How Does Bicycle Touring Change Your Life?

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Travelling by Bicycle across countries has forever changed me as a person, for the better. There are many ways one can make a positive transformation through making the decision to jump on your bike and leave your ‘normal’ life behind for however long that maybe. Most of the sensation I am trying to explain in this post is internal reflections that I first hand have come to realise. And I will try my best to articulate these idea to you.

You really must, in my opinion, go on a bicycle tour to fully understand to complete multitude this way of travel can impact your life for the better.

Live Minimal

First off it is not like you choose to do this, but you are in a way forced through the nature of this way of travelling to live with as minimal ‘things’ as possible or the essentials. I have found that we really don’t need that many things to live a happy and fulfilling life.

With modern day marketing and such we are always told to buy this and buy that or we will be not worthy or whatever. And in my opinion I think this is a trap. I found myself falling for this too when I was younger, I would always update to the newest phone every year and spend all my money as soon as I got it on things I thought I needed to be happy. Don;t get me wrong they made me happy, but it did not last as long as the happiness I seem to get from the experiences and memories I have made while on my travels.

After learning to live with the essential items, I have taken this idea back to me life while not touring. And sold most of my possessions that I never really used that much anyway. 

Meditative states and a lot of free time to reflect on your life direction

This is one of the ideas about bicycle touring that I find hard to explain. Maybe because I have only been on 5 or 6 decent sized tours and I have not been doing it for a long enough time.

You get a lot of free time, and if you are riding solo you get a huge amount of time to yourself. Bringing about the opportunity to self reflect on where you are in your life. And ask a bunch of meaningful questions. 

Like; Where do I want to live? What do I want to do with my life? Who do I want to spend my time with? What is it that I really want? What will make me happy? How do I want to be remembered?

These questions can help navigate you into better direction in life. When on the road I get so many new ideas it is wonderful. You spend like 8 hours plus throughout the day repeating the same action over and over again.  I have always had a fascination with meditation and becoming more mindful. And at times you find you will get into states of mind where you reach some kind of flow state. Where you lose track of time and you disconnect from reality.

One of the reasons I go on these adventures is to find myself! How does that quote go? “Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself” there we go something like that. You will have passions that will be discovered. Everyday is a chance to learn and grow.  

Travel is important

I am sure many travellers can relate. It broadens your horizon on your individual outlook on the world. We can get trap into societies conditioning to watch the news and other negative outlets that present the world as this place that is evil. Which yes, I guess you get some bad apples hear and there, but for the vast majority the world is beautiful. 

I feel it is a game, with each new culture you expose yourself too you learn more and more, leveling up. 

Travel helped me get out of my comfort zone. Pre-travel I was shy little bugger. I remember back at school I would be terrified to do a speech in front of the class. I would dread the idea of it. One time the teacher actually let me film a video of my talking at home and have it play. It is crazy looking back at how my belief systems were back then. But when I made the decision to just go on that first international trip to the USA. I was forced to make new decisions on a daily basis that was way out of my comfort zone but I had no option to shy away from it. Not like you can just book a ticket home every time you face a little bump in the road.

I have learnt to just expect that things don’t go to plan and that is all part of the journey. And more so that is what makes it a adventure.

Being on the bike you are in the position for human interaction and communicating. Which is something I shied away from before. But over time you get to be this person who loves having a chat with a complete stranger. 

Through travel I learnt a great deal of independence through having to make all these decisions by myself. I felt as though I can function properly in the world.

Freedom is something that travel provides and it is one of the things that attracts me most. I love the idea of doing what I want, when I want, with who I want. I have always had this idea of not wanting to work for someone and be self-employed. I would get this form of anxiety when I looked at my watch with 5 minutes until I had to be at work to start my shift. It was like a type of burdon pulling away from my dreams. I am so grateful that I get to have some kind of freedom to work on my own terms. 

