Ep. 57 Mindset & Tips for a Soulful Trip: Get Ready to Transform

Can a journey transform your soul and ignite personal growth? Join Smilie on an enriching exploration to uncover the secrets of soulful travel. Whether you're venturing alone or with loved ones, this episode offers practical insights into setting the right mindset for a meaningful trip. From planning and reflecting on your travel goals to understanding the profound impact of connecting with different cultures, Smilie shares his experiences from Italy and Spain to inspire your next adventure.

Ever wonder how to stay grounded and present during your travels? With Smilie's guidance on mindfulness practices, you can embrace flexibility and let go of rigid expectations. Learn the importance of meditation, self-reflection, and journaling to maintain a positive outlook throughout your journey. By following four essential steps—releasing control, being present, self-reflecting, and practicing gratitude—you can enhance your travel experience and foster a deeper connection with yourself.

What makes a trip truly unforgettable? Discover the art of capturing meaningful moments through photos and videos. Smiley emphasizes thorough research, planning, and intelligent packing to ensure a seamless experience. He also offers thoughtful journaling prompts to help you reflect on your journey before, during, and after the trip. This episode concludes with insights on self-care, connecting with your inner power, and the ripple effect of spreading love and kindness through your travels. Tune in and prepare to embark on a soulful journey of personal growth and mindfulness.

Chapters

• 0:03 Soulful Trip Preparations and Mindset"
• 12:38 Preparing Your Mindset for Soulful Travel
• 21:54 Preparing Your Mind, Body, and Essentials
• 31:33 Reflecting on Soulful Trip Experiences
• 45:51 Capturing Memories

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hola, boss Chica. Welcome to the Smiley Empowerment Podcast. This is where we celebrate the strength, resilience and determination of Latina women and all women who are constantly on the go, pushing through challenges and achieving their goals. I like to call these women Boss Chica. Like me, if you're a busy woman ready to be uplifted, inspired, empowered to take charge of your healing journey and be a Boss Chica, you've come to the right place. We can all agree, life can be hectic and overwhelming, but anything is possible with the right mindset, attitude, tools and support. Let me introduce myself. My name is Smiley Filomeno Rodriguez and I am a Latina life empowerment coach and a social worker. I started this podcast because I know what feeling alone and overwhelmed with past wounds and challenges feel like. I want to help you with self-discovery, self-love and self-empowerment so you can grow and thrive. Do you sometimes feel alone, desiente sola? Well, you're not alone. No, estas sola. You have me, your coach, smiley.

Speaker 1: 1:20

In each episode, I'll share personal stories of resilient healing, tips, practical advice, strategies for managing your time and priorities for improving your relationship with yourself and others, and insights on cultivating a positive and fulfilling joyful life. So grab your earbuds and tea or coffee, take a deep breath and get ready to be inspired and encouraged. Let's begin this journey together and empower each other to become the best versions of our lives. Let's get started. You got this. I am so glad that you tuned in to today's episode. It's actually episode part three of episode 57. It's actually part three of a series that is in four parts, and this is part three. This is episode 57. If you haven't listened to episode 55 and 56, I encourage you to do that. But today we are going to be unpacking and getting more inspired, so continue listening. I want you to discover how you can turn your next trip into a truly enriching adventure, a soulful trip that it's mindful. I want to give you some tips. I am also going to give you some journaling prompts, because it's so important for you to prepare for that soulful trip, as well as give yourself the time to reflect right, the time to look at what do you want to get out of this soulful trip, and I'm going to give you some tips on how to prepare beforehand it's so important as well as some journaling prompts that you can do before your trip, during your trip, before your trip, during your trip and post-trip for gratitude as well. So it's going to be a great episode. Stay tuned. Share it with those that you're going to be traveling with. Share it with other friends.

Speaker 1: 3:35

It's so important for us to cultivate an energy of mindfulness, an energy of traveling together to really explore yourself as an individual, but as well as sharing with that other person. If you are going with another person, it might be you and your bestie, it may be that you're with the family, or this may just be a solo trip, always safe. That's the number one thing, regardless if you're going alone or with someone. Just be safe. So let's get right into it. In preparing for a soulful trip, let's get into some of the mindset right that you need, and I want you to learn more about yourself during this trip. I want you to reflect on what do you want to get out of this soulful trip? And if you listen to episode 55 or 56, you're going to learn all about the different types of soulful trips the ones that could be a little bit more economical, the ones that could be a little bit luxe, that we could get into. That, as well as so many other great. Don't forget to listen to those previous episodes and part of this series about soulful trip planning.

