Making Travel and Personal Growth Your 2017 New Year’s Resolution

 

New Year’s resolutions are one tradition that has never gotten old. While visions of dropping twenty pounds or finally quitting smoking have always made the top ten in the past, these days millennials are more moved to become better, healthier and more worldly people, and what that looks like is different for everyone. “Swirled Peas” was once only a humorous way to joke about something unobtainable, but in this conflictive day and age, world peace is really forefront on the minds of every human and every spiritual leader points to the fact that it starts with you.

 

Travel for meditation is a commitment that “trying” to meditate more at home will never bring you. The rat race of life has given most little time or energy left to sit quietly and look within. That is why traveling to a meditation retreat or spiritual place forces one to slow down and connect with whatever higher power you believe in. The Middle Way Meditation Retreat in Thailand is one of the top ten retreats in the world as it combines amazing scenery with ancient spiritual practices. You can also travel to the Himalayas in India to the Ananda, known for its mix of Ayurveda, Yoga, Spa and Vedanta to calm the soul and activate the inner mind. From Greece to Mexico to the lush islands in the Bahamas, there s a spiritual retreat for everyone.

 

Learning a new language can open your mind and free you from the restrictions of a single culture and language. It not only exercises your tired old brain, it also inspires you to travel to the people who make that language native. From old timer Danny Glover’s commitment to learn French to new age e-sports and poker champion ElkY’s New Year’s resolution to learn Japanese, language is the unifying thread that brings people together. The more languages you learn, the more connected you become on a grand scale to the rest of the world. What better way to commit to “We are all one” than to greet the people of the world in their own language wherever you go?

 

Finding a workshop to open your soul can help you eliminate your demons of the past and create a you that is ready for communication and relationship with yourself and the world. Weekend retreat-style workshops like The Bonding Weekend in California can help you move through what stops you in life and create the relationships and confidence you desire. Go international and embrace the lifelong teachings of Gregg Braden in Costa Rica or follow Eckhart Tolle through Australia and embrace The Power of Now. Participating in a workshop far away from home is a commitment to better yourself through learning a practice.

Volunteering to help strangers in a strange land may seem like something beyond your ability to do. However, while we all like to believe we will help at the local shelter or volunteer at the next Special Olympic event in our town, keeping it local also always allows you the excuse to “do it next time.” Go abroad for your vacation this year and commit to help build homes of those who lost them in Hurricane Otto in Costa Rica and Panama. Be brave and travel to the Middle East to help create clean water sources for those in need. Join the Institute of International Education to travel to foreign countries and help build institutions of higher learning to educate the people of the world. Be part of the change you want to see in the world and help at a higher level.

 

Whatever your New Year’s Resolution is, open yourself up to the possibility of making the world a better place, simply by participating in creating a higher better self in 2017!

 

 

*This post was contributed by Poker Stars.