Travelling Light

Travelling light is something you learn when you begin to travel often.

I remember one of my first holidays as a young student with horror: I left home in early July and I was planning to come back around mid September, I was going to the island of Elba, and Puglia in Italy, travelling by ferry and train. I had no clue how to pack efficiently and my only consideration was that as I was away for more then two months I needed everything: clothes for the day, my swimming equipment, something glittery for the evenings and nights out, a pair of sandals, my favourite trainers, the hair dryer, scarves, bathrobe, the essential denim jacket, my special shampoo and conditioner and then books, many books, because I could read a book a day when I was on vacation!

The final result of the accumulation was a huge suitcase with wheels that weighed around 55 pounds (half of me) and a shoulder bag of around 22 pounds. I looked like a turtle with its house on its back!

But the worst thing happened off the ferry towards my first destination: the suitcase lost two wheels and the strap of the bag broke because the excessive weight. I hadn’t even started my journey and I already knew that touring Italy on my own with 77 pounds of luggage was pure madness. ... Many other tales related to that cursed luggage followed the same pattern and at a certain point I even considered of abandoning it in a train station... 

The weight crushes you, drains your energy, makes you sweaty, takes your breath away, it slows you down, hampers and immobilises you. 

Yet we fill our lives with weight only to collapse exhausted on the floor, and sometimes we completely lose the desire to get up.

Everyone does it because looking like you have no weight on your shoulders is not "cool". 

So, we accumulate things to do, we keep buying things to manage, we engage in situations and commitments only because we have to. 

But the worst weight we carry constantly is psychological: fears, worries, anxieties, judgments, resentments, anger, protective barriers, limits, inefficient behaviour...

We travel through our lives with stones in our shoes, bags on our shoulders and every type of emotional burden in our mind and in our heart. Sometimes we also decide to pull the handbrake whilst continuing to move at the same time. 

Yet I swear to you, this is not the only way.

You really can learn to travel light and fully enjoy the magic of the trip.

When you don’t have luggage you are better able to enjoy the view, because you don’t have to keep an eye on your bags.

Not to mention the sense of freedom...

and how do you learn how to make your luggage lighter, but still keep the essentials?

You must learn to know your needs, your desires and your style and learn how to choose and combine accessories in a creative and personal way.

Life works in the same way.

When you know yourself and you know what you want, you're stronger and more balanced and you don’t need all the extra weight of the judgment, comparisons and opinions of others.

When you really understand the profound value of your life, you appreciate the lightness and quickly choose to forgive and let go of the bitterness and resentment. You don’t waste energy on details that prove you’re right; instead you choose to be peaceful and happy and to let it go instead...

When you know yourself and you know what you want you stop demanding it from the others and you start to keep it for yourself. 

There are a thousand ways to lighten your bags, but in order to not throw away what is useful, you need to know what really matters to you.