Speaker 1: 4:45

I love it, I love it. I came back from my about soulful trip planning. I love it, I love it. I came back from my own soulful trip and it was with the family, with my hubby, which I love him, shout out to him my niece, my nieces and nephew, and sister-in-law and brother-in-law it was just an amazing trip and other friends. This trip was soulful for me because it allowed me to have some space to really learn a little bit about myself, as well as connecting to other cultures. We went to Italy, to Rome, we went to Spain Barcelona, spain. I mean we really dived into different cultures as well as connecting with each other. How we process that. So it was amazing.

Speaker 1: 5:24

I want to share with you, if you are planning your soulful trip and you're really looking at where do you want to go, what do you want to experience? It's so important. So first, let's talk about what is that mindset that you have to have in preparing yourself for a soulful experience, that soulful trip, yourself for a soulful experience, that soulful trip. So I'm going to give you about four tips in this area of preparing beforehand, how you could prepare your mindset. So get very comfortable, just clear your mind and be open to some of these suggestions. These suggestions are for you to get more into the preparation. These tips are going to help you with your mindset right how to prepare that mindset Because right now you may be burned out, you may be overwhelmed, you may be super excited but, at the same time, have so many thoughts about the trip and what are you going to do, and it could get a bit overwhelming even planning it.

Speaker 1: 6:27

So I want you to just clear your head, clear the space. Hopefully you're sitting in a space where you feel comfortable. If you're home, maybe you're lighting a candle, you have your journal, or if you're at the gym and you've been thinking sometimes, when we're at the gym and you're working out especially if you're on the treadmill or the stepper right You're feeling like very excited. You have the adrenaline pumping and you start thinking different things. This is the time to stay present and just be very relaxed. If you want to think about some of these mindset preps that I'm going to give you, it's fine, but I'd rather if you are in a relaxed state so you can really do the reflection.

Speaker 1: 7:08

So the first thing I want you to do in preparing for your soulful trip is to set your intentions right, to really set yourself for the trip and the way that you can do that, because many of you have shared with me I don't even know where to start. So where you start for setting your intention for your soulful experience, your soulful trip is setting those intentions by reflecting on the goals for the trip. Okay, but this is individually to you, right. So I want you to reflect, think through what you want to achieve while you're in this trip, right? What do you want to achieve from this trip? I'm going to give you some questions to start juggling your mind. Is it this soulful trip is for relaxation? Is it for bonding with yourself, your inner self, with others, with the person you're going with? Is this a spiritual growth trip for you? Is this a self-discovery? So these questions are going to help you to set that intention for what you want to achieve during this soulful trip. What do you want to accomplish with the soulful trip? During this soulful trip, what do you want to accomplish with the soulful trip?

Speaker 1: 8:27

In setting the intentions, you can also have some affirming statements that are positive, optimistic, right, and these affirmations you can use them to set those goals for yourself, to set your intention, and it could be as simple as saying I know that I am open to new experiences and personal growth. That's something you can affirm. And you can start thinking what are some of the statements that you are affirming for yourself in this trip? Notice how I used the word I know before I am, because one of the things that I want you to get more into affirming is what you know, and what you know is what you believe and what you know, and that's it, and that's what you have to affirm for yourself. I know my name is Smiley. There's no doubt in that. I know my name is Smiley. That is affirmed. I know it.

Speaker 1: 9:23

So you can say I know I am open to new experiences, new opportunities, I'm open to personal growth. And this is something that you could be setting for your trip, for your soulful trip. Why the affirmation or the statement, the belief about you're open to new experiences? Because when you're going on your soulful trip, no matter where that destination is, you're going to experience new things. You're going to meet new people. You're going to experience new things and, depending where you're going, you may stretch yourself a little more on the activities that you're going to do. So, from the beginning. In setting your intention, I want you to get encouraged to affirm the mindset and how you are going to be during the trip and you're going to be open to new experiences. If that's what you want to be open to, right. If one of your goals is being more in touch with yourself, you want to expand yourself, your mindset, right? You're going to say I know, I'm open to new experiences, I'm open to learning more about myself, I am open to personal growth. You see, that's what you can affirm. Okay, you're with me. I am so happy you're with me.

