First, I planned a trip to Colombia. Then, a dear friend set her wedding date in California. A few days later, my dad broke his hip in Texas. I live in Florida, so now, I have three big trips planned in the next 2½ months.
Here are three questions I plan to take with me in my hip pocket to help me use my energy wisely, make the best decisions I can, and travel with purpose this summer.
What’s Meaningful Now?
Meaningful experiences can be elusive. It’s no wonder we want to travel on big adventures to far away places! Maybe we’ll get some meaningful luminosity into our veins that we can bring home to light our world.
All the meaning we experience in life, we create ourselves, out of our own minds. The world itself remains inherently neutral. That’s why “What’s meaningful now?” is such an important question!
My first meditation teacher, Sarah Powers, taught “What’s meaningful now?” as a way of staying with the heart and taking responsibility for ourselves.
The question calls up present moment guidance for making decisions and prevents us from sleepwalking through life. It taps us into creativity and frees us from ideas about what we should do or be. It helps us take advantage of opportunities and prevents regret.
This summer, ask, “What’s meaningful now?” and follow the thread.
What’s Really Going On?
Life can be dramatic, emotional, confusing.
“What’s really going on?” takes us below the surface with curiosity about what we’re not seeing. It asks us to stretch beyond our assumptions, into wider realizations about the world and deeper understandings of ourselves.
“What’s really going on?” teaches us to reflect things as they are. It illuminates causes and context, so everything stands in its true shape, free from the light our preferences may cast.
I regularly use “What’s really going on?” for insight into anger. It always uncovers a more vulnerable feeling underneath, like fear, hurt, fatigue, or embarrassment. Then, I can honor that feeling instead of being driven around by my anger.
If your travels take you into situations, places, or cultures that are new to you, this question will help you get out of your head, pay attention, and engage more deeply.
You will be tempted by this question to analyze or tell a story about what’s happening. Don’t try to figure anything out! Feel into your body, and make more subtle observations. Maintain kindness.
How can I help?
If we’re not careful, a big vacation, a travel adventure, or an international retreat can end up being all about me, me, me! “How can I help?” provides an antidote to becoming self-absorbed and spurs us to connect with others.
When you’re traveling, “How can I help?” defers authority to local wisdom and makes you a good guest. Asked with humility, this question can pierce through awkward circumstances of inequality and shift you into listening and respect.
This question also makes us aware of our gifts and our agency. It points us to what we can do in this world of overwhelm.
“How can I help?” is an evolutionary question that leapfrogs ego’s desires and complaints to reconnect us with generosity and abundance. An attitude of “How can I help?” makes the world safer for everyone to explore, take risks, and grow.
Are you picturing yourself planting trees or feeding the homeless? Great! Also know that helping can look like taking a step back and giving space to others. It can look like patience. Or a smile.
Practice these questions. Put them in your pocket this summer, and take them with you… to the beach, as you step off the plane, while sipping your morning tea, to plan your next adventure.
Let the questions be touchstones – a way to take refuge in wisdom. Some days, they’ll reveal great insights. Other days, you’ll get silence in return. That’s ok! “I don’t know,” is always a valid response! Let yourself experience “don’t know” mind. Become better acquainted with uncertainty.
Notice how the ritual of being with these questions develops. Keep them with you until they’ve served their purpose, then let them go, and begin your next practice on life’s journey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Delana Thompson helps spiritually-inclined entrepreneurs express their hearts and expand their influence with authentic copywriting, project management,
and professional delivery of their online content. Her clients include teachers and practitioners of meditation, yoga, ayurveda, shamanic healing, astrology, and fine art. When she’s not writing marketing emails or designing landing pages, you’ll find Delana salsa dancing, practicing meditation, planning a trip, listening to a podcast, speaking Spanish, or missing all her faraway friends. Visit Delana on LinkedIn to learn more about her business.
February 2019 had many astrologically auspicious dates to dip in the holy river Ganges. In fact millions of people from different spiritual paths joined together for Ardh Kumbh Mela a great display of collective consciousness to bathe in the sacred river. Maa Ganga is the essence of ancient wisdom and she offers more than just a glimpse beyond theory and plunges us into pure awareness. Some friends back home said, oh no it’s so dirty and maybe there are bodies in it, but to the faithful, the Ganges is a wellspring of life energy. The epitome of mind over matter.
