July 29, 2025 • 22 mins
Travel transforms us in ways we rarely anticipate. When we step outside our comfort zones, something remarkable happens – not just philosophically, but neurologically. The brain forms new pathways, rewiring itself in real-time as we navigate unfamiliar territory.
My journey with travel's healing power began unexpectedly in 1996 when I traveled to Jamaica just eight weeks after losing my mother to breast cancer. We had been extraordinarily close – best friends, creative confidants – and her two-year battle had consumed my life. Though the timing seemed questionable, this trip provided precisely what my grieving process needed most: space.
Back home, I was surrounded by familiar places and people that held countless memories of my mother. These comforts, while necessary, made it nearly impossible to process my grief fully or envision life without her. Jamaica's unfamiliar environment – driving on the opposite side of the road, witnessing different living conditions, experiencing vibrant local culture – forced my brain into new patterns. During an evening service at the dance conference where I was teaching, everything broke open. Kneeling on a hard linoleum floor thousands of miles from home, I finally released the anger and disappointment I'd been harboring. I emptied myself completely and felt a divine reassurance that joy would return to my life.
The science explains why: new experiences activate the brain's reward system, boosting dopamine – the motivation chemical depleted during depression. The Jamaican sunshine certainly helped! Additionally, navigating new challenges activated my prefrontal cortex, helping me consider future possibilities I'd previously been unable to envision. When I returned home, though grief didn't disappear, something had fundamentally shifted. I had a renewed sense of purpose and clarity about moving forward while carrying my mother's memory.
This experience shaped my understanding of travel's healing potential – something I now help others discover through intentional travel coaching. Whether you're navigating grief, transition, or seeking transformation, travel offers unique tools for healing unavailable in familiar environments. Ready to discover how travel can transform your life during challenging seasons? Visit my website and book a free consultation to begin your journey.
https://www.cherylbeckesch.com
Instagram @solotraveladventures50
Facebook community: Solo Travel for Women Over 50
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever returned from a trip and felt
different in some way butcouldn't quite put a pin on why?
Or you've noticed a friendreturning from a trip and just
noticed the huge transformationin them from their travels, and
they just talk about what theyexperienced and how it changed
(00:22):
their lives.
And maybe you have or haven'thad that experience.
But travel can do that.
It's not just about checkingoff places on your bucket list
or going to see as manycountries as you can or seeing
all those famous touristdestinations and iconic places.
(00:43):
There is more to travel thanmeets the eye, and today I'm
going to share with you apersonal experience of one of my
early, early travels that didhave a huge transformational
impact on my life.
Well, welcome to Solo TravelAdventures.
(01:03):
I'm Cheryl S, your host.
So glad you're here, and if youdidn't listen to last week, I
encourage you to listen to lastweek's episode where I talk
about travel coaching a littlebit of how that focus.
You know, taking a trip withsome intention really can make
(01:25):
your travels just moremeaningful, and so my story
begins long before I actuallyknew the power of how travel can
transform or heal you, and Ihad no intention, on this trip
specifically to do that, but itwas certainly needed.
(01:46):
So I'm taking you back to my20s and this was not a solo trip
, but it came at a veryunreasonable time.
I'll say that.
So this is 1996, and I'm in my20s and unfortunately my mother
(02:10):
passed away from breast cancerthe end of September of that
year and she had battled thatfor two years and I was very
close to her.
We were best friends.
She was sort of a mentor to me.
She was sort of my creativespark, as we were both creative
(02:31):
people.
So much love and wisdom fromthis woman.
And I also lived at home, I wasone of the last to leave the
house and I was not married, ofcourse, and so we were very
close.
We were close because we werealso similar and she knew my
(02:54):
heart, she knew my gifts and shebattled this for two years and
during that two years, althoughI thought I had grieved and I
did go through periods ofgrieving, it was not over, not
near over, and even many, manyyears later I could attest it
(03:18):
was still not over.
And if you have lost a lovedone, you've ever grieved for
someone that you are dearlyclose to, then you understand
that that pain actually nevergoes away.
It does get a little easier andless triggering.
But we love to hold on to thosebeautiful memories we have with
(03:40):
that person and even the goodand bad right, and look at
pictures and remember thatperson hopefully and usually in
a positive light, despitebecause we've lost them, despite
maybe you know the fights youmight have with that person in
the past.
