one, they still see you too, you just cant see them. The fact of not being able to see them, doesn’t mean they’re not there, all it means is they’re operating on a different vibration, a different frequency, the thing is, they see you, they hear you and they feel you, acknowledge they’re presence, I promise you they’re there!

I encourage you to go do the fun things you once enjoyed as a child, the things you once did with your parent, your loved one, go do those things again and again and again. Most of all, I encourage you to go outside, go in nature, go travel, go experience the world. I encourage you to do this because my entire transformational journey has been based around traveling and being outside in nature. Nature has the answers, we are more connected to it than we can fathom. Feed your soul, move, nourish, and tap into the greatness of the world that is around you literally all the time. I promise you it will make you feel good.