Here’s a secret: Pay attention to your conversations after you return home from traveling. Listen for the insights and observations you exhale as naturally as your breath—the stories that are so much a part of you that you barely notice. This is where you will find the lessons of your trip.
Do you complain incessantly about the lack of WiFi at the remote Patagonian lodge where you stayed?
Perhaps you tell everyone how much you enjoyed the experience of eating in Italy—the outdoor cafes, the leisurely pace of meals, shopping for fresh produce in the markets?
Are you unable to stop talking about the 10-day silent retreat you’re just back from?
Hidden in each story is a nugget of self-awareness.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Do you fall in love with the places you visit? Do dream of starting a new life abroad? Then you may—or may not—want to check out my latest article for Yahoo Travel, Never-Ending Vacation: 8 Great Places to Become an Expat, an insider's list of vacation spots that are most likely to inspire you to throw caution out the window, settle in, and never look back.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
I’m going to be honest with you: I would have never guessed that at the age of fifty I’d be a nomad.
Here’s the thing: I’m a homebody at heart and up until a few years ago I viewed the contentment of home and the thrill of exploration as mutually exclusive destinations.
Then my husband, Hank, and I set off on a multi-year journey with a vague plan of temporarily inhabiting Latin America and the adventure opened my eyes and heart to new truths about myself and the world around me.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Whether I’m traveling or running errands, I carry a leather Moleskine journal for jotting down notes, dialogue and observations. It’s a journalist’s habit that hasn’t yet yielded to my otherwise digital lifestyle.
But there’s an art to keeping the type of journal that can provide a transformative lens through which you can learn to see yourself with greater awareness.
I recently teamed with career and life design consultant Kendall Dudley to teach a storytelling workshop and when he told me he was leading a 12-day Morocco Journaling & Life Design Adventure (October 8-19, 2014), I was immediately intrigued and eager to share.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Tell people you’re headed to Namibia and they’ll likely have little idea where that is. As one of Africa’s youngest countries boasting the oldest desert in the world, this vast and wild republic on the south-west coast of Africa isn’t on most tourist maps—yet.
But with wildlife galore, adventure sports, ancient culture, stunning landscapes, very few people and environmental protection built into its constitution, Namibia is one of those places that intrepid travelers fall in love with and often never leave. I visited Namibia in 2013 and definitely found myself thinking, “I Could Live Here”.
Ready to go? From self-drive and family safaris to active adventure, photographic tours and bespoke luxury, here are 5 Unforgettable Namibia Adventures to help you GO NOW.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Do you wish you could bring your yoga instructor on vacation? Have you vowed to continue your practice when you travel only to find that you don’t? Then check out this new Kenya Yoga Safari with my friend Whitney Bushnell, a private yoga instructor and travel professional.
This spring (May 16 - 24, 2014) Africa safari specialists Extraordinary Journeys and Whitney have teamed up in Kenya to offer a unique safari experience featuring exciting wildlife, bespoke luxury, breathtaking landscapes, authentic cultural engagement and exclusive yoga instruction.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".