A search for...

People often say they travel to “find themselves” or to embark on journeys around this earth so they are faced also with a “soul journey“. People who have been used to the conditioning society has almost burdened them with, can feel that the only way to ever find out what else life has in store, is by hitting the open road. Through the physical world they need to discover as much of their own emotional or inner world, as possible.

I’ve met people who talk about their journey, about their search. I’ve spoken with people who are choosing to search for their hidden purpose in life by ignoring the typical tourist trails and heading to extreme destinations. To put yourself out into the world of the unknown, this physical world that we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch, is to challenge every belief you ever owned, every aspect in life you valued and every question you once thought you had found the concrete evidence to its truth and therefore you thought the answer was set in stone. You are faced with your biggest fears and doubts as you travel, while everyone else, who lives according to what society has led them to believe is truth, judges you, pressurizes you and has expectations from you. And this is where their soul search begins, because they are alone and facing so many different aspects in life, all brought on and stimulated by this physical and new and amazing place on earth they have chosen, all with the intention of “finding themselves”. The search goes within and they find their inner strength and their truth and even their purpose. They find a different approach to life and beliefs and values can change. One is, as they so very commonly putting it: “travelling to find themselves”.

I’ve been asking myself this question, on and off, since arriving in India: Am I also “travelling to find myself?”, Am I on journey to search for my soul?”. If I’m not searching for my soul, then what AM I searching for?

It only started to dawn on me yesterday as I sat and typed an email to a friend I met in Kerala. I didn’t really have a connection with him, but we somehow stayed in touch and our emails are suddenly taking the direction the soul-searching journey and things came to light yesterday as I typed only a few lines.

So what am I searching for? Is it my soul? Is it my inner world? But, haven’t I already found that special part of me? I realized that I don’t need the physical world, no matter how beautiful or fearful it can be, to challenge me in order for me to find my inner strength. I already know my inner strength. I’ve already been challenged to the max, when it comes to digging deep, facing fears, finding my truth and living accordingly. I was digging deep, throughout my months in Ireland. It was the lack of the physical world which made it all the more intense and it shows me now that we don’t always need a certain place on earth to support us in our search for our hidden self. It depends on the challenges you are faced with or choose to face, in life. People who choose to journey to the ends of the earth and to challenge themselves with the result of becoming more self-aware, haven’t had other challenges in life that could have presented them with the same “results” and that’s where the desire to “search for the soul in all every corner of the earth” has can come from.

... to be concluded