The art of living yoga did not come from more hours of study or time on the yoga mat, it was the interaction with others that guided me to experience true living yoga. Yoga is a noun and a verb. The practice of Yoga is doing what it takes for your particular nervous system and nature, to remember and live knowing that you are pure consciousness, pure awareness, Divine light; connected to all beings everywhere always. Yoga is a way of being, a way of living. 
The way things work in India is beyond comprehension. The magic of connection presents itself in ways you could never imagine yet it does indeed present itself because it is always already here, waiting for us to take off our blinders, filters and preconceived notions. Physical eyes may be WIDE open taking in all the mind-blowing sights, yet until the layers of our learned behaviors drop away and our heart softens, one sweet Indian smile after another, it is then that the soul connection is revealed. It is then that we can relax into the flow of life to which we are intimately connected. 
follow your heart. The 8 Limbs of Yoga give us an outline as to how to live in alignment and with cosmic consciousness and Ayurveda provides the science of balancing universal elements. 
At the PDI Ayurveda Health Center near Rishikesh, my new home away from home, I was welcomed as student, patient, family, friend and colleague. Eating three garden fresh, warm cooked meals at the same time every day along with continued Ayurveda studies first with a group from Argentina and then a second group from Holland allowed me to see the mirror of life while sharing my love of yoga through teaching daily asana sessions saturated with dharma talks. Here I discovered what life can feel like, how it’s possible to live in rhythm with nature, connected to our bodies and the land. I got to experience being in union with cosmic consciousness. 
There is no word for privacy in any Indian language. In India, unlike in America, there is no notion of boundaries. Noise and horns assault our overloaded ears and dogs and cows line the streets disarming us, uplifting us, making our ordered lives seem absurd. Yet for this small town farm girl, I found a peaceful community with a garden and a discovered a new way to love. It is an honor to be part of this human family and my aim is to be a positive ripple of this connection as I travel out into the world. 
Throughout the ebbs and flows of days, months, and years, I recall the little joyous moments I had while out exploring and feel renewed. In this renewal, I try to share that joy with others. Sometimes it is in sharing the funny little joke a hostess at a sheep farm told me, and other times it is opening my home and kitchen to fellow travelers as others have done for me.
waterfalls; zip lining through the rainforest; climbing barefoot in the mountains of Peru… adventure is my True Nature and it’s something I’ve pursued with eagerness and joy since I was a young girl.
My two weeks in India appear fairly tame at first glance. I spent a lot of time visiting different retreat centers and exploring potential partners for True Nature Travels. My excursions consisted of trips to ashrams and gorging myself on naan and mango; hardly the type of activities that lead to an adrenaline rush. And yet, if there’s one thing I have learned from a life of travel, it’s that adventure is often found where you least expect it.
Christians, and Hindus alike have dominated the Indian religious scene at one point or another and it has caused a spiritual playing field to be born in India that pulses with the energy left behind by thousands of mystics and gurus. For those who are open to it, India is a country ripe with transformative power.
Sarah Dittmore, the Director of Operations at 
My class schedule was dictated by the pressure of college applications. Which after-school clubs I joined was slave to the limited ability of my parents to be everywhere at once. The Saturday cartoons I watched were up to my older siblings, who easily wrestled the remote from me week after week. Even the clothing I wore and the slang I used was due to the friends I hung out with.
When traveling solo, you are forced to rely on yourself. You are forced to make your own decisions and, surrounded by unfamiliar places, people, and languages, the only thing you can count on is your ability to figure out where you need to be, what you need to do, and how to make it happen.
Christine Noonan prides herself on sharing yoga practices for real life with her students. She believes that yoga has something to offer everybody. Understanding that people come to yoga for different reasons, Christine wants to be there to support each person on their unique journey. With a background in massage therapy and an in-depth knowledge of anatomy, she focuses on guiding students to get the most out of every pose through clear language and an emphasis on alignment. Through the use of creative sequencing and theming, students are offered an opportunity to calm, connect to, and revitalize the body, mind, and