Do you have a passport?

If so, you are in the minority. According to Chris Erskine of the Los Angeles Times, a mere 35 percent of Americans can legally travel to another country.

This year perhaps the most inspired thing you can do is give yourself permission to get a passport. If you already have one, then use it! From there, the art of adventure begins as you commit to starting a new adventure.

I was born in Ecuador and was raised traveling around the world. One could say that I am a lifelong adventure junkie. My life experiences taught me that travel is a vital form of yoga. If, as Shri Krishna Pattabhi Jois writes,“Yoga is 99% practice, 1% theory,” then we must do more than simply visualize our connection to the world. We need to actually experience and visit new places. Spending time with people outside our immediate circle becomes another way to live our Namaste.

Travel expands perspective and inspires enthusiasm. You return home different.

“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences…” 

~ Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

Travel itself is an adventure because we typically face more unknown factors when we travel than in our normal daily lives. It is this ability to take a leap into the unknown with mindfulness and grace that we bring back home with us. The ability to think big about who you are, how you live and what you can do in the world, whether it’s climbing volcanoes in South America, living in the rainforest in Hawaii, learning to surf in Puerto Vallarta or trying new foods in a nearby city. Ask yourself, when was the last time you tried something new?  Have you been putting off taking an adventure?

Do you know how many countries there are in the world?

I have been fortunate to be globally aware because my parents felt that travel was an important part of my formal education. They, like Euripedes, believed, “Experience, travel—these are an education in themselves.”

To celebrate my first birthday, we flew across the ocean and visited three countries. I celebrated my fifth birthday in Italy spending time in Spain and France, so by the age of five years old I had been to six countries. By the age of 10, I was up to 10 and the number has since grown to more than 20. My intention is to visit at least 100 countries in my lifetime, and to honor my world citizenship by owning three passports: American, Italian and Ecuadorian.

While this may not be your path, I encourage you to get curious and see more of the world.

As Frank Borman writes, “Exploration is the essence of the human spirit.”

Your spiritual adventure begins now.

Here are a few reasons why we should travel.

 Top 10 Reasons Why Travel Is Important:

1. Provides learning and education.
2. Connects us to other cultures and people.
3. Slows us down; gives us a break from our fast-paced lives.
4. Expands our awareness and introduces us to greater diversity.
5. Helps us break habits: mentally, physically and emotionally.
6. Gives us time to heal, reduces stress and helps us regain enthusiasm for life.
7. Awakens the inner child by offering us new, “first-time” experiences.
8. Promotes patience by releasing heavy expectations and allowing life to flow more organically.
9. Invites the opportunity to get lost and face one’s fears of the unknown.
10. Helps you get to know yourself better; the true you is rediscovered.

Travel is important because it fundamentally transforms us. Today, update your bucket list. Go somewhere new, try something adventurous in 2012 and become united with the world through travel.

Love yourself. Love your day. Love your life.

~

Editor: Cassandra Smith / Brianna Bemel

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Enthusiasm to love your life is contagious around Silvia Mordini.  Her expert passion connects people to their own joyful potential.  Silvia lives her happiness in such a big way that you can’t help but leave her classes, workshops, trainings and retreats spiritually uplifted! She is a long-time love anthropologist who enjoys meeting interesting people, spiritual seekers, soul surfers and most anyone who makes her laugh. With over 9,000 hours of yoga teaching experience she has been practicing yoga since being run over by a car and using it to recover physically and emotionally. You can connect with her on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1164596386) or Twitter (@alchemytours) or get inspired virtually at www.alchemytours.com or www.silviamordini.com.