Are You Using Travel to Escape Your Problems? How Faith, Travel, and Reflection Bring Real Healing//193

You can feel it building for weeks: the pressure in your chest, the restlessness, the thought that if you could just get away everything would finally make sense. We’re talking about that temptation to use travel as an escape and the sobering truth that your deeper struggles don’t stay behind when the trip ends.

I share a personal story from a June road trip and what I’ve been wrestling with around my living situation after years of nomad life. I’ve been longing to settle down, put down roots, and stop “flitting around,” and I realized how easy it is to call constant motion a lifestyle when it’s sometimes a way to avoid what hurts. Through prayer and daily guidance, I found clarity about what to do next and, more importantly, a sense of peace even before anything changed on the outside.

We also explore the healthier side of travel: how intentional travel can give women the space to heal from trauma, reset mentally, and see a problem for what it really is. When you step out of the day-to-day noise with purpose, you can come home renewed, able to face your real life with a fresher mind and stronger direction.

If you’re in a messy middle season and you know you need a break without running away, this conversation is for you. Listen, share it with a friend who keeps saying “I just need to leave,” and subscribe and leave a review so more sister travelers can find intentional, healing travel.

Transcript

When Travel Feels Like An Escape

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, sister travelers. Are you struggling with where you are in your life right now? Maybe you don't like your job or you don't like where you're living or you're having some conflict in some relationships, and you feel like if you could just get away, you could escape it all. Well, I've often thought that mostly in my twenties, but sometimes before my divorce, I felt the same way. I just wanted to use travel to escape my problems. But I realized that those problems are always there when you get back. And it was really brought to my attention because I hadn't really thought about that whole idea recently as to besides trying to escape the problems, why I would use travel in that way. But

Nomad Life And Wanting Roots

SPEAKER_00 0:55

on my recent road trip in June, I had really been praying about a current situation that I'm struggling with. And it's my living situation. It's not dire, but I've been a nomad really since uh right before my divorce. And I've noticed lately that I am really desiring to settle down, have my own place, you know, get settled, set roots instead of flitting around from place to place, living as a nomad. Um, often, though, doing house sitting and dog sitting to, you know, fill the gaps of places to live. And that served its time. I'm actually not doing that anymore, and really looking forward to a place of my own. But during that time, too, you know, just that moving around and traveling, it was a way to sort of um almost fulfill sort of that idea of my head that, oh, I'm a nomad, and uh that's why I move around so much. But it was also a little deeper. So as I was praying

Travel As Space For Healing

SPEAKER_00 2:11

about my current living situation and really wanting a place in June, you know, God spoke to me every day on that trip. But one of the things he did say to me was that I would be staying in Dallas. I was okay with that, but prior to that, I was trying to figure out my life in that, you know, oh well, if I move here, uh things will be better this way, or if I move here financially, I'll be better off, or if I do this, maybe I'll get a job doing that. And I was trying to figure out my own life and not really waiting and asking God to lead me in that. And he told me I was going to stay in Dallas. But he also reminded me again, as I mentioned in the intro, that even though I'm wanting to go, you know, go away, go on these trips, that or change my life by thinking if I move, it's gonna change, the deeper problems are still gonna be there, no matter where I move to, and no matter where I go. And that even if you go somewhere for a short time, like a trip, and you come back, those problems or things that you didn't like about your situation are still gonna be there. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that travel from personal experience, and I've seen it in myself and in others, that when you are in a season, uh maybe it's some healing or trauma that needs to be done, or you just do need that break mentally, travel can present a great opportunity for space for that, where you are not distracted by your day-to-day, you are pulled out of your situation, so you have a fresher outlook. And often when you intentionally go on a trip where you spend that time in that quiet, a little more purposeful for whether it's mental, spiritual, or even physical healing, then when you come back, then you have a mindset shift. You see things differently, you have an appreciation, or you really see things for what they are, and can really maybe even dive deeper into what is really the root issue. And I think that was why I was always flitting off, especially in my twenties, from place to place, because I wasn't happy with myself or with my life at that time. So I was using travel to escape. And I like to look at travel, especially now, with more purpose and intention, taking that time to not just escape the problems, but maybe even spend the time understanding the problem. So that when you do return and you've had that time and space to reflect and think about that while you were away, that maybe when you come back, things can be different, things can change. And that was something that was brought

Coming Home With Peace And Clarity

SPEAKER_00 5:27

up. A lot of people always ask me when I get back from a trip, oh, when's your next trip? When are you going? What are you planning? And this time when I came back, I think because I was very intentional about my June trip of wanting to hear from God every day, and he did, he showed up. I think when I came back, I felt such a peace that I wasn't looking to immediately book a trip. Credit, I love travel, and I would travel in a heartbeat, especially if someone else was paying for it. But when I came back, I knew there was a more of a piece about my situation, even though it hasn't changed. I have a better understanding of it and just asking still for guidance for it, of course. But I had a peace, so I wasn't rushing off or looking to get away or escape from what is happening here in my life. So I don't want you to look at travel as a way to escape your problems, because we know that only temporarily helps, but you could look at travel as a way to sort of navigate and understand maybe the deeper roots of your of what's going on, your problem or your struggles that you're having, or to see it for what it really is, and then come back with a fresh mind and even feel refreshed in general about the time away, and maybe even be able to approach that situation or problem because you've been rejuvenated and renewed during your time

Make Trips Intentional And Reach Out

SPEAKER_00 7:14

away. One thing I do help women do is I help them make sure that their trips are intentional, depending on where you are in your season. And I would love to help you if this is where you are, and you just feel like you need to get away, but you also know that there's some deeper work that might need to be done as well that can be accomplished in little bite sizes, I would say, while you're traveling, um, to make you come back in a fresher way. Email or reach out to me if this is something you want to do to better your life and to move forward from maybe these messy middle sticky situations that you might find yourself in right now. And until next time, uh sister travelers, let's go on those adventures.