What is “intentional travel”?

So what the heck is all this blather about intentional travel?

It can be said that all of life is a magical journey, an exploration of our outer and inner worlds. You don’t need to travel to the ends of the earth to be on a trip. A walk to the corner store, done with conscious awareness, is no different than a voyage to the high Himalayas. A specific attitude, a particular way of looking at the world, when connected to certain techniques of obtaining this perspective, makes everything in the world new and magical again.

Today people are traveling in ways never dreamed about. Why, there’s adventure travel, spiritual travel, green travel, eco-travel... the list goes on. The thrill seeker craves constant adventure, the pilgrim a place of spirit. The intentional traveler, however, explores the world with a different outlook, not necessarily finding any particular place but arriving at a certain state of mind.

We are all ambassadors for our own cultures and our own selves. Intentional travelers consciously wander the world with the goal of meeting other people and trying to leave the world a better place than they found it. In the end, the journey is to find our highest self. Traveling with mindful awareness, the intentional traveler often sees in others something of him or herself. Who to meet? How to open a dialogue? Who and why to help? How to do it? Where? When? Why?

Intentionality describes both a mindset and a set of practices. According to philosophers, intentionality has five components: An action is considered intentional if the agent has (a) a desire for an outcome, (b) a belief that the action will lead to the outcome, (c) an intention to perform the action, (d) the skill to perform the action, and (e) awareness while performing the action.

The goal of the intentional traveler is to acquire techniques leading to conscious awareness during life’s journey, and to share them with other travelers. Wisdom, it is said, is merely accumulated knowledge passed on to others through generosity of spirit and kindness of heart. To obtain it, we must learn to look upon the world with eyes open, to become aware of the magic and poetry of existence. In order to see the plains, first we must lift our heads high to the hills.

According to ancient fable, the stages we pass through in life are orphan, innocent, warrior, wanderer and the magician. Only through wandering through our world with awareness of its potential for magic can we achieve our ultimate goal. Only by sharing our accumulated knowledge with others can we build an intentional community of people with a planetary perspective and in the end truly arrive at the global village, that home and hearth to which our hearts aspire.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. - Henry David Thoreau

Kindness is my religion. - The 14th Dalai Lama

Be here now. - Baba Ram Dass

Be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

I tot I taw a poody tat. - Tweety Bird