The natural beauty and wide open spaces when you travel in South Africa effortlessly promote mindful living.
Mindfulness is a widely used process aimed at reducing stress and depression.
It involves focusing one’s attention on what is happening in the present moment, and it is developed through the practice of meditation and other activities.
Mindfulness promotes happiness by introducing a number of techniques that include awareness of how one uses the breath, and walking meditation…
Travel effortlessly frees the mind, and awakens an awareness that can be likened to mindfulness.
How travel in South Africa changes you ….
Travel in South Africa gives you a sense of inner expansion
Perhaps it’s that your inner life reflects your outer life but once you’ve experienced places like the Karoo, Kruger National Park, the Kgalagadi and Kosi Bay, there is an inner expansion that equates to the attitude evoked by mindfulness training. This expansion allows for introspection. Introspection allows for awareness to arise.
Travel makes you happy
Travel is one of the easiest ways to feel genuine, lightheartedness. It’s why travel is so popular. You literally leave your troubles at home. As do you leave behind the countless valuables and ‘things’ you own – all of which contribute to a feeling of overwhelm and imbalance.
Best of all, travel allows you to stay in the now, the present, which leads directly to happiness and high spirits.
Travel in South Africa gives you perspective
How often have you not made major life decisions whilst travelling? When your problems are elsewhere, and your attention is placed outside of yourself (you’re no longer living solely inside your head) then you’re able to take an objective look at life. Very often, it doesn’t bear close scrutiny and you find yourself planning changes.
In a country like South Africa, where so many thousands of people have less than they should, perspective is part of the landscape.
Travel gives your life meaning
With perspective comes new meaning. You realise that there is more to life than you thought. Effortless sunsets, wide skies and open plains promote a sense of well-being.
Travel helps you strike that delicate balance
The less frenetic pace of travel allow you to feel less burdened. You become more flexible and able to take a look at your way of life from a distance.
It is at these times that one often introduces new and other ways of doing things in a bid to redress the imbalance in so many of our lives.
You notice the small things
Not all of South Africa’s nature reserves are home to the Big Five. There’s a reason for this.
With sensory overload (usually the state in which most visitors arrive) it is not easy to see what is in front of you. The smaller things – little animals, birds, bees, flowers and plants you might not give the time of day to – are more accessible in these parks. Giving your attention in this way to what is before you allows you to notice colour, sound and texture.
Travel allows you to challenge your preconceptions
When in a different environment you are no longer influenced by the thoughts of others and the wider mass culture that usually defines who you are and how you do things.
