Somewhere over the mountain - in the Snowy Mountains

So my latest road-trip came to an end and what an inspirational couple of weeks it was. Travelling on my own in my little red Fiat, my thoughts for company.

I had travelled to a Mental Health Conference and chose to extend two days of talking about mental health into two weeks of practising what I preach - mindfulness based mental health care.

I love this little car and it loves a roadtrip too :)

Increasingly this has become my daily mindful meditation practice on the road. I notice my surroundings as I drive - the scenery, the architecture, the passing parade of people, the sky... Sometimes I stop to absorb a visual moment or to photograph and share snapshots of my daily journey on social media.

While I might be in the car on my own I often feel the energy of other people along for the virtual ride. I love receiving positive comments and knowing I am inspiring some of you to take a moment to enjoy the simple things in the day or take your own journey.

Whether a day trip or a longer experience, being on the road helps me see the world through a different lens.

I always find inspiration when I travel. I come home knowing something will change, even if I don't know what will be different I just know intuitively something will be.

Something shifts when I'm on the road.

This is where the idea for 'My Change Agent' was born - travelling in Italy in 2013. Well perhaps it had always been in me - but that trip crystallised a lot of things that had been swirling around for years.

Life's like that thought isn't it. Sometimes what we know we don't always act on and sometimes we need to be given a gentle kick or even a big push to make a move.

My Dad, my Grandmother and me as a child with my grandparents and my Dad on a picnic.

Maybe we just have to dip our toe outside our comfort zone, venture into new surroundings... take a little roadtrip ...

I have a history with road-trips starting when I was a child. Occasionally during school holidays I would get to travel with my father when he would go on the road for work. I can still remember the absolute amazement having breakfast delivered through a sliding panel in the wall - breakfast on a tray appeared through a hatch from outside! I still recall this when I drive past the Emu Motel in Tasmania - the place doesn't seem to have changed on the outside. Funny the memories that stick - perhaps this is was where my love of staying in hotels and room service began. I blame Dad :)

Some memories and the associated feelings stay with us forever, and some are only recalled when a sensory experience - a sight sound or scent - reminds us. There are so many stories within us all.

As a family unit, my parents, my younger sister and I, would pack up the car and go for a drive with a picnic. After what seemed like hours we would find a spot somewhere in the country to stop. We would eat, go for a walk or play, and then by the time we returned home in the evening my sister and I would have fallen asleep (or pretended to) and be carried from the car to bed.

Something shifts when I'm on the open road.

My childhood and my teenage years are full of roadtrip memories. Short excursions and more intrepid wanderings - a mix of exciting boring and embarrassing experiences :) (Sometime I'll tell you about road -tripping the UK in 1970 with my mother and great aunt...)

I continued this tradition as an adult, driving my Nana. Nana would cut sandwiches and fill the thermos and we would drive and talk and set up on a picnic table by a paddock somewhere. Sometimes Nana would suggest buying a pastie or hot chips - these were the food weaknesses of a woman who "watched her figure" until she died at the grand age of 100. I still think of her whenever I eat a pastie - which was often last year in England.

My grandmother taught me to find wild asparagus and field mushrooms in the grass behind where she lived and to pick apples and pears from old gnarled trees growing beside the gravel roads where we used to walk.

I still miss her.

Italy and the surrounding mountains where I lived in 2013 with the old farmhouse in the fields.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this wild food foraging still a practice in the rural village I lived in for three months in Italy. My Italian friend instructed me in the art of gathering what I perceived as "weeds" and cooking them with olive oil and salt; "chicory" he called it. He also patiently showed me how to make cheese - soft ricotta served warm with honey and fresh figs. I would gather wild blackberries and figs from an ancient tree in the garden in the late summer afternoons. The walls of the century old farmhouse might have been crumbling back into the earth on the hillside but the fruit was abundant. Oh yes, there are stories from Italy...

Back to road trips though and what inspires us to step into an unfamiliar environment. People inspire me, friends and others who take risks and seize opportunities. People who, when asked "why did you do that?", respond with "because I could".

Opportunities are everywhere. We can explore our neighbourhood our state our country the world. We can book that holiday, take that job in a new location, sell the house, have that adventure, go on a road trip.

Road trips aren't for everyone I know that. Not everyone enjoys driving, and many of us lack confidence travelling alone. I often meet people who find eating out or going to a movie alone quite daunting. We are all unique and find joy in different things.

So spend a moment recalling memories that bring a smile to your face, the things you do that make you really happy. What makes your heart sing?

Now go and do more of it. Spend more time with people you connect with and in places where your heart feels light and joyful. Life is a gift full of endless possibilities.

karenPS ~

Whatever Makes Your Heart Sing