But death definitely gives us anew perspective on life and how
(04:05):
we should live.
So here I am, in my 20s.
I'm at home living with myparents, and my mother had
gotten sick and even her lastfew months I actually quit my
job to sort of help take care ofher, because she was just
needing more assistance at homeand someone to just be around,
(04:27):
and of course I knew the end wasdrawing near, and she also knew
that I was given an opportunityto actually teach at a dance
conference in Jamaica.
Now I had hesitated as towhether to go or not because of
course I wanted to be there whenmy mother passed.
(04:48):
I did not want to leave herside, but she really wanted me
to go.
She knew about the opportunity,knew that it could potentially
lead to more things, things thatI really had a heart of wanting
to do with my dancing.
I really had a heart of wantingto do with my dancing and she,
even though I told her Iwouldn't go, especially if it
(05:10):
got closer to the time shereally wanted me to go.
Well, she did pass, about eightweeks before I was to leave and
leaving was a good thing Eventhough I had thought I had
grieved.
There were, as you know, thereare many levels of grieving, but
(05:33):
they don't always follow atimeline or follow in any kind
of order, and we know them asdenial, anger, bargaining,
depression and acceptance, and Ifluctuated up and down between
many of those.
I think.
Obviously, in the beginning Ihad a combination of sort of
(05:57):
this denial and rebellion at thesame time, and then at the end
it did move more into the anger.
I was angry that God had takenmy mother so soon and that she
wasn't healed, and just angrythat she wouldn't see me grow up
(06:20):
right.
She wouldn't see me married.
She wouldn't see me with mykids grow up right, she wouldn't
see me married, she wouldn'tsee me with my kids, and so
there was a definite loss of afriend as well.
And so I was still, even thoughI feel like I went through some
of those.
I did some bargaining, you know, with God while she was sick,
and I went through many of thosephases.
(06:42):
When I arrived in Jamaica, I wasunable to anticipate how much I
still needed to grieve.
So here I am.
I'm taking off eight weeksafter my mother has passed to a
dance conference where I will beactually teaching, and what, oh
my gosh, I can't even say.
(07:03):
I was in a very good state ofmind at that point and it was an
opportunity for me todefinitely be able to expand my
reach for my dance.
Now I arrived at the conferencevia Montego Bay is where I flew
into with a friend and met twoother friends there.
(07:25):
So again, I was not alone.
However, I will say this aboutthe friends that I went with
they were aware of my mother'spassing, very supportive, but
the beauty of our friendship wasthey knew when to give me space
and not to ask those typicalquestions that if you've ever
(07:49):
lost somebody that you get askedyou know like how are you doing
, how are you holding up, andjust not sure how to answer
those right.
And so I was grateful forhaving friends nearby during
this time, because it was so raw, and I'm not saying I'm not
(08:11):
recommending that if you do haveyou lose somebody and you are
grieving, that the timing ofgoing on a trip should be right
away.
I wouldn't recommend itactually, um, but it did work
out for me and I'll share thatin a moment.
But if you are grieving, Ibelieve a trip for the purpose
(08:38):
of healing in the, in yoursituation of grief, is to allow
yourself some of that time toprocess it at home, especially
if it was a sudden death.
Now, granted, I had two yearsbasically to sort of grieve my
mother's passing.
I knew it was coming,especially a year into it.
(08:59):
But here I am, in a way.
Maybe people thought I wasescaping, but it was exactly
what I needed, can you imagine?
So here I am, two years livingwith my mother who's dying of
cancer, being in the same housewith her, being in the same town
(09:19):
where I grew up, surrounded bywonderful, beautiful people,
neighbors, friends, family,church, community.
Everything was so needed andbut to have the space to grieve,
to be alone, was almost notavailable if I stayed where I
(09:44):
was at Now.
I didn't realize this until Igot to Jamaica and we flew into
Montego Bay with my friend andwe had to drive to Kingston,
which is where the conferencewas held.
Now, if you know anything aboutJamaica, it is a drive from one
side of the island to anotherand they drive on the opposite
(10:05):
side of the road.
So here I am, never havingdriven on the other side of the
road or the other side of a car,never having driven on the
other side of the road or theother side of a car, that I'm
having to learn something new.
