BootsnAll Travel Community

Someone once asked me how I was able to travel the world independently...and did I ever get scared?

To this I repied...

As you are always venturing into the "unknown"....Everyone gets scared or feels vulnerable at one time or another...but what you do about it is the key to finding peace of mind.

Q. What do you do when your own personal powers that be, are at a low ebb?

Do you call upon a higher power?...a guardian angel? ...or what?

I just say a prayer.. or more like have a conversation with GOD. Don't ask me who's my GOD, i just call him GOD. Things always work out for me.

When my powers are low, I must look inside for more. The knowledge that it is always there is enough to keep me going.

Sure, getting scared, worried, anxious or feeling threatened is all part of travelling (or life for that matter), but learning to deal with it and growing the confidence in your abilities (or lack of) will give you strength to draw on.

--
Rob - http://www.robstravels.com

I say a prayer and I usually feel better.

definately!
to think that i am alone and have to carry myself through life by my own powers is overwhelming and depressing. the ability and knowledge to call on a higher power, the devine, is so important. it's an acknowlegdement for me that i am only a small part of the bigger picture which God can see and i can't. and i am encouraged that He can help to cary the load.

I agree with Rob and tend to look inward for strength. I think there's something reassuring in the knowledge that I can take care of myself when I'm alone and only I only I can really make myself happy or unafraid.
I've learned that I don't have to accept what life deals me because I'm the one calling the shots.

_____________________
[Still Wandering] [Halcyon Climbing]

My own inner strength is what I call upon in times of need. However the strength that i can gain from others with whom I have had an intimate experience with ( no not sex but when somehow it feels like there is a meeting of "souls") then I know that I am part of something huge. I have a strong belief that we are all interconnected. I am facsinated with the power of we relate to ourselves and others

For myself, I spend alot of time training and improving myself for the "tough times".

Eating right
Working out/Running
First Aid Classes (soon)
Self Defense Classes (soon)
General Learning

To myself, I consider these a training of sorts.

It is nice for myself that I am relatively fit and capable in itself, but when the going gets tough I take great confidence in the fact that I have prepared myself for bad situations and am ready to face them.

I often liken my "training" (mind you I dont call it that) to a news story I saw about quicksand.

A man was fishing below a highway bridge in ohio, walks out into the river's muddy bank and fishes for hours.

when he tries to leave i realizes he is stuck in the quicksand. He tries to lift his feet but this only makes him sink father into the sand. He tries digging out but the mud slips right back in.

After 5 DAYS (120 hours!) of trying to get out and screaming to the cars above to save him, a homeless man finds him and calls the fire deparment and saves him. They say he would of died if he was out their 12 more hours.

3 years later the fisherman returns to the bridge with a outdoorsman magazine writer. He points to the spot in the mud where he was stuck, and to his great dismay the writer calming walks out into the mudd and purposely traps himself in the mud.

The fisherman freaks! what is he doing!

The writer leans on his back, thus creating more surface area and is able to free himself from the quicksand in less than a minute!!!

The moral of this story is that the man spent 120 hours trapped and almost DIED because he didnt know a incredibly simple technique to save himself.

I work hard to try to make sure I will know the technique I need when the shit hits the fan

ServeYourWorld.com
"How to Volunteer"

Damn, that's all it takes to get out of quicksand??

_____________________
[Still Wandering] [Halcyon Climbing]

ya.. isnt that crazy?

ServeYourWorld.com
"How to Volunteer"

They'd teach you that in movies, but then they couldn't keep you in suspense anymore.

You'd be watching some Indiana Jones type movie, where the hero gets stuck in quicksand, but it would really lose the entertainment value if the Hero just leaned back and got out.

So really, this man almost died because of a vast hollywood conspiracy to keep people entertained.

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It is better to stand corrected than to walk on your knees.

When my strength is low, I recharge by going for a walk by myself until I feel better. At times, a couple of hours will do, but I've walked for nearly a whole day. I borrowed someone's dog once for one of these trips because Osker is such an easy presence to be around.

Failing that, I've called friends and had a chat with them. At times, they have considerably more faith in my abilities than I do and sometimes I need to hear from an objective source about what I'm doing.

Failing that, I go to an Al-Anon meeting.