Speaker 1: 10:48

And the good thing about podcasts is that you can pause at any time that you want to just really work on one of the steps or a few at a time, and then go right back into it. That's why I love podcasts. You can forward, rewind, listen to me on speed if you're in a rush and you want to get to hear me a little faster and I sound funny too. All right, here we go, let's continue. So, number two, I want you to really take in that you are going to be in a different space.

Speaker 1: 11:22

So, setting your intention first, then followed by you being comfortable, embracing flexibility, then step number two in preparing your mindset for your soulful trip is allowing yourself to be open to the experiences, allowing yourself to welcome in these new experiences, and being flexible. So, in step number two, I want you to be in a mindset of flexibility, embrace flexibility and that's where you're open to changes, right In plans. Different things can happen during the course of your planning, as well as during the trip and even after, and having that mindset of being open. So in step two, right of preparing for your soulful trip, I want you to be open-minded, making sure that you are flexible with the plans, right, understanding that they could change, understanding that if you're traveling with other people their own personalities, their agenda different things can impact. Right, but it's always about you being in control of yourself and having the discernment to know when certain things you cannot change, they're out of your control.

Speaker 1: 12:38

How do you let go of trying to control it? So, being flexible, dropping being rigid, right. Some of you may have the personality that everything has to be planned X, y and Z, no room for mistakes, no room for changes. That's a little bit of black and white mindset and being rigid. I'm encouraging you and challenging you to get more flexible. So, in step two, it's embracing your flexibility, being more open, letting go a little bit of these expectations right and sometimes some realistic expectations that you may have set for yourself or for others that you're traveling with.

Speaker 1: 13:20

So, in step two of this mindset shift for soulful experience, let go. Let go a little bit, release a little bit that rigidness, release a little bit that rigidness that you have about yourself and do your best to say you know what. I'm going to have the discernment and you're going to say that to know when I can really step in and change something. When I can, and when it's out of my control, I'm going to release it. Right, just release it. That's so important. Some of you have a challenge with that. You may have a challenge with that.

Speaker 1: 13:59

So this is your time to prep for the soulful trip. This is all part of the preparation, and part of the preparation is staying present, and that's really step three. Staying present, practicing, being more mindful and present, and that means for you to focus, stay focused on what is happening at the moment so you can really have this opportunity to have a full experience of every single part of this journey, every single part of this soulful trip, and I've already heard from some of you that you've been planning your soulful trip months in advance, some people even a year in advance. Right, that's great. Now I want you to get into that mindset. Right, that's great. Now I want you to get into that mindset right as you're preparing, whether you've been preparing already and you're listening to this, or you have not started your prep, and this is going to be a guide for you. So that is super important In this section that we've been talking about prepping, which is so great.

Speaker 1: 15:02

These are the four steps of prepping for this soulful trip that I wanted you to stay mindful of. And in that step three, of keeping that mindfulness, you can also do a little bit of self-reflection, taking yourself to a place where you can meditate, whether that's in a corner of your home that you feel comfortable, whether that's walking and meditating outside in nature. Nature gives us so much tranquility, right. So incorporates a little bit of meditation on a daily basis. That can help you to stay grounded, to stay centered, to stay very present, because, remember, in the prepping, you still have your day-to-day life. Things can happen outside stressors, so be very focused. Okay, in step three. Step four is a beautiful experience that you can have as you're prepping for your soulful trip is really to be very mindful of what is working, what has been working for you, and nourishing yourself in the process as you pay attention to what's working.