I'm having to navigate and getout of my comfort zone,
obviously because there is somescience behind that which I'll
get to in a moment.
And so here I am, and I'm, youknow, just have this freedom to
(10:28):
that I that I thrive in andhaving fun.
And so we were winding throughthese narrow streets of from
Montego Bay to Kingston and alsocoming across, you know, some
of the roads were very narrow,they were a single lane in some
places, or dirt roads, not awhole lot of paved roads in some
(10:49):
sections, and, of course,coming across some hut or kind
of shack type villages along theway.
And so just some realization ofhow blessed I am and in my
situation, despite my loss, andhow joyous and happy everybody
(11:11):
that we came across that livesin Jamaica.
They have this vibrancy forlife and for family.
So that was one thing I didsort of take away from that.
But I, you know, I go throughthis conference, I'm trying to
teach and you know I was not ina very good mental space,
(11:36):
honestly, to, uh, to teach.
I may have been physicallythere, but mentally and
emotionally I was very sapped.
And to teach a conference ofthat magnitude, of that
(11:57):
magnitude I felt disappointed inmyself.
But I believe that God broughtme there for other reasons.
And so towards the end of oneof the evenings now this was a
Christian dance conference, soin the evenings they would have
church services, and soeverybody was, you know, church
services, and so everybody was,you know, we had some
performances with some dancingand singing and all that stuff.
(12:19):
And one of the last nights aspecific song kind of just broke
through my heart and theperception of holding it all
together had been broken and Iwas brought to my knees on this
hard linoleum floor and thetears kept coming.
I didn't think I had any moretears to give.
Nelt there confessed andrelinquished my anger.
(12:42):
As I said, I was kind ofhovering between anger and
rebellion.
At this point, you know to God,and he already knew, and I
emptied all my disappointmentsbare on the floor.
I'm not sure how I would moveon and what my future look like.
To be honest, because, honestly, my mother kind of held me
(13:05):
together I hate to say that Iwas rather reliant on her.
But, you know, god comfort mein that moment and I felt a
reassurance that everything wasgoing to be okay and what that
did help set the stage for myfuture.
And I just knew that if I clungto God, that it would be all
(13:29):
right.
And I knew that one day I wouldemerge out of this grief and my
prayer when I knelt there wasto eventually reclaim joy in my
life, which I have.
So.
But what happened there reallyopened my eyes to how, moving
(13:50):
out of a place of familiarity sofor me, I had been in the house
with my mother, the house Igrew up in, the city, I grew up
in the neighborhood the family,the church, community I had
grown up with, and it was all sofamiliar and it did not allow
(14:11):
me, it did not force me, Ishould say, to continue to
process in a high level what wasreally happening and how to
move on, because there were somany memories that were linked
to that house, linked to thatcity, linked to my mother, that
(14:32):
it made it really hard for me tothink outside that, to move
forward and think that there wasa different future for me.
And so there is some sciencebehind.
When you go to a new place, youexperience new things, you do
new activities, like for me, youknow, travel, traveling outside
(14:54):
of my comfort zone, travelingto another country where the
culture is very different,traveling and driving on the
other side of the road, doingthings that were different and
that made me kind of it's calledit's rewiring your brain and
it's called neuroplasticity andmaybe you have heard of it.
(15:16):
It has become pretty big in thehealth industry as to ways to
do that.
One specific thing that newexperiences in the science says
activates the brain's rewardsystem is in the science says
activates the brain's rewardsystem, especially the ventral
(15:37):
tegmental area, the VTA.
What it does is it boostsdopamine and that's the
motivation.
Chemical Now, I didn't quiteshare, but also during this
period with my mother's death, Iwas experiencing depression and
so of course my dopamine andserotonin was likely very low at
(15:57):
this point.
So, moving out of thatconversation, doing something
new, also, I will have to say,going somewhere where the sun
was shining in November, end ofNovember timeframe was also
helpful for my depression.
The other thing that doing somenew things increases and
(16:21):
activates the prefrontal cortex.
Okay, so the prefrontal cortexis involved in decision making,
planning and problem solving.
So there I was, having to sortof problem solve a new, a new
thing, driving on the other sideof the road reminding myself to
stay left, stay left, you know,and learning new things there
(16:45):
about the culture.