I guess, I'm on sort of a same wave length like Rob and Markus: no, I don't call upon 'something higher'. Eventually calling upon such a 'thing' is only activating energies you had within yourself anyway. I believe, that eventually it is more rewarding, if you can trigger those energies without an external 'reason'. Of course it is a method to start tapping those energies, but this is supposed to be the start of a personal evolution - and not the dogmatic end of it. Most religions have to be interpreted more spiritually and philosophically than they are these days. There are some exceptions though.
Just ask yourself, the next time you thank this 'higher power' for the energy it gave you: do I blame this energy the same way, when I don't recieve the energy after I prayed for it?
Probably not. Of course such a 'higher power' seems nice to us, because we only ascribe the positiv situations to it, not the negativ ones.
Adrian

www.aresthetics.ch/trav
My personal travel website

i have a traditional doctor in livingstone who i call upon to send me luck in sticky situations so far i have come out completely unscathed from several life threatening situations
FEEL THE POWER BELIEVE IN THE POWER EXPERIENCE THE POWER - MUTTI IS NOT DEAD

itu matengu

I call upon God daily. I pray for the wisdom to see the path to peace, the strength to take it and the resolve to stay on the path. I fail constantly, but the failings are mine, and I try to be content in the knowlege that that the way exists and that, with God's help, I can find it.

I don't think I have the answers, but I feel like I get a little closer now and then. For me me sprituality has been a "two steps forward, one step back process."

Because I believe in a God of love and forgiveness, I try not to sweat things, but that is my biggest personal challenge. I know that I always feel better when I ask God to lighten my load.

Free your mind, your ass will follow. - Oliver Stone
Check out my blog

In the strand it seems I sit in the middle of the road. I do feel that we have protection from a higher power, but I try to stay out of the god you get me out of this and I will do something for you state of mind. So I am relying on my skills to aid me in situations not god, or a higher power. I have also seen and felt things that made me feel that I was guided in a direction and escaped with out a scratch; or was forced to endure a painful situation for growth. So I don’t blame someone else if I make a mistake or try to put it on god; I try to learn a lesion from hard times and don’t spend time chastising my self for wrong moves if I knew they were wrong I would not have taken part in them. If know I am doing something wrong to start out then the consequences are soon to fallow, not like gods vengeance but now matter is set in motion so if the intent is good then the outcome will probably be good and if the intention is less than noble then the out come shall suite.
I guess it is kind of like cause and effect to me. Not much good and bad in my way of thinking; I don’t like to get caught in those states of mind.

quote:

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Originally posted by oldhippy:
Q. What do you do when your own personal powers that be, are at a low ebb?

Do you call upon a higher power?...a guardian angel? ...or what?

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I write a lot in my journal. It seems looking back the times I wrote the most is when I was having lots of strees or problems in my life. So writing about it helps me to get everything out and off my chest and helps me to kind of analyze things so I can put them in perspective and figure out how to work things out.

As far as when I'm stressed out or hitting a rough patch, like Swede I write, or I have a very hard hitting football practice. If I'm scared or worried about something and unsure, I just think that things could be worse, and I jsut say whatever happens happens, if it's going to suck, it'll suck, but it'll pass. Nothing I can't deal with. If it is something that I can't deal with by myself, chances are I'm not doing it alone.

To take this thread on a slightly different path, I'd be interested to know what life philosophies/faiths travellers have.

I saw someone's profile (was public but I won't say who) - who is a buddhist, or interested in buddhism but also a big fan of Neitzche. That sort of juxtaposition made me wonder if people are creating their own ideas or choices, or staying fairly mainstream in their outlooks on life's meaning.

Personally, I have ideas which are not fully developed - and to be honest I probably don't spend enough time on spiritual/philosophical matters to make much progress.
But in general, I do think/hope there is some reason/function/structure/purpose to the universe. But not a God with an identity as defined by the Muslim or Christian faiths.

I believe in evolution, survival of the fittest, natural selection and the biology of existence. But on the other hand I don't think that takes anything away from the nobility, love and humanity all around. In fact it adds something to it.

I think science is right and that the universe will end somehow, either with a bang or fading away. But the thought of an eternity of darkness after that scares the hell out of me and is too big to contemplate for long.

And I know our physical elements return to the universe after we've gone - but I don't know about our life energy.

Borderland -- very thoughtful post. I agree with many of your thoughts. While I don't dwell on metaphysics and the like a whole lot anymore, I did spent quite a bit of 2002-2003 dwelling on all of it, reading a lot of books (philosophy, history, science), and formulating my thoughts. Frankly, it was exhausting, and not the most uplifting pursuit!! I put a lot of my thoughts into writing, and found it interesting that as I wrote more and more (it turned into a journal of sorts), my thoughts evolved and I ended up coming nearly full circle to where I began, except with a much better understanding and insight into why I think what I do. Anyhow, it's interesting. I certainly don't have any definitive answers, and I don't think anyone can, but I do know that as I continue to grow older I'll continue to develop my thoughts, and perhaps go in many circles, but I hope (and believe) I'll attain more knowledge and wisdom.