Last 2 months have been very hectic for me in office and for last few weeks, I have been thinking of planning a vacation. Surprising I am not able to decide what kind of vacation I want and I have been debating about it in my mind. Today morning I got one definition about my vacation - I want to do a trip to a city/region/state which gives me meditative travel experience. Now don't jump on to the keywords used before I explain it well. I was thinking, even if I need to plan a solo trip (which I don't like), what kind of place can offer me best opportunities to just walk around without much hassle and I experience happiness around me, not lot of things which can bring thoughts to worry about the situations/place etc.
So essentially I would want to go to a place which brings in positive energy in me and keeps me away from any kind of worry. Is it too ideal thing to ask for? And I don't want an answer like an isolated place because it's hard for humans to create such space. I certainly want to be about people as well as nature but somehow I have been to mountains so many times that I certainly don't want to think of those options.
This thought made me think about finding such places and also sharing with viewers of this blog. With increasing stress in lives, all of us deserve vacations which are meditating (trying to not use words like relaxing, because the word meditating increases your expectations from the vacation you have to plan). In process of figuring out such places, I thought of figuring out criterion which can give me a better framework to conclude these places. Some of the obvious things come to me -
- Honest & happy society around that place is important.
- Place should either be not touristy or tourist friendly.
- Place encourages me to do things which bring me to meditative state. (E.g.- exceptional photography opportunities)
- Place should have less distraction factors.
- E.g. - if the place is too expensive, I may end up some of the mental bandwidth in thinking and optimising on that. At the same time, I need to be aware that I need to let go some aspect without thinking too much.
- Some of the places are very popular for some key things to do and if you are there, you feel like you are missing something even when that's not something which you enjoy doing. E.g. Las Vegas - when you are there, you find it wasteful if you don't put money of gambling or watch some popular shows or go to strip club etc. While you may not enjoy any of these things. Unfortunately peer pressure and so much about top things to do at a place and social media posts are making people do things which may not be best liked things by those individuals.
- Place should be such that I would not need to think too much if I have to do changes plans on the go.
- Comfortable weather brings lot of joy when you are walking & exploring the place.
- What else? Let's collectively think about it and make it a useful attempt for larger good.
Looking at these factors, I started thinking about different states of India and which of the states can match above criterion and then think deeply about specific location/place. I will take a pause here and seek inputs. We will accordingly resume with next exercise soon.
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