And so when we do new things,it does rewire the brain, and
there's science behind howtravel can provide and improve
these um possibilities of eithertransformation, healing, um,
(17:07):
changing you from, I'd say, fromthe inside out, from the brain
outward, and, you know, alsoaffecting your physical,
physicalness, your your with thedopamine and even the serotonin
, we know how that can also juststimulate you from a physical
standpoint, not just mentallyand emotionally, of course.
(17:30):
So, despite not having any ideaat that point in my life, how
travel could, you know, move myneedle forward in my healing
process, how it could give metools or present me
opportunities to do some healingwhile I was on that trip.
(17:51):
And so I know, when I came backI mean, as if you've lost
somebody, the grieving doesn'tend after they're buried, the
grieving doesn't end after ayear but that release that
happened when I was in Jamaica,that opportunity to just soak up
and stay there and not not bebothered, I felt like I was in
(18:13):
my own little bubble actually,and I was so in the moment.
Um, with those those river oftears, so to speak.
I came home and there wasdefinitely a new, a renewed sort
of sense of purpose for me.
I knew that I could move on.
I knew that there was a futureand that I had given up, uh,
(18:40):
essentially a little bit of thatwhile my mom was sick.
While she was sick, I actuallygot accepted to graduate school
but declined going.
I was supposed to go to GeorgeMason University and decided not
to go because my mother wasstill sick and we were unsure of
whether she would be totallyhealed or go into remission with
(19:04):
her breast cancer.
So I had put that on pause.
So when I came back, I knewthat was something I needed to
pursue and it was clear that Ihad a future and I needed to
move on.
And so that trip.
Jamaica really gave me thatspace and I was actually very
(19:24):
grateful.
I had friends there thatunderstood my situation and so I
wasn't alone.
Yes, there are some definiteperks to doing some solo travel
when you're utilizing itintentionally for, maybe,
healing or transformation, butsometimes having that support
(19:45):
system may be necessary.
So that's my story and I am sureif you've ever experienced
grief or a loss and maybe youhaven't chosen or haven't chosen
to use travel to help you inthat season or that process, I
(20:06):
can walk you through with myone-on-one coaching program on
how to intentionally build aplan for a travel, a trip, to
create that space, to give youthat opportunity and to use it
(20:26):
as sort of like in a toolbox.
Another little thing that youcould utilize in your healing
journey and, as I recommended,maybe give yourself some space
after an incident has happenedto really process in your
homeland, and then processing ina new environment will create
(20:54):
these new, as it says, thesebrain synapses.
This changing, this rewiringyour brain can happen on your
next journey to healing.
So I encourage you, if thissounds like something you are
needing, go to my website,cherylbeckeschcom, and go to
(21:17):
work with me and book a call.
So this is a free 15 minutecall and we will talk and talk
about what your needs are, andmy dream is to help you in that
process so that you can findhealing, just as I did, even
though I wasn't intentionallyaware of it at the time.
(21:40):
At the time, travel has those,that power to do so many things
in changing people in so manyways, and I want that for you.
So, sister travelers, get outthere, have that adventure and
book that call with me If thisis something you want to see in
(22:02):
your life a transformation.
Have you ever returned from a trip and felt
different in some way butcouldn't quite put a pin on why?
Or you've noticed a friendreturning from a trip and just
noticed the huge transformationin them from their travels, and
they just talk about what theyexperienced and how it changed
(00:22):
their lives.
And maybe you have or haven'thad that experience.
But travel can do that.
It's not just about checkingoff places on your bucket list
or going to see as manycountries as you can or seeing
all those famous touristdestinations and iconic places.
(00:43):
There is more to travel thanmeets the eye, and today I'm
going to share with you apersonal experience of one of my
early, early travels that didhave a huge transformational
impact on my life.
Well, welcome to Solo TravelAdventures.
(01:03):
I'm Cheryl S, your host.
So glad you're here, and if youdidn't listen to last week, I
encourage you to listen to lastweek's episode where I talk
about travel coaching a littlebit of how that focus.
You know, taking a trip withsome intention really can make
(01:25):
your travels just moremeaningful, and so my story
begins long before I actuallyknew the power of how travel can
transform or heal you, and Ihad no intention, on this trip
specifically to do that, but itwas certainly needed.
(01:46):
So I'm taking you back to my20s and this was not a solo trip
, but it came at a veryunreasonable time.
