I for Inspiration

Travel is my foremost inspiration – whether it is to write or for new ideas to pop into my head, it usually happens when I travel. Through my career, my work has ensured that I travel a lot. In spite of that, I am very nervous before each trip. I am not sure what I am worried about really – missing a bus, a train, or a flight? Or not packing properly? Both are inconveniences but not the end of the world, right? However much I try to talk myself out of my stress, each trip has me wound up tight. Then, once I am on the bus, the train, or the flight, all that tension vanishes and I am suddenly excited about the trip ahead.

Even if I am going to a place I have visited several times before, I look around and invariably find everything new. I start to notice every little detail, along the way as well as at the destination. It is probably the expectation that things will be different that sharpens my senses when I travel. I suddenly start to notice colours, shapes, smells, sounds, textures, which I wouldn’t on my daily routine.

It is not that my destination is all that different – it is just that I am absorbing the experience differently simply because I am more aware. It took me some time to understand this about my response to travel. And now, I try to be just as aware when I am at home as well. It doesn’t work as well, but it has definitely made me more aware at least of the trees and birds right here at home.

Being open to the world around me and absorbing through my five senses stimulates my brain to work at its creative best. Ideas connect in ways I would not have thought possible, and I am inspired to create – a new piece of writing, a new tour, a new Facebook post, a change of curtains in my room... This act of being creative gives a high that is unmatched by anything else. And of course, if appreciation follows, it is a plus!