Travel as a Therapeutic Tool

While on a trip, I was sitting I front of the Mysore palace oblivious to all the people around me. It was Dusshera. Among the festive lights coming alive in my eyes, the Sufi songs in my ears and a mind completely immersed in the beauty of it all, I had one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. In that very moment, I wasn’t thinking of anything, not processing anything, not feeling anything. I was only there. Utterly, Wholly and surprisingly, just there. And later I wondered – ‘is that what being in the moment feels like?’

Once I was on vacation at my Naani’s place. Her house has a roof that looks over the precious farms, a small river and most importantly, the setting sun. After a phone call with a friend, I sat there on that roof diving deeper than ever before, into my own little heart. I thought of the pain and the joy, the anger and the fear, the ups and downs and the lefts and rights. I shook hands with them all. What came out of that processing, was an old friend that I had lost touch with. Clarity. 

I was on another trip to Chennai with my friends. The day before we were supposed to come back home was one of the most stressful ones I had had in quite a while. We had snapped at each other, the group had gotten separated because of a misunderstanding in directions, It had rained out of nowhere, our tatkal tickets hadn’t been booked, and almost everybody had cried. But the next day, when we got up at 5.30, got dressed in silence, and reached the beach at 7, it all seemed worth it. We played in the sand, we ran like kids splashing water everywhere, and we laughed our hearts out. That catharsis was long time coming. 

One of the most heartfelt and true conversations I have had with my mom happened while we were on a trip to Guhagar. To my surprise, I decided to share with my mom how I had felt because she had dragged me to meet somebody that I had no connection with. After coming back to our hotel, I sat down with her and told her how I feel about being made to do something that I clearly do not want to do. Even she told me how she feels when I don’t want to do certain things with her. After a mutual shedding of tears, we went back to normal. We talked about my childhood, her childhood, my sister’s childhood. I realized that we had never expressed our feelings to each other in this way before. All we had done was maybe throw a temper tantrum. 

Now that I look back at it, it seems that all of these moments have been quite therapeutic and have occurred when I was travelling, away from home, even though I was with the same people, just in a different environment. Be it mindfully being in the present, having a catharsis, expressing my feelings or processing long held emotions.