Learn to communicate better

This brings me to the next way bike touring changed my life. It has helped me to talk to people and ask questions and really get to know someone, developing my social skills. Like I said before you are constantly interacting with new characters on the road. As they are naturally interested in you. It is something about a loaded up bicycle that gets people interested. And their inner curiosity sparks. Which is a great ice breaker to get to talk to many people from all walks of life. Over time I have learnt to just accept people for who they are and not to judge, we are all different. Everybody has something to teach you. Weather that is a homeless person or a local business owner, say.

The people I have met on the road while bike touring give a tremendous amount. Weather that is because when travelling by bike you seem vulnerable to them. And because they are the kindest souls. People try to help out in whatever way they can. From giving you a bottle of water on the side of the road to opening their house up to you for the night.

Through communicating with many people while bicycle touring it has restored my faith in humanity. 

Made me a better storyteller

When I go on a epic adventure and come back I find I get better and better at telling stories of all the amazing things I have done to my family and friends. When at times they may not like it when I bring up a random time when; I met this crazy, random dude just walking on the side of the road with no shoes in the middle of nowhere in the Australian outback.

I found through recording my travels and sharing it on my YouTube channel. I put more thought and planning into how I am going to get across my message. And this has also helped me to become a better communicator.

In conclusion

Bicycle touring for me is one of the greatest ways to see a country and fully dip yourself into a culture and way of life. You get to see how people actually live. Being a true traveller compared to a tourist. And for me this is the difference that makes it all that much more worth it.

How has travel changed you?

I wrote a similar post about how travel in general has changed me. If you are interested I have also included those ideas and thoughts below.

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In this post I’m going to talk to you about, ‘how travel has changed me.’ I also would like to know how travelling has changed you, so if it has changed you in any kind of way feel free to leave a comment at the end of his post or even shoot me a message. I love talking travel and would love to get to know your story. 

Travel and specifically bicycle travel has changed me in many different ways. 

I feel as though my entire life has been reshaped into experiencing more travel and continue to travel in future. It seems to be almost one of my main priorities, to plan the next trip. It is crazy fun, when you plan the next trip and go on a trip. Then the anticipation for the next trip and the next. It is a constant circle of wanderlust. For sure I have the travel bug and I don’t think it’s going away any time soon. 

I feel it has helped me to be able to inspire and help others in regards to their personal travel dreams. Whether that’s through my YouTube channel or has you are reading here on this blog. I really get a sense of fulfilment. When I get messages from some of you guys. Saying that my videos have impacted you and help you to get out there to see the world for yourself. At the end of the day that is the main reason why I do the videos. I have a great sense of gratitude for being able to share my adventures and for people to watch. 

I realised how cool Australians are. This is funny, when I went to the USA most of them love Australians. I am not sure if it’s because of the accent, but I came to the realisation that my home country is actually pretty cool and it makes me more grateful and appreciative of my home country. And what it means to be Australian. 

I also realised that you don’t need a lot of stuff to live a happy and fulfilled life. I could talk about this idea forever. But essentially I discovered the importance to focus more of my time and energy on experiences and making memories. Over trying to only attain heaps of physical things. 

I have witnessed the true power of how kindness can transcend to each and every one of us. With no worries about ethnicity or colour. The best way I have found is through bicycle touring you meet so many people from all walks of life. They all are interested in your adventure and want to get to know you. And as a result you get to know them. So many people on my travels have shared kindness through; Just a nice conversion, cold bottle of water in the middle of the desert, some help with directions, some free food. To allowing me to stay with their family for a night or even spending an entire day showing me around their local city. Interacting with people all over the world. And knowing that humanity is largely positive, makes me have huge faith in people.  

Travel has made me much more open minded and has broaden my horizons. I have grown out of my comfort zone. And it’s interesting what seems weird and strange to you is somebody else’s every day normal. 

Travel is a huge confident booster! It has made me believe in myself and give me confidence to be who I am and do what I love and to just have a general positive outlook towards life. 

These are just some of the ways travel has changed me and I only wish that I can continue to go on many more adventures all over the world and I hope the same for you. If you’ve travelled before please let me know, how it changed your life?

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