Another treasure from the much loved mindful series.

Mindfulness in travelling is a lovely pocket book to accompany your holiday or simply to read when you have an afternoon to just be. Sending gentle reminders to literally stop and smell the roses, absorb your new surroundings with all your senses and embody the lovely experiences these bring.

A gorgeous book with wonderful writing, highly recommended,
Thank you Quatro and NetGalley for this ARC

A good book for beginner travelers and those new to mindfulness. The tips offered are pretty basic and experienced travelers will not find any new information. The author relies on general tips and it is pretty generic. If you need a book to tell you to put down your phone and enjoy the journey then this book is for you.

When you travel mindfully, you shed your environment and social conditioning to get to know your true self. Pushing past your comfort zone gives you the confidence to change your daily life.

Have you ever come back from vacation and noticed how different your home looks? Maybe you spot a pair of mismatched pillow cases or the light streaming in from your balcony. New details that you didn’t notice before.

This feeling passes in a few days, but it shows the transformative power of travel. Even a short trip takes you out of your routine and gives you a fresh outlook. You notice what’s lacking in your life, or you’re inspired to make changes – to take up yoga after a trip to California, or start cooking after an Italian vacation.

In Mindful Travelling: Journeying the World, Discovering Yourself (Leaping Hare Press, 2019) Sarah Samuel shows how travel can be a joyful and life-enhancing experience.

It’s about how to be open and let go of control, and how you learn more about yourselves by letting go of your own culture and conditioned self. And it’s about how to bring these experiences home by staying curious and present in your daily life.

Samuel’s book on mindful travel is all about how exploring the world helps you to know yourself.

When you travel mindfully, you’re aware of your surroundings and how you see the world. When you’re mindful, you’re curious about what you’re seeing – and your experiences deepen.

“Mindfulness happens effortlessly when we travel. When we take time to step away from our daily routines to enter new surroundings, we naturally become more present,” Samuel says. “We open up to the exciting and the unknown, forced to pay attention as our senses respond to new stimuli – be it witnessing unusual landscapes, tasting exotic foods or watching local people. As we effortlessly respond to the now, we also open up to different aspects of ourselves, expanding our appreciation of not just the world around us, but the world within us, and the joy of being alive.”

A new environment often forces you to pay attention, so you’re naturally more mindful when traveling.

Leaving your homes and the known world behind for a new destination jolts you into the present moment and gives you perspective on life, Samuel says. If you’ve ever arrived in a foreign country you notice details – like the scent of fresh mango or the colors of a corner shop – more vividly than you would at home.

Your normal routine means you’re often on autopilot and may not notice details as you rush through your to-do lists.

“So many of our actions are fuelled by the desire to be achieving, to be growing, to be approved of, to be making money or to feel better than we are right now,” Samuel says. “When we can stop, and just be, we let go of these pressures.”

Many daily routines center around productivity and output, but that’s all put on hold when you travel.

When you travel (and if you don’t just replace your to-do list for another list of must-see attractions), you’re still for long enough to appreciate the present moment and experience curiosity and joy.

And such curiosity springs from stillness and brings on self-understanding.

Samuel, who meditates regularly and has studied Buddhism in Asia, lists mindfulness exercises throughout the book that include short meditations and journaling prompts.

I love her prompt about prioritizing your curiosity: take a moment to ask yourself what you’re curious about (from the books you read or the films you watch), then write down what draws you. Then ask yourself how can these things inspire your next trip?

Mindful travel helps you realize what’s lacking in your life and what you’d love to get more of.

Traveling mindfully helps you gain perspective and discover more about what’s important. If you want a transformative trip, you should be clear on what you’d like to get from it.

Your passions and interests can be great themes to inspire your next vacation.
Are you looking to relax or indulge your interest in art history? What can balance out your life, and what do you yearn for – connection, adventure, peace?

Setting an intention for your travels gives you purpose. And this helps you plan and focus your attention, Samuel says. Trips can bring rest and the space you’ve been craving, or adventure to pull you out of routine.

If you’re addicted to your smartphones, a new environment can be perfect to shut down your WiFi and build some new habits.

When you’re on the road, you discover who you really are – outside of your identity, routines, native environment and social conditioning.

Vacation time, when you’re outside of your daily routine, can be a great time to start a new habit.

“Tapping into what makes us excited about life, our secret dreams and ambitions, and then owning up to and questioning our fears about these – however stupid they may seem – is the first step in overcoming self-doubt and beginning our hero’s journey,” Samuel says.

By removing yourself from your known surroundings, you can leave behind your usual thoughts and beliefs.

Pushing past your comfort zones builds the confidence that lets you do what you previously thought impossible.

In Mindful Travelling, Samuel recommends wandering without a plan, then asking yourself how often you allow this freedom in your daily life. How much of your daily life is dictated by shoulds rather than joys?

Ditch the guidebook, Samuel advises. Or at least ask yourself why you want to visit a particular place. Are you inspired or do you feel obligated by a guide book?

Fighting your fears during travel can give you more confidence in your daily life.

