MIND MOVES:The joy we derive from travel has often more to do with the mindset we bring with us, writes TONY BATES
THE TRAIN carried me at high speed towards my destination. A place I had visited many times in my imagination, but never in the flesh. A city that held a fascination for me, borne of schoolbooks, novels, legends and movies.
Through blue grey morning mist, I watched as it came into view on the horizon. Scattered islands of suburbia quickly formed themselves into clusters of apartment blocks and the associated infrastructure of community life.
A highway appeared beside the tracks and fast-moving cars seemed to join us for the final stages of our grand entrance into this city. The train eventually slowed; it slipped beneath the curve of a long dark tunnel and silently came to a halt in a spacious station. I had arrived – I was in Madrid.
Every city has its own unique energy signature, its own particular buzz. You sense it most keenly in the moment of your first encounter. Your mind and body are alert to every detail and sensation that greet you as you step into its arms.
Soon it will become a familiar place and your senses will focus on known points of reference as you move through it to get from one place to the next. But at least for now your skin tingles as the novelty of everything and everyone around you engages every fibre of your attention.
Clearly the urge to experience first-hand the image we carry in our minds of some exotic location is hard-wired into humans. But why do we indulge this instinct at all? How could evolution allow us to put our lives at risk by venturing into unknown territories where we may encounter hazards for which we are unprepared? Surely it makes more sense to stay in places we know intimately, where life is predictable, and where we can feel safe.
Over the past week I have worked my way up from south Portugal to this capital city of Spain. I have sat on white sandy beaches and watched blood-red sunsets; I have explored the narrow streets of Seville; been mesmerised by the passion of flamenco dancers; visited cathedrals, bullfight museums and sat in one plaza after another soaking up the colour and the energy of local culture.
Now that I am home, I am curious to reflect on not simply what I saw, but what was happening in me that made my trip feel like it was worthwhile and restful.
We invest so much hope in specific destinations to change and lift our mood. We imagine ourselves in places of great beauty and believe in their power to lift us out of and beyond ourselves.
But, of course, this does not always happen. I was in Thailand in the most amazing point on top of a mountain, but I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t feeling in awe. Whatever it was, it frustrated me beyond belief that I couldn’t harness the inspiration that was on offer by this place.
In truth, the pleasure we derive from travel has often more to do with the mindset we bring with us than to do with any particular location we can find ourselves in.
Alain de Botton in The Art of Travelhighlights receptivity as indispensable to a good travelling mindset. He writes: "We approach new places with humility. We carry with us no rigid ideas about what is interesting. We irritate locals because we stand on traffic islands and in narrow streets and admire what they take to be strange small details. We risk getting run over because we are intrigued by the roof of a government building or an inscription on a wall . . . We are alive to the layers of history beneath the present and take notes and photographs."
Time and familiarity can constrict our perceptions and numb our senses. We may see only what we consider to be of relevance to us in any given moment. Our everyday world holds little that surprises us. Travel can help to wake from the dream-like state we call normality. It shakes up our expectations of the world and allows us to experience its wonders in a fresh way.
Travel affords us an opportunity to experience the many different and unique ways that humans have learned to live in this world. It challenges our prejudices and our preconceptions. It reveals new insights to us about who we are, as we find ourselves reacting to new surroundings in ways we had not anticipated. We may discover afresh what we have in common with a friend or loved one, but equally our responses to novel situations may reveal how different we are.
Photos are often the means through which we try to communicate to one another the richness of a holiday experience. But they cannot do any meaningful travel experience justice. The real story lies not in the fact that you were in some far-off place, but what it was that moved you when you were there.
- Tony Bates is founder director of Headstrong – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health (www.headstrong.ie)