Speaker 1: 16:18

And I would say that in step four, I want you to cultivate this spirit of gratitude, right. I want you to appreciate the journey that begins already with you prepping for the soulful trip. You can keep your own personal gratitude journal where you can write down sentences, phrases, notes on what you're thankful for each day, right, and you notice how I said. It could be phrases, it could be one word, it could be sentences, paragraphs. However you want to express your gratitude.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Some people like to doodle in their journal. You may like to draw. That is amazing. You may draw something. That is your way of translating that you're grateful for whatever that may be. Grateful for your dog, grateful for the trees that surround your home, grateful for your roommate, grateful for your eyesight, grateful for the sky that you're able to see with your eyes, grateful for your senses, whatever that may be. Grateful for your job, grateful for the opportunity to travel, whatever you want to be grateful for and capture it in a journal I will highly, highly recommend as part of your prepping for the soulful trip, because through that journey you're able to stay optimistic, you're able to hone in and be more positive and focus more on the parts of the trip that you're excited about, on the parts of the trip that you anticipate that about, on the parts of the trip that you anticipate that are gonna be great and you're already grateful, as if it already has occurred, grateful to express how the experience is going, even in the prepping.

Speaker 1: 18:13

And then, while you're there and it's just amazing to just get in touch with yourself, with those inner thoughts right, and be intentional about drawing out from yourself the aspects of you that are positive and are enthusiastic and optimistic. And if you're finding a little struggle with that journaling, you can then get curious right, get into the mindset of curious about your own self, of your self-discovery, of knowing a little more about how do you process, how do you process feelings at this present moment, not years ago present moment. So these four steps in the prepping can really help you to start getting connected with yourself and start identifying what is it that you want from this soulful trip. Okay, and if you have any questions, by all means share them.

Speaker 1: 19:11

We have now here in the podcast, at the top of the show notes, is that you can text me and you can leave me any messages or questions. You can email me. In the show notes I have all the information of that and, speaking of that, if you want to show some support, I use buy me a coffee If you want to support me in this journey of delivering the podcast to you guys. Actually, it's global now, please don't be shy of showing some support now. Please don't be shy of showing some support. Any size of support will do so. The link is in the show notes further down. It says to show support, and that is greatly appreciated, and I want to give a shout out to two supporters that have been really amazing. So when you support us here in the Smiley Empowerment and you're supporting me to continue putting out motivational content, content for inspiration, but also content that is to help you and guide you, if you want to show support, that is great and I love for those that have done that, and I want to give a shout out to Dionisia. Thank you for your generous support. Jose, thank you for your generous support and I hope that others will show some support and I will definitely give you a shout out. Also, take advantage that if you provide a support and you would like for me to address or unpack a little bit a specific topic that you would like address or unpack a little bit a specific topic that you would like or a concern that you would like everything on professional growth, personal growth, spirituality please let me know and, with that support that you offer, I will then do something special for you here, a podcast just dedicated to you, and I'll give you your shout out. So thank you for everyone who's considered to giving me and us here at Smiley Empowerment the support.

Speaker 1: 21:06

Now that you have done a little bit of prepping, I want to go into some tips to preparing beforehand. So we did talk about the mindset, and that's what I took you through in those four steps on how you prep your mindset right. So now that you're already with the right mindset, excited for your soulful trip, let's just go into a few tips that you can do beforehand. Right, and this is really good. This is really good because if you are in the midst of planning this soulful trip for next year or for whenever that may be, these tips can be super helpful. So, beforehand, this is what I want you to do and I encourage you to do.

Speaker 1: 21:54

First, I want you to really do your research. You have to do your research as you're planning. Do your research. That can be knowing your destination right. Learn more about where you're going. Learn about their culture. What are their customs and what are some of the key attractions that that place has? Right, that culture has. Where do you want to visit? So, in the research and in the planning, you want to make sure that you learn about their norms. You know about their customs because you always want to be mindful, respectful, right, and remember what we said in those earlier on. We talked about your affirming statements, right, that you're open to different cultures, you're open to new experiences. Right. So doing the research will help you to beforehand learn more about where you're going, the people that live there, the community, and this doesn't have to be if you're traveling to another country. This could be even in your own city, but remember there's different communities, there's different people right within the community. Remember there's different communities, there's different people right within the community. So doing that planning before doing the research can really help you. And planning some activities right in the research, in the planning that you're doing.

