It’s all too easy to get locked into patterns and fixed identities in our lives. We know our role in the business world, our role in our families, with friends, and/or other organizations to which we belong. Our identity both reflects these roles and changes as we switch between them.
But are any of those our “real” identity? Or are all of them?
Then there’s the “role” we assume when we’re alone, that we’ve created for ourselves.
That role often consists of our thoughts and dreams, the things that we rarely share with others. It may be in this role that we indulge in our guilty pleasures or deepest passions.
So, is that our “real” identity? The person we are when no one is looking?
Or there is an identity underneath that one too? Our “true” self, buried under all the masks and layers of protection that we erect as we go through life.
And who is that person? And where can we discover her or him?
A writer friend of mine recently shared this quote from Michael Crichton:
“Often I feel I go to some distant part of the world to be reminded of who I really am.”
When we travel, when we get out of our routines and habits, we also get out of our roles – or most of them. And even the ones we take with us, whether it’s as a mother, wife, friend or colleague, are suddenly not quite the same.
When we travel, even if it’s not to a distant land, we have the opportunity to take ourselves out of our roles and rediscover, if not entirely who we really are, different aspects of ourselves that get submerged in the tides of everyday life.
And sometimes, if we’re lucky, we might find an aspect of ourselves that we didn’t know existed or have forgotten.
What I discover also changes with the type of trip I’m on and the companions I take with me or meet there.
The trip just returned from – where I created this article – was a writing retreat. I took only myself there, but I reconnected with beloved friends and made some new ones in an intimate environment on the coast of Norway.
The people, the place, the weather, the food… they all contributed to me finding a new sense of myself. That includes reconnecting with my intense curiosity and love of learning. I’ve also engaged in deep and thoughtful conversations that stimulate my love of intellectual inquiry. These are both parts of me that can get lost in the day-to-day routine of running my life and my business.
Traveling for me also includes connecting with nature and the environment in new places. The nuances of energy change from place to place, and to experience those differences is to experience life from a different perspective.
It almost feels like a spiritual experience, this sense of connection to environments and people that are outside our normal existence.
These connections too are part of who we really are and can only be discovered when we travel and put ourselves in new situations and places. They expand our sense of ourselves, and, for me, make me feel even more part of the larger world.
In turn, I can bring this expanded sense and newfound knowledge back into my understanding of my “normal” world.
There are many ways to get different perspectives on yourself and your identity. Travel is one, but you can also do it by driving to a different part of the world you’re living in or even taking a different route to and from the grocery stores, striking up a conversation with a stranger at a coffee shop, or eating something new for dinner.
The important thing is to keep discovering yourself. Because every new aspect of yourself you discover or rediscover is a potential gift for you to share with the world!