I'll say that.
So this is 1996, and I'm in my20s and unfortunately my mother
(02:10):
passed away from breast cancerthe end of September of that
year and she had battled thatfor two years and I was very
close to her.
We were best friends.
She was sort of a mentor to me.
She was sort of my creativespark, as we were both creative
(02:31):
people.
So much love and wisdom fromthis woman.
And I also lived at home, I wasone of the last to leave the
house and I was not married, ofcourse, and so we were very
close.
We were close because we werealso similar and she knew my
(02:54):
heart, she knew my gifts and shebattled this for two years and
during that two years, althoughI thought I had grieved and I
did go through periods ofgrieving, it was not over, not
near over, and even many, manyyears later I could attest it
(03:18):
was still not over.
And if you have lost a lovedone, you've ever grieved for
someone that you are dearlyclose to, then you understand
that that pain actually nevergoes away.
It does get a little easier andless triggering.
But we love to hold on to thosebeautiful memories we have with
(03:40):
that person and even the goodand bad right, and look at
pictures and remember thatperson hopefully and usually in
a positive light, despitebecause we've lost them, despite
maybe you know the fights youmight have with that person in
the past.
But death definitely gives us anew perspective on life and how
(04:05):
we should live.
So here I am, in my 20s.
I'm at home living with myparents, and my mother had
gotten sick and even her lastfew months I actually quit my
job to sort of help take care ofher, because she was just
needing more assistance at homeand someone to just be around,
(04:27):
and of course I knew the end wasdrawing near, and she also knew
that I was given an opportunityto actually teach at a dance
conference in Jamaica.
Now I had hesitated as towhether to go or not because of
course I wanted to be there whenmy mother passed.
(04:48):
I did not want to leave herside, but she really wanted me
to go.
She knew about the opportunity,knew that it could potentially
lead to more things, things thatI really had a heart of wanting
to do with my dancing.
I really had a heart of wantingto do with my dancing and she,
even though I told her Iwouldn't go, especially if it
(05:10):
got closer to the time shereally wanted me to go.
Well, she did pass, about eightweeks before I was to leave and
leaving was a good thing Eventhough I had thought I had
grieved.
There were, as you know, thereare many levels of grieving, but
(05:33):
they don't always follow atimeline or follow in any kind
of order, and we know them asdenial, anger, bargaining,
depression and acceptance, and Ifluctuated up and down between
many of those.
I think.
Obviously, in the beginning Ihad a combination of sort of
(05:57):
this denial and rebellion at thesame time, and then at the end
it did move more into the anger.
I was angry that God had takenmy mother so soon and that she
wasn't healed, and just angrythat she wouldn't see me grow up
(06:20):
right.
She wouldn't see me married.
She wouldn't see me with mykids grow up right, she wouldn't
see me married, she wouldn'tsee me with my kids, and so
there was a definite loss of afriend as well.
And so I was still, even thoughI feel like I went through some
of those.
I did some bargaining, you know, with God while she was sick,
and I went through many of thosephases.
(06:42):
When I arrived in Jamaica, I wasunable to anticipate how much I
still needed to grieve.
So here I am.
I'm taking off eight weeksafter my mother has passed to a
dance conference where I will beactually teaching, and what, oh
my gosh, I can't even say.
(07:03):
I was in a very good state ofmind at that point and it was an
opportunity for me todefinitely be able to expand my
reach for my dance.
Now I arrived at the conferencevia Montego Bay is where I flew
into with a friend and met twoother friends there.
(07:25):
So again, I was not alone.
However, I will say this aboutthe friends that I went with
they were aware of my mother'spassing, very supportive, but
the beauty of our friendship wasthey knew when to give me space
and not to ask those typicalquestions that if you've ever
(07:49):
lost somebody that you get askedyou know like how are you doing
, how are you holding up, andjust not sure how to answer
those right.
And so I was grateful forhaving friends nearby during
this time, because it was so raw, and I'm not saying I'm not
(08:11):
recommending that if you do haveyou lose somebody and you are
grieving, that the timing ofgoing on a trip should be right
away.
I wouldn't recommend itactually, um, but it did work
out for me and I'll share thatin a moment.