Speaker 1: 23:14

Be very mindful of choosing activities that are activities that you want to do. So be very intentional about the activities you want to do. Be intentional about the activities supporting and aligning the goals that you have for the trip, the intention that you that you have set for the trip. Right, because if you want to learn more about yourself and it's a spiritual journey that you've intended for, then be very mindful to choose activities that will support that right, such as, maybe you go within your trip you plan ahead to do some yoga do activities. Maybe it could be a spiritual hiking activity within the place that you go that you can find. Maybe there's some cultural tours if your intention is to expand yourself about culture. So, depending what your intentions are and what is it that you want to get from the trip, that's how you can then choose some of your activities very intentional. Now, you can do activities that maybe could be completely opposite to your intention, but I want you to be more mindful of this. You can do any sorts of activities and maybe you're traveling with your bestie and she has, or he has. They have activities that they want to do, different according to what their right, their intentions are and you may want to share in to that and she wants to share, may want to share with you on your activities. Just be mindful about planning ahead and researching those activities, like pricing of the activities, any restrictions that you may have, medical or physical. Always know to be very mindful about your stamina and how much you can do If you have a bad knee. Don't do a hiking trip. That's very rigid and rigorous, so be mindful of that.

Speaker 1: 25:19

In step two of planning ahead, I want you to really pack all your essentials, right. I want you to pack in a very smart way. So you want to pack light and I have to say this, a shout out to my husband he packs very light, more light than me. I'm learning more how to pack a little lighter. Packing a little lighter you need to be more smart about it, right? So, being very mindful about what you're bringing with you, what do you really need? And that includes, right, the comfortable clothes you're going to wear, the clothes that you're going to wear pertaining the activities so you could be comfortable, right? If you're bringing any reading material, try to keep light on that, right? Maybe you bring your journal because you are exploring yourself during this trip and having more of a spiritual connection. So you may want to bring some essential oils. If you're going to still practice meditation, you may want to bring those ringing bells that you may have at home. So just pack smart the essentials that you need always know.

Speaker 1: 26:27

Health and safety comes first, so make sure that you have your first aid kit and the necessary medications that you have for yourself as you travel. And also you could look at travel insurance for yourself All of this stuff as you travel. And also you could look at travel insurance for yourself. All of this stuff. You could do the research online and make sure that you are preparing beforehand. It's so important to pack smart. Also packing smart how you rolling up your clothes, how you packing that, and what I love is that on YouTube you get so much information and videos that you can view on other people that have the experience on packing smart, and there's so many tips and tricks and hacks that you can do pack your luggage, how to pack your bag.

Speaker 1: 27:12

I always love to take a backpack, so if you're going alone, you can do this, or if you're going with your bestie, one of you can, or both of you, because when you have a backpack and then you're in the trip. You can really pack a lot of essentials there. When you're walking around and you want to put in there a bottle of water, you want to have some essentials in there. So a nice backpack, light backpack, nothing big or heavy, it's something good to travel with. Now, in step three of this prepping beforehand I want you to know that this part is super important. I want you to know this, I want you to remember this in your prepping, in your planning beforehand it's important to have your emergency contacts.

Speaker 1: 27:56

You need to stay connected, right. So make sure, especially if you're traveling alone, especially if you're traveling alone, that your itinerary you share it with a few people that you trust back home, that they're trusted, that they can check in with you, maybe regularly. So stay connected. I know that when we're going on these soulful trips, we want to disconnect from people, places and things, because we may do this solo or we're doing it with our bestie and we just want to reconnect and not be in contact with other people that are maybe not part of the trip. But I do have to say, for safety reasons, even if you're traveling solo or even in groups, it's good to stay connected. So make sure that you share that itinerary with one or two people back home so they could know what are you up to. If anything should occur changes in weather, where you're at or different things then people back home are able to know where you've been in the last.

Speaker 1: 28:55

Let's say few days, right, just in case of an emergency. Keep your emergency contacts. Let's say a few days right, just in case of an emergency. Keep your emergency contacts. Make sure that you don't just depend on your phone to have key numbers, important numbers. I should say have a little notebook, go back in time a little bit and have you can have a little address book notebook that has your contacts maybe emails, things like that but of people that are key right To you, that are important. Keep local contacts also, the local emergency numbers of the location you're going to be in, what's the nearest hospital If you're going out of country, the embassy, the consulate all of that you need to have for yourself and not just keep it on your phone. Have it in this little notebook, in this address book. It's so important.

