Just How Empowering travelling solo and camping alone Is.
There are real advantages to travelling solo. Obviously more than not combing your hair, even though I do go out of my way to bath every day. You worry less about others judgement when there is no one to judge you. More than just appearances, this can lead to dancing alone on an empty beach too. No one is there to care what you do, so you don’t care either. Embrace your inner child.
“Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner, but I feel more lonely in a crowded room with boring people than I feel on my own.” -Henry Rollins
You spend time alone, and you have to have long moments of introspection. Your self-talk is often the only voice you’ll hear. Moments like this will let you look at problems in your life and the world from a distant perspective. The wider view will help you find out what’s important…really important. Societal norms and the value of some people will slide out of the murkiness for you to judge. Alone isn’t lonely.
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” -Jim Morrison
To continue on those thoughts, people often think meditation is only finding quiet inside, and that will be easier when there are no other voices to hear. To me that is the perspective of someone just starting their journey. It’s a partial truth, sometimes meditating on your problems can be healthy as well.
“A wise man is never less Alone than when he is Alone.” -Jonathan Swift
I’m pretty empathetic of other people as well, so camping alone spares me the emotional drama of other people’s problems in the moment. Like I said though introspection and evaluation might have you mulling over others who aren’t there as well. But again, that distance changes emotional context.
Do you truly know yourself and understand who you really are?
An obvious benefit is more room to pack. I can tell you from the three times I have camped out with others this is a huge truth. Not just their body in the passenger seat, but their clothes and camp equipment in the back. That’s a lot of my camping gear that I put aside and didn’t get to pack. Let’s call it less personal comforts.
“Ordinary men hate solitude. But the master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.” - Lao Tzu
Obviously, you get to choose your own route too. If I decide to hang a quick left because a road or sign looks interesting, I don’t have to worry about wasting someone else’s time. I do that a lot. I don’t have to pull over for other bathroom breaks or needs like hunger or thirst. This flexibility, changing your itinerary means do everything you want and nothing you don’t want. No pressure to be on the go. Let’s you explore with no consideration for another person.
“I’ve sold my soul for freedom. It’s lonely but it’s sweet.”-Melissa Etheridge
Another benefit to having no plans or arrangements is the ability to adapt to problems. This lets you accommodate issues like weather, and that can be huge. Sleeping in my car by myself isn’t very comfortable already, and sometimes you have to. Trust that truth. Picking camp sites by necessity is easier when it’s just you to consider.
“…A lot of people don’t like being alone because they truly don’t like themselves, but I love me.”-Gene Simmons
Your Life experience broadens with your perspective. Nothing changes the way you view your world like seeing the way other people live. You also learn to live in the moment with fewer distractions. You value experience over things. You learn to roll with things. You are more open to different ways of life.
“I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”-Henry David Thoreau
Being a man travelling alone makes you less threatening than travelling with friends. People are still a touch wary, but you are way more approachable. This lets you share more moments with strangers, and the irony of camping alone isn’t wasted just seemingly poetic.
“What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.” -Confucius
You will get to know yourself better.
You will learn how to rely on yourself. When you’re the only one making plans, or arranging your camp site and there is no one else to lean on. You learn to live with your little wins and losses as you discover more about yourself inside and out. This is what freedom really is, your consequences are your own. Learning self-reliance is good for your well-being as you discover how much you can really step outside of your comfort zones.
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” -Buddha
When you are by yourself you take time to become engaged in doing activities that you really love with no anxieties about how well you perform or how accomplished you are at them. The joy is the doing and experiencing and in your own expressing your creativity. It can be a most rewarding experience. Experiment with your own abilities and interests and you may come up with that little something that will be life changing.
“Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up”-Veronica Roth
Leaving a personal comfort zone can be intimidating, but fear is a human emotion. Being scared is exciting and stimulating. Being brave is impossible without fear and so pushing those boundaries is huge self-discovery. Let me assure you, laying alone on a beach in the dark, you will find your fear as well. The primitive instinctive fear of the dark, of the super natural.
“If you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone.” -Richard Yates
You’ll have endless memories when you share stories about your travels. Because this camping trip was only yours and it’s an experience people will be enthralled hearing about. They’ll be thinking it’s something they should have done themselves and will day dream about it, imagining. As long as you make the most of your solo camping, your stories will be amazing and your passion will show.