But if you are grieving, Ibelieve a trip for the purpose
(08:38):
of healing in the, in yoursituation of grief, is to allow
yourself some of that time toprocess it at home, especially
if it was a sudden death.
Now, granted, I had two yearsbasically to sort of grieve my
mother's passing.
I knew it was coming,especially a year into it.
(08:59):
But here I am, in a way.
Maybe people thought I wasescaping, but it was exactly
what I needed, can you imagine?
So here I am, two years livingwith my mother who's dying of
cancer, being in the same housewith her, being in the same town
(09:19):
where I grew up, surrounded bywonderful, beautiful people,
neighbors, friends, family,church, community.
Everything was so needed andbut to have the space to grieve,
to be alone, was almost notavailable if I stayed where I
(09:44):
was at Now.
I didn't realize this until Igot to Jamaica and we flew into
Montego Bay with my friend andwe had to drive to Kingston,
which is where the conferencewas held.
Now, if you know anything aboutJamaica, it is a drive from one
side of the island to anotherand they drive on the opposite
(10:05):
side of the road.
So here I am, never havingdriven on the other side of the
road or the other side of a car,never having driven on the
other side of the road or theother side of a car, that I'm
having to learn something new.
I'm having to navigate and getout of my comfort zone,
obviously because there is somescience behind that which I'll
get to in a moment.
And so here I am, and I'm, youknow, just have this freedom to
(10:28):
that I that I thrive in andhaving fun.
And so we were winding throughthese narrow streets of from
Montego Bay to Kingston and alsocoming across, you know, some
of the roads were very narrow,they were a single lane in some
places, or dirt roads, not awhole lot of paved roads in some
(10:49):
sections, and, of course,coming across some hut or kind
of shack type villages along theway.
And so just some realization ofhow blessed I am and in my
situation, despite my loss, andhow joyous and happy everybody
(11:11):
that we came across that livesin Jamaica.
They have this vibrancy forlife and for family.
So that was one thing I didsort of take away from that.
But I, you know, I go throughthis conference, I'm trying to
teach and you know I was not ina very good mental space,
(11:36):
honestly, to, uh, to teach.
I may have been physicallythere, but mentally and
emotionally I was very sapped.
And to teach a conference ofthat magnitude, of that
(11:57):
magnitude I felt disappointed inmyself.
But I believe that God broughtme there for other reasons.
And so towards the end of oneof the evenings now this was a
Christian dance conference, soin the evenings they would have
church services, and soeverybody was, you know, church
services, and so everybody was,you know, we had some
performances with some dancingand singing and all that stuff.
(12:19):
And one of the last nights aspecific song kind of just broke
through my heart and theperception of holding it all
together had been broken and Iwas brought to my knees on this
hard linoleum floor and thetears kept coming.
I didn't think I had any moretears to give.
Nelt there confessed andrelinquished my anger.
(12:42):
As I said, I was kind ofhovering between anger and
rebellion.
At this point, you know to God,and he already knew, and I
emptied all my disappointmentsbare on the floor.
I'm not sure how I would moveon and what my future look like.
To be honest, because, honestly, my mother kind of held me
(13:05):
together I hate to say that Iwas rather reliant on her.
But, you know, god comfort mein that moment and I felt a
reassurance that everything wasgoing to be okay and what that
did help set the stage for myfuture.
And I just knew that if I clungto God, that it would be all
(13:29):
right.
And I knew that one day I wouldemerge out of this grief and my
prayer when I knelt there wasto eventually reclaim joy in my
life, which I have.
So.
But what happened there reallyopened my eyes to how, moving
(13:50):
out of a place of familiarity sofor me, I had been in the house
with my mother, the house Igrew up in, the city, I grew up
in the neighborhood the family,the church, community I had
grown up with, and it was all sofamiliar and it did not allow
(14:11):
me, it did not force me, Ishould say, to continue to
process in a high level what wasreally happening and how to
move on, because there were somany memories that were linked
to that house, linked to thatcity, linked to my mother, that
(14:32):
it made it really hard for me tothink outside that, to move
forward and think that there wasa different future for me.
And so there is some sciencebehind.
When you go to a new place, youexperience new things, you do
new activities, like for me, youknow, travel, traveling outside
(14:54):
of my comfort zone, travelingto another country where the
culture is very different,traveling and driving on the
other side of the road, doingthings that were different and
that made me kind of it's calledit's rewiring your brain and
it's called neuroplasticity andmaybe you have heard of it.