Speaker 1: 29:42

And lastly, in this section that I have of you preparing beforehand, it's important to also prepare your mind, as we were doing the mindset and your body as well. So, as you're getting ready for this soulful trip, if you haven't been exercising, and you know that in this trip you're going to be doing a lot of walking right, so beforehand, engage a little bit in regular exercising, right, engage a little bit in walking. I have a trampoline. Before my trip to Europe, I was really amping up on working on the trampoline because it was giving more energy to me as well as strengthening my legs and my calves because I knew there was going to be a lot of walking and that really helped me with my endurance during the trip.

Speaker 1: 30:27

Now that I'm back, even my hubby was saying I was so happy, Smiley, to see you walking so much with us, and there was times that we were climbing so many stairs that I was afraid that maybe you could not do it, but you did. You did everything. I mean, I paced myself, I had water, I stood hydrated, but I believe that the prepping beforehand, doing the rebounding with the trampoline, really helped me. So for you, it might be going to the gym, it might be doing something at home, but do some physical activity to boost that energy, to start boosting your mood, getting you prep right your body, getting it, prep your mind and make sure that you get rest before your trip. So, before the trip, as much as possible, don't break nights, don't overindulge in alcohol, don't really exert your body, especially if you're traveling, especially if you're taking an airplane or various planes. It doesn't do good for you to overexert yourself before the trip. So make sure that you're well rested before your trip. Okay, and that is great.

Speaker 1: 31:33

I want to leave you with a few journaling prompts, as I promised for your soulful trip. A few journaling prompts, as I promised for your soulful trip. This is in preparation pre and I'm going to give you a few. During that, you can have post and some gratitudes. Okay, so this is how we're closing. I hope that this has been helpful.

Speaker 1: 31:56

If you enjoy this, I ask that you show me some support. Show us some support for the podcast. You could go to the link in the bio. You can go to the link in the show notes, so you can show some support and I'll give you a shout out. I promise, and any size will do. I'm using buy a coffee. They're amazing, it's simple, it's safe for you to use. So I encourage you to show some support, especially, if you like this series, episode 55, 56, and this is 57. And right after this is episode 58, which concludes the series of this soulful trip planning.

Speaker 1: 32:29

So if you are into journaling and I would encourage you to do that I want to give you one or two prompts for you before the trip. So if you are planning the trip now and you're really just reflecting this is before you actually have gone on the trip I want you to ask yourself these questions. That could be your journaling prompts so it can help you beforehand. So what are my intentions for this trip? So I want you to ask yourself that what are my main intentions for this trip? And I know that I did that for when I was going to Europe and my main intentions was to open up to different cultures. I really wanted to have this experience with my family, so it was a family experience. But I also wanted time to reflect on me while I was out in the sea, in the Mediterranean sea right, I had moments that I was so intentional about thinking where I was at the moment in my life being a solo entrepreneur, recently quit my nine to five job. I wanted to reconnect with myself and my purpose. So what are my intentions for this trip?

Speaker 1: 33:43

I want you to ask yourself that, in reflecting, how can I remain open to new experiences and changes? I want you to ask yourself that how can I remain open to new experiences and changes? You see, I want you to already start thinking how you can stay open to new experiences, because you may want to experience new things, but you may still struggle with being rigid. So I want you to find yourself exploring a little deeper. How can I remain open to new experiences? Challenge yourself, ask yourself, how can you remain open, and you will start coming up with the answers for yourself, and you may have conflict, you may be like, oh, but I'm scared, but still the answers start popping up. I want you to go with the flow.

Speaker 1: 34:35

Okay, and another question that you can ask yourself for this, prepping before and reflecting before, is what am I hoping to discover or achieve, obtain during this journey? So, what are you? What are you curious about? What are you open and hoping that you will discover? About yourself, or about your bestie that's going with you, or about the people that you're meeting? What do you want to discover about yourself and others? Okay, now, if you are In the trip right now