Breath-taking views, mouth-watering delicacies and a paragraph about how travelling solo made all the difference, don’t we all come across a couple thousand posts like these on a daily? Solo travelling was a pretty alien concept back in the day but it’s all people can talk about now. Or rather, they were, before we switched to a pandemic-riddled reality. But yes, the hype around travelling alone is completely justified IMO because of how thrilling and life-changing the experience is.
They say, travelling expands your horizon, gives you the opportunity to explore yourself and soak in all the goodness this world has to offer. But doing it alone, even just once, will make you realise that you are your best companion, that you can be as independent as you want to be and will also raise your confidence levels. Ahead, we list out all the benefits you can experience while on a trip by yourself.
1. You learn that stepping out of your comfort zone is nothing but amazing
It’s a natural human instinct to feel some level of fear around the first time we’re doing something new in life and something huge. Like travelling all by ourselves. But that’s the thing right? Once we throw ourselves into unknown waters, we learn how to swim thanks to survival instincts and pretty soon get acquainted with it. Solo travelling is just that. Being in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces all by yourself is pretty unsettling but also thrilling because it’s a whole new journey you’re on with wildly different experiences you’re soaking in all by yourself. So even if you’re just surviving or are thriving, you’re successfully learning to live outside your comfort zone.
2. You meet lots and lots of new people
Interacting with people from different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities will help you get perspective about your own life, teach you interesting things you didn’t know before, increase your friend circle and make you a people person. Meeting new people is so, so enriching because it’s the best and the easiest way to broaden our horizons.
3. It makes you a lot more independent
Whether you’ve travelled solo before or not, it’s going to feel a little odd every time simply because you’re travelling to a new place. So when you’re dealing with these little oddities of a new place all by yourself, you naturally learn to get things done without much help from anyone. So whether it’s figuring out a mishap with your hotel booking or getting lost in the city or just exploring unknown territory and enjoying it to the fullest sans anyone instils a sense of independence in you.
4. It teaches you to enjoy your own company
So from the 23 years and 6 months of life that I have lived, there’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that we’re actually always bored but we don’t realise it because we’re constantly doing something or the other to drive away the boredom. So that could be us doing our daily chores, attending school/college or work. But these are a part of everyone’s routine so it doesn’t feel odd to do it alone. But then when you think about going out for a dinner date just by yourself, the thought feels unsettling or weird, especially if you’ve never done it before. That’s because you don’t realise that not always you need someone to do these things with, that you are your first friend and can be a great one at that. Going on a solo trip will push you to explore this very side of you and have you fall in love with yourself and your own company.
5. Helps you discover yourself
Spending so much time with yourself in an unknown territory is bound to be thought-provoking, no? All your thoughts are directed towards various aspects of you and your life. From surviving to enjoying to exploring your likes and dislikes to figuring out the kind of person you are, travelling solo can really give you a great perspective about yourself. The self-reflection that happens during this time is truly a blessing!
6. Makes you better at problem-solving
Doesn’t it? You’re alone so who do you have other than yourself to solve problems? It doesn’t even have to be problems, just figuring out things like tickets, commute, food, stay, things that would otherwise be taken care of by someone else or if it were a shared responsibility, would all be taken care of by you. Truly a great learning curve for problem-solving!
7. Better financial understanding
Listen, whether you’re going on that trip by paying for it yourself or with your family’s help, while on it, you’re fully aware of your finances because you have to be. You will have a tab of your expenses, which will give you a good understanding of how and where to save and where to spend and yada yada. It’s pretty much also what you have to do in life as an adult so you’re basically learning a life skill.
8. Inculcates a sense of power and leadership
Since you’re solo, you just have no choice but to take the driver’s seat with regard to all the decisions. And since you’re the one figuring out everything and making decisions, it automatically makes you feel empowered—a necessary quality for great leadership and management skills.
9. You get the chance to tailor your trip however you want
For those that like their decisions to be made by themselves, this reason is almost like a dream come true. But for those that absolutely suck at making decisions, even just for themselves, or navigate through various situations in life by themselves, planning a solo trip is the best, best, best way to learn this.
10. Rejuvenates you inside-out
Lastly, because you spend so much time exploring, self-reflecting and most importantly, away from the people in your life, it serves as a break to decompress. You learn and unlearn things. You discover yourself. You come back a changed person, thanks to all the new experiences. And this truly rejuvenates and nourishes your soul!
While the best thing you’ll do for yourself and everyone around you at the moment is stay at home owing to the pandemic, do plan a trip by yourself in the future when things are much safer. It’ll be an experience of a lifetime! And if you’re someone who has already done it before, drop your thoughts and reviews in the comments below.
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