Personal Philosophy

[Apple Core]

Do you have a philosophy, thoughts, a meaning/purpose, or a line of reasoning that relates to traveling and your overall lifestyle?

Akin to the question "why do you travel", but less direct and more general.

What keeps you living the life when you're at a low point? What drives you? What's your motivation?

Why this, and why not something else?

As a newbie, and as someone who is still gathering all the info I can to make an informed decision about this kind of life, this is important to me. I know for some people it's not choice, but for me it is.

From what little traveling experience I have, I feel as if traveling is the ultimate way one can become one's true self. One is loose to do as they please with the means they have. There's a sense of freedom, or as much freedom as one can have. When these exist, one can explore one's self to the fullest extent in order to become who they truly want to be without the influence of others clouding one's personality and path towards self discovery.

The simplicity of the lifestyle is also rewarding, and being able to be happy with as little as possible seems right. The experience is humbling, which should be brought onto people more often. The rawness and the sheer variety of experiences that one encounters as they go along their journeys spice life up and make it more beautiful and meaningful to the individual than it would've been otherwise. The lifestyle and how it devalues excessive consumption and consumerism shows an example of how one should treat the earth's resources, and puts those ideals into action.

I also tend to be spiritual and travelling allows one to connect with nature and one's inner being more fully, since there are less inhibitions, the variety creates a more vivid experience, and you have more appropriate chances to marvel at existence and life and the universe and everything that has come before to make it happen and, more importantly, everything that is happening now that's sustaining it. Also, like I said previously, you're on the path to becoming your true self, which is important for these kinds of ideals.

Lastly, living such a lifestyle provides action for all of these thoughts and ideas that have come to fruition, and instead of them being mere philosophy, they become practice.

I'd love to hear what you all have to say for yourselves though.

 

[Art101]

Help those that are trying to help themselves is about where I am in my life these days.

 

[benton]

Individuals who begin to think and reason for themselves and become more introspective and detach from the "matrix" or "Babylon" have the opportunity to truly get to "know thyself" and may discover that they place a much higher value on seemingly novel experiences and the unknown, as opposed to the values that are promoted by society at large (the rat race, et al).

I have been able to use traveling to develop aspects of myself that I had failed to develop living the status quo. Which is not to say that others can't grow and develop within the matrix. Myself I wasn't evolved, healthy, or balanced enough to do so while living up to society's standards.

Getting out there and flying by the seat of my pants forced me to grow and I liken it to the concept from the Art of War of the warrior first placing themself beyond the possibility of defeat before engaging in the battle (and this battle ultimately being the battle with myself). The thing with traveling is, most of the time when you are out there you are out there, and it's sink or swim, do or die, to the victor go the spoils and I suspect this is very attractive to many of us.

 

[junkpolecat99]

I've had some really negative experiences in recent yeas and lost touch with all of my old friends. Life has become isolating, lonely, and discouraging. (I feel really weak and I'm embarrassed because having friends to hang out with when I was younger was really easy) My goal is to not be bored or lonely and to push yourself out of your comfort zone to find places with hospitable people or an interesting culture. Even if people tend to be mean and unhelpful in most places, I have more hope for differences in personality and culture if I move around...
The basic idea is to spend less on material things and more on experiences. I would like to be a squatter to save money but I am too attached to comforts/utilities and electronics. Plus I get paranoid of the police.
....
....

....
yeah, homelife is a drag, deadly like a plague
if sadness lurks within yer walls, as it does in mine
where i am confined to my room to hide
from all of the bullshit i've gotta deal with from them
and they don't give in, untill i am cryin'
my eyes out over this shit, and then i scream out
homelife is a drag, deadly like a plague
gotta get outta here before i loose my mind

yeah, homelife is a drag, deadly like a plague
when everything i do is wrong, and its all my fault
and they dont understand, me or who i am
they'll never except that this is all who i am
and all i can do is never enough
i wish that for once they'd just fucking lay off
homelife is a drag, deadly like a plague
abandon all hope, and watch my dreams fade away

with all this shits stacked, like weights on my back
wth no one to help me, soon i will collapse
my family hates me, i fucking hate them
goddammit, will this homelife shit ever end?!

yeah, homelife is a drag, deadly like a plague
if you live with anger and hate, just like here
where i live in fear of losing my mind
and killing you all, leaving no one behind
trapped inside these walls, with no where to go
and nothing to do, i am bored and depressed
patients put to the test, dagger at my chest
i carve into my arm to relieve the stress
homelife is a drag, deadly like a plauge
gotta get outta here before i loose my mind
my family hates me, i fuckin hate them
goddammit, will this homelife shit ever end?!

now, shows over come home, and i'm all alone
with no one to talk to and no pot to smoke
homelife, is a drag, deadly like a plauge
i'll walk out the front door, and never look back

 

[benton]

Misery loves company.

I've got no time for the pity party.

You can't even prove that you will wake up tomorrow, and here you are wallowing in inaccurate emotions on this, the most important and best day of your life. The days past cannot be accessed, and despite the pattern that has emerged, you cannot be assured of tomorrow.

Everything you are experiencing is the result of your choices.

You mentioned your goal. What is your plan? A goal without a plan is merely wishful thinking. A fantasy unlikely to bear fruit.

 

[All Who Wander]

Be careful about what you wish for, you just may get it.

I remember camping in the forests of the olympic peninsula in Washington for about a month.

I was headed north with no desination in mind other than to reach the point where the road ended or die trying.

I had been mostly alone on the trip up from San Diego, but in the forest I was completely alone and hadn't spoke to anyone for weeks.

"My brain started eating itself" is about the best way I can describe the downward spiral/mental cascade failure that began to happen, or maybe you just lable it "cabbin fever" but my thoughts went darker than they've ever gone before, and I reached a place inside of myself I don't think would be good for anyone to reach. Self discovery isn't always a positive experience.

Aside from that... In my personal philosophy I'm an absurdist. A long hard study of nihilism showed me life is undeniably meaningless, yet I am uncontrollably driven to find purpose and create meaning, hence the absurdity of my continued willful existance. A middle finger aimed at a nonexistant uncaring creator, the punchline in the cruelest joke the universe ever produced. If you ask what im fighting against, I'll just ask "what ya got?".

I exist therefore I wander around looking for something worth loving or hating, or a new expirence worth having to keep the boredom and isolation from klilling me. So far it's worked, I'm still breathing.

Btw... The road ended at the gates of the artic national park and I ended up living in a different forest on an island in Alaska for the next 3 years. That island remains in my memories as the most beautiful place I've ever seen... I plan to go back again someday...