Mindfull Mari

Here’s a little reminder that I needed to hear, so I thought I would share it with you as well.

Travel without a map. Physically, emotionally, metaphorically. Everywhere and nowhere, all wrapped into one. I repeat, travel without a map.

Let me explain.

As a Type B, Enneagram 7, INFJ person, this idea comes pretty naturally to me. When I travel, I don’t often make a plan. When I teach, I am the queen of changing direction on the spot and winging it. As a human, I just sort of go with it- knowing that I am quite capable of forging a new path if the flow isn’t quite working for me.

However, when it comes to navigating my mind, my emotional well-being, my mental health… sometimes I just want someone to tell me EXACTLY what to do. I want someone to give me a map, tell me how to feel, tell me how to get from point A to point B. No getting lost, just a direct route.

This is ironic because most of the time, I welcome uncertainty pretty much with arms wide open. But I am slowly realizing that I embrace the unknown for the external things, for circumstances such as traveling, work, for figuring out the external world.

However, when it comes to uncertainty in my own damn MIND, forget it, that is a whole different narrative. Where’s the freaking map?!

So, I thrust this practice upon you. If you, like me, like to travel without a map, let’s extend that same ideology into our brains. Let’s try navigating and traveling with and through ourselves… without a map.

I am learning that as much as I sometimes wish there were… there is no map for healing, for love, for decision making, for mental health. There is no map for LIFE, the same way there are maps for navigating foreign streets.

Chances are, if someone drew out a map for our emotional well being and how to fast track and short circuit our way to eternal happiness, their map wouldn’t work for us anyways. It would read in a different language, programmed for them, not for you. Just as we cannot BE someone else, someone else’s life map would be useless when learning to navigate our own self serving streets.

So yes, I mean actually travel without a map- go to a new city and explore it without every move being calculated. But navigate your own inner dialogue and thinking, without feeling like you need a map.

Is there a time and place for a map? For GPS? For sending up the SOS flare, or opening the “Find My Friends” app? Yes, sure, absolutely.

But I am here to remind myself, and you, that life doesn’t come with pre-programmed navigation, telling us which turns to make, which streets to avoid, when and where there is traffic, or where we can find the hidden gems.

That exploration is up to you.

So get moving, and happy traveling!