You can develop new routines like yoga, walking, journaling or sketching, since you have more time on vacation, Samuel says. It’s also a great time to record your experiences and experiment with creative outlets like writing or sketching.

But mindfulness isn’t only meant to make us relaxed and happy, Samuel says. Awareness means confronting both the beauty and ugliness of life – like injustice and pain.

“Our planet can be a joyful and heartbreaking place all at once,” Samuel says. “Embracing the paradoxes in the world, and in ourselves, is integral to mindfulness.”

When you’re back home, practice gratitude as the antidote to monotony. Or take a day with no plans. Be bored and watch your creativity come alive, Samuel says.

“The journey we have taken may have given us amazing experiences, expanding our being and sense of what is possible, but it is only through being still that we can begin to integrate this into our everyday lives,” Samuel says. “For it is in stillness that we can reconnect with our new-found sense of freedom and possibility, and what we have learnt about who we are beyond our conditioning.”

Samuel’s exploration of mindful travel – if only 141 pages long – helped me crystalize some of my thoughts on slow travel. I also got some ideas I’ll be looking forward to trying on my next trip.

But towards the middle of the book, I found myself skimming. I didn’t relate to Samuel on a human level, and I thought the writing was too meandering for my tastes. With phrases like “it can be quite distressing to witness” and word choices like “whilst,” the book felt lofty and formal.

Mindful Travelling is thought-provoking, if wordy. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s curious about mindful travel for a quick and pleasant read.

An interesting book! However, I did find it a bit boring sometimes, so I considered putting it down. I ended up skim - reading this book. I think I simply wasn't the right person to read this book...

I am unable to give feedback on this book as it was a PDF copy and expired before I was able to read it - due to this I am giving it two stars as it would be unfair to give it one

While this wasn't exactly what I expected - it focused more on a meditational approach to travel, and only a bit on how to be a mindful visitor in other lands - it was nonetheless interesting, easy to read, and had some good food for thought.

Mindful Traveling, is a simple book about, well, being mindful while traveling. An easy read and necessary reminder.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC to read and give my honest opinion!

Wonderful guide to mindfulness while you travel as the author gives us excellent examples on your journey to mindfulness and state of being.

Favorite Quote .... many of us are not used to our own company, solo travel gives us that!

What did I like? Author gave us a few exercises to practice mindfulness and I felt like they would work. Life becomes hectic and social media is full of vacation photos and pics but I wonder truly how much are we letting go. Even on vacation I feel hurried, when all I want to do is sit and relax. I’m guilted into doing things I don’t want to just to satisfy a child or person I’m with.

Would I buy this book? I’m told this might be part of a series, of mindfulness books that are being released so I would pick up this book. Mindfulness is something I feel that happens more as you get older and you realize the years have passed. You want more quality and not quantity.

Thoughts for the author? Loved some of the quotes, and thanks for allowing an ARC, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

GoodReads:
This is truly a beautifully designed book. I am sure it would make a lovely gift for the traveler or want-to-be-traveler in your life. For me personally, the balance of content was a bit off. It was focused entirely on traveling for pleasure. I was hoping to see some information on traveling for work. While it does discuss anxiety from traveling, it's mostly about anxiety regarding missing connections etc... but very little about things like going through security. Overall it felt like an introduction to mindfulness for traveling for fun, and I was hoping for something a bit more in-depth.

Good insight to doing travel. A different look into travelling for you, the planet and those around you. Makes you think a few points.

This is a fantastic little book for taking on holiday with you or for reading just before you go. It will remind you to stop and smell the roses and to slow down and appreciate everything around you. I think it will enhance your senses and help you make the most of each day. It left me yearning for a holiday so I could be more aware and mindful when I travel. It even addresses the touchy subjects of poverty and the not too pleasant experiences we might encounter while travelling. Overall a blissful little book that should be a must read for all travellers wanting to experience something deeper and more meaningful from their travels.

Sadly this wasn't really for me. I thought it would be helpful and interesting to read due to the mindfulness aspect but I am chronically ill so found it didnt really suit me. Sadly I had to DNF. Apologies for this as I rarely DNF but I didnt think I was best placed to review this book.

A wonderful book a guide to traveling with an open mind and heart.A perfect book to read while traveling to gift to someone about to embark on a trip, .#netgalley #quartobooks

Mindful Traveling is a fantastic book with great information. The book is well written and easy to understand.

Lovely little book on how to apply mindfulness to travel. Useful to read before a trip and during. I'll be taking it on my next journey for sure

I love the mindful series by Leaping Hare Press and this latest is a lovely addition to the meditative collection.

The author, a seasoned traveler-mindfulness practitioner, offers a compelling guide to visiting the world with heart wide open, allowing each new experience to change one in the marrow.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber

Samuel provides stories of transformative travel paired with mindfulness exercises, revealing time on the road as a wise teacher that can remake us in the moment and in life, if we are but open.

Highly recommended for travelers new, seasoned or arm-chaired!

Pub Date 03 Sep 2019.

Thanks to Sarah Samuel, Quarto Publishing Group — Leaping Hare Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#MindfulTravelling #NetGalley