You will only have one goal: to make yourself happy
When we think of a solo trip, we seldom imagine the protagonist as a a father or mother with small children. However, as the journalist Nina Kokotas admitted in ** Condé Nast Traveler USA **, sometimes an adventure of these characteristics is configured as the only possible way out for not go crazy.
"I needed perspective. I needed air. So when the opportunity to travel alone to the **Galapagos Islands** presented itself, I discussed it with my husband, prepared a good family support to help him, and embarked on the adventure like there was no tomorrow," the author explains.
Your trip, like the one in Kokotas, will be full of revealing moments
Once at her destination, contemplating the landscape from the top of a mountain, Kokotas had a clairvoyant moment : "Tears were running down my cheeks. I couldn't remember the last time I had sense so present ", she remembers.
"Yes, ** traveling alone pushes you ** ", continues the journalist. "She wakes you up, opens your eyes and shows you what you're not seeing. But it also causes a moment of self care tremendous. For a working mother and wife, that is something that can change your life. Much of what we do every day is underlined by responsibility, discipline and control (how else could we do it all in one day?). But imagine for a moment being away from it all, guilt free and taking care of only yourself. Imagine the reboot and the wellness What can come out of it?"
HOW TO FACE THE FIRST SOLO TRIP?
To answer this question, we contacted the psychologist jara perez . "It seems to me healthy that a father or a mother show sufficient awareness of the care need that we all have to reserve a few days and be able to make a trip alone or with friends, but without family ", she explains to us.
"I think there is something very interesting there, which is having enough confidence in the other member of the couple or in the people to whom you have decided to leave your children in the care. This is wonderful, to know that they are going to be well taken care of and that they are going to be fully capable of spend a few days without you ".
They do it, why don't you?
Olga Grymierski, owner of the Japanese restaurant Okami, she decided last year to do the same as Kokotas, inspired by ** the sabbatical months that Japanese women take ** between university and the beginning of working life. "Mine was above all admiration for that, since here it is very rare for someone to travel alone, **especially if she is a woman.** she Supposed she, above all, a challenge ", she tells us.
"At first, even I had a hard time making that decision, and telling my family was something I I didn't even know how to pose. What's more, I considered the possibility of ** traveling with my daughter, my sister or my best friend, ** but, I don't know, something told me that there is only one life and that if ** other women in the world did it, ** Why not me? At least once in a lifetime..."
Once you decide to go on this kind of journey, the biggest fear you face probably has to do with How will his family take it? even with how it should communicate it. Will they feel left out? Do they think I don't have a good time with them?...
However, Pérez plays down the issue: "I think explaining naturally that, In addition to parents, we are people and we have needs that do not necessarily have to do with the family, it is enough. If children understand that in family love these concessions are natural and necessary They don't have to feel hurt.
"In addition to parents, we are people"
On the contrary, if it is considered as a great feat laden with guilt, will perceive that something is wrong, and that if the parents feel guilty it's because they're not doing things right. So naturalness above all, that it's just a trip she ponders.
THE CASE OF OLGA: A RETURN TO THE ORIGINS
The restorer obtained the support of her people, who took the idea "quite well". However, both her four children and her husband wondered if in the end would have the courage to do it , which further outlined the concept of "challenge" that she perceived in her journey, which, moreover, was a very special return to origins.
"I chose Lithuania because it is the land where my father was born, who I didn't have much opportunity to meet, already divorced my mother when I was five years old", explains Olga, who remembers that, at that time, in 1918 -a century ago-, Lithuania was Polish , just like her last name.
"My father's story was always for me a great unknown. My mother, despite having lived with him for more than 20 years and having had four of his children, hardly knew her, since she was a man very reserved. I knew there was participated in the war , after the Russian army separated him from his family to enlist him in the army and he never saw his mother again. That must have meant a great trauma that he could never overcome… "recalls the traveler.
Olga documented herself to further immerse herself in her destiny
"Discovering my origins and walking the streets where my grandparents - whom I never knew - had walked, was a destiny for me, almost a mission ". Therefore, just as Elijah Wood's character did in ** Everything is illuminated **, Olga undertook an investigative task once there.
"It was the first time that she traveled alone. As soon as she arrived in Vilnius, the capital, I suffered a very powerful feeling. Being alone did not help me much at the time, but believe me when I tell you that it has been THE JOURNEY OF MY LIFE" , she emphasizes.
"I had the opportunity to get to know my land, incredible people and places, to live something amazing and unrepeatable. It was a week full of emotions; I even had the opportunity to Ballooning, because Vilnius is the only place in Europe where you can travel in a balloon in the middle of the city, besides being really beautiful. Meet friends that I still have and feel like I was part of the place it made everything even more magical and unforgettable," explains the traveler.
After such a positive experience, this businesswoman is clear: she will repeat. "Probably this August, to Croatia ", she nuances her." It is something that fills both and makes you feel so free and off the beaten path that, when you get home, you feel special and eager. recharge your batteries to continue with the day-to-day routine, especially if you are a mother and a worker".
"Lacan said: ' Love is giving what you don't have ", Pérez recalls. "By this he refers to offering the other everything that one has and everything that we cannot give, miss, because that also constitutes us as complete people. Behaving as people, as well as as parents, allowing ourselves to be absent for a few days to rest and enjoy solitude , it would be to accept that lack that is also important that we offer", concludes the psychologist.
an unrepeatable journey