“Follow your path guided by your heart and never lose focus while pursuing what you love. Make choices that embrace fear and make you feel alive.”
It has been some time now since I left my previous home in Vancouver, not only to explore South America on my own, but also to learn about myself and the human spirit. I embarked on a journey that was never set out for such a long time but in the end I found ways to improvise and simplify my life on the road while continuing the journey following my heart. It is proof that once you believe in yourself, and practice some patience and kindness, you will be able to achieve a lot more than you thought. It reminded me that we are not put into this world to waste energy and time following soulless projects just in order to survive. We are set into the world to chase our dreams and write our own story, to create some thunder and make some noise and more so question what we encounter in order to truly feel alive.
Two years later I am still exploring South America and wrote down a couple of words on what this journey has taught me – and hopefully this will inspire you to embark on your own journey.
1) Create experiences
2 years ago I wrote down a list. Not a list of countries and places I wanted to see. No, I created a list of things I wanted to learn, of experiences I wanted to challenge myself.
2) Be a dreamer and doer
On my past adventures I have learnt that everything is up to me, no one else will guide or steer me in this life. Instead of heading out in fear I should embrace the freedom that I was given. I don’t believe in luck, I learnt to believe in myself but also to never be too hard on myself.
3) Question your encounters
Your character will be shaped by how often you get up again and wipe away those tears while failing or missing the ones you love; how much you embrace fear with positivity; how often you question authorities telling you how to live and prove them wrong.
4) What do you want to remember?
Even when I failed sometimes, when I was lonely, lost or broke, when I had nothing to eat, no place to sleep, no shoulder to lean onto, it was those moments which made me suffer a little bit that made me realise that I’m alive.
5) Take your time to find out what you really want and who you really are
I headed out solo, spending lots of time on my own hiking in the mountains, camping on the shores of the ocean, living with locals and indigenous tribes in the Andes as well as the rainforest, working on their fields, taking care of their children, listening to their dreams and fears. This mix of self-reflection and human encounters opened so many doors and gave me so many smiling rewards.
6) What is the intention of your journey?
Think about it, whenever you are heading on your next journey. Do you want to rush through your bucket list, or do you actually want to get to know the people and their stories while learning about yourself and the world surrounding you?
I told them stories, they gave me coconuts
7) How do you define success?
Unknown scenarios along my adventure confronted me with my strengths, weaknesses, fears and most of all taught me how to deal with them. Everyone is different and defines comfort, success and happiness differently, but I have found myself in that moment when I stopped comparing and trying to be better than others, longing for prestige and status. Instead I found my inner peace when I started to care about my soul and body and love myself with all my imperfections.
8) Build your castle in the sky
We are all human beings but unfortunately we often take life too seriously and worry too much about what others might think. We have to connect our minds to our hearts to truly live passionately and enjoy every second of it. There should be doubt and questions but there should be dreams and hope.
9) Create soulful exchanges
This journey is a constant exchange, a soulful exchange. The simple lifestyle on the road reminded me about values that I had sometimes forgotten in my busy prior past. Most of all I learnt to be grateful for all the opportunities I had in life and the fact that I have always followed my heart while trying to do good to myself and the people surrounding me, while spreading a positive voice in a world that sometimes only portrays its negative side.
10) Do not look away
My journey has confronted me with a lot of greed and drawn a picture of the West that is often selling its soul for wealth. A system that could not be more disruptive to countries that already have little.
11) What is the price?
I have seen indigenous tribes living peacefully in their land whilst the white man is taking over digging for oil and gold, polluting their rivers and cutting down their trees, and once again repeating history. Glacial melting threatening local tribes and their farms in the Andes. Well-known brands selling processed nutritional substitutes to small jungle communities, telling them not to breastfeed their children for their own profit. Fair trade companies promising improvement while doing nothing but exploiting labor.
12) Consume consciously
How can someone possibly sleep at night with this guilt lying on his shoulders? When will we begin to realize that this is not the way to satisfy our souls? We must all start to consume more consciously, thinking long-term about how what we buy affects our minds, bodies, the environment and other human beings.
13) Let go of routine and embrace fear
So besides living above 4,000m and working on fields, building water filtration systems in small communities, building bamboo houses, opening a restaurant in the jungle, living on boats and farmer’s backyards and laughing about myself in three different languages, I learnt to feel 100% comfortable with myself, I learnt that it is ok to be weak and seek help once in a while and most importantly listen to your body and soul while never giving up to learn.
14) Find your purpose
If you head out on your next adventure I hope you find some time to truly think about what you want to learn, how you want to challenge yourself & how you can contribute to make this world a little bit more human.
15) Never rush your journey
Don’t bring the stressful lifestyle you might know from home on your journey. Life evolves naturally, so does happiness. It is a state of mind and you cannot find in a place, but you can find it in the people and most of all from within by realizing your own strength and beauty.
16) “Be who you are and treat yourself kindly, everyday.”
17) Ego is most likely not happiness
After twenty-three months on this continent I felt it is time to give back and I never thought I would, but together with some local friends I am starting an NGO in the rainforests of Peru in order to bring opportunities and healthy nutrition to the children and families in a small community. I went there only to take photos, but realized there were girls looking up at me, eyes wide open with spark and hope. Girls that are curious to learn, but have no one to teach them.
18) Be grateful
My roots have opened so many doors for my past 10 years and made me the person I am today. I had so much space and time to learn and experience, to find my true self; now it is time to open some of those doors for others.
19) Share smiles
I want these girls to head out there in confidence and be proud of their story. I want them to feel worthy and be kind to themselves in a male-dominated culture. Women and girls that are humiliated by their dads and husbands. I know that there is still a long road full of hurdles to go and I won’t bring that change, but I can make them smile and listen on their way to hopefully one day achieving equality.
20) Find beauty in imperfection
On this trip I realized a lot of us girls are stressed by insecurities and pushing ourselves too hard to be perfect while forgetting there is beauty in the imperfection.
We are all talented, incredibly beautiful human beings that should get over our fears and truly live passionately. This way we will be open to have all these beautiful encounters.
21) Be proud of your story
22) Take your time to learn
Never try to change yourself for anyone or anything. Improve yourself while doing what you love everyday you breathe. Follow your feeling and your path while treating others with dignity and respect. But most of all take your time to experience and learn – that is when you really get to know yourself and the world surrounding you.
This is a guest post by Regina Roeder.
Regina has been on the road for the past 10 years and has found her latest base in South America 2 years ago. Follow Regina’s ongoing journey on her and her Instagram .
