Sometimes your circumstances might make you want to run away. And then you do. When you are no longer entangled in an environment that you felt was making you unhappy, just the very act of changing your scenery can be a relief and an opportunity to re-evaluate aspects of your life. It might be just…
View Post
You can’t capture every exciting scene you see. Surely there must be some balance to strike between being fully attuned to new and interesting surroundings and capturing it to share with others and to look back on in the future nostalgic reminiscing. We often find ourselves with an inexorable urge to reach for the camera…
View Post
It’s easy to feel guilty about having an advantage in life due to the accident of being born in a first-world country to a middle-class family. Being able to travel is considered an incredible luxury – more like a pipe dream, really – by nearly half of the world’s population, who live on less than $2.50…
View Post
A strong case can be made for prioritising ‘experientialism’ over materialism; that is, looking for contentment in experiences, rather than material things. Psychological research shows that pursuing experiences over things makes us happier. Materialism has been linked to personality disorders such as narcissism, social anxiety and generally being dissatisfied with life. Taking some time out to travel might…
View Post
There has long been controversy about ‘voluntourism’: an industry that caters to (mostly) Westerners and places them on volunteering programmes in developing countries. The industry offers those on a gap year the promise of making a difference in the deprived lives of others. On the surface, if a volunteer is flying to the other side…
View Post