(15:16):
It has become pretty big in thehealth industry as to ways to
do that.
One specific thing that newexperiences in the science says
activates the brain's rewardsystem is in the science says
activates the brain's rewardsystem, especially the ventral
(15:37):
tegmental area, the VTA.
What it does is it boostsdopamine and that's the
motivation.
Chemical Now, I didn't quiteshare, but also during this
period with my mother's death, Iwas experiencing depression and
so of course my dopamine andserotonin was likely very low at
(15:57):
this point.
So, moving out of thatconversation, doing something
new, also, I will have to say,going somewhere where the sun
was shining in November, end ofNovember timeframe was also
helpful for my depression.
The other thing that doing somenew things increases and
(16:21):
activates the prefrontal cortex.
Okay, so the prefrontal cortexis involved in decision making,
planning and problem solving.
So there I was, having to sortof problem solve a new, a new
thing, driving on the other sideof the road reminding myself to
stay left, stay left, you know,and learning new things there
(16:45):
about the culture.
And so when we do new things,it does rewire the brain, and
there's science behind howtravel can provide and improve
these um possibilities of eithertransformation, healing, um,
(17:07):
changing you from, I'd say, fromthe inside out, from the brain
outward, and, you know, alsoaffecting your physical,
physicalness, your your with thedopamine and even the serotonin
, we know how that can also juststimulate you from a physical
standpoint, not just mentallyand emotionally, of course.
(17:30):
So, despite not having any ideaat that point in my life, how
travel could, you know, move myneedle forward in my healing
process, how it could give metools or present me
opportunities to do some healingwhile I was on that trip.
(17:51):
And so I know, when I came backI mean, as if you've lost
somebody, the grieving doesn'tend after they're buried, the
grieving doesn't end after ayear but that release that
happened when I was in Jamaica,that opportunity to just soak up
and stay there and not not bebothered, I felt like I was in
(18:13):
my own little bubble actually,and I was so in the moment.
Um, with those those river oftears, so to speak.
I came home and there wasdefinitely a new, a renewed sort
of sense of purpose for me.
I knew that I could move on.
I knew that there was a futureand that I had given up, uh,
(18:40):
essentially a little bit of thatwhile my mom was sick.
While she was sick, I actuallygot accepted to graduate school
but declined going.
I was supposed to go to GeorgeMason University and decided not
to go because my mother wasstill sick and we were unsure of
whether she would be totallyhealed or go into remission with
(19:04):
her breast cancer.
So I had put that on pause.
So when I came back, I knewthat was something I needed to
pursue and it was clear that Ihad a future and I needed to
move on.
And so that trip.
Jamaica really gave me thatspace and I was actually very
(19:24):
grateful.
I had friends there thatunderstood my situation and so I
wasn't alone.
Yes, there are some definiteperks to doing some solo travel
when you're utilizing itintentionally for, maybe,
healing or transformation, butsometimes having that support
(19:45):
system may be necessary.
So that's my story and I am sureif you've ever experienced
grief or a loss and maybe youhaven't chosen or haven't chosen
to use travel to help you inthat season or that process, I
(20:06):
can walk you through with myone-on-one coaching program on
how to intentionally build aplan for a travel, a trip, to
create that space, to give youthat opportunity and to use it
(20:26):
as sort of like in a toolbox.
Another little thing that youcould utilize in your healing
journey and, as I recommended,maybe give yourself some space
after an incident has happenedto really process in your
homeland, and then processing ina new environment will create
(20:54):
these new, as it says, thesebrain synapses.
This changing, this rewiringyour brain can happen on your
next journey to healing.
So I encourage you, if thissounds like something you are
needing, go to my website,cherylbeckeschcom, and go to
(21:17):
work with me and book a call.
So this is a free 15 minutecall and we will talk and talk
about what your needs are, andmy dream is to help you in that
process so that you can findhealing, just as I did, even
though I wasn't intentionallyaware of it at the time.
(21:40):
At the time, travel has those,that power to do so many things
in changing people in so manyways, and I want that for you.
So, sister travelers, get outthere, have that adventure and
book that call with me If thisis something you want to see in
(22:02):
your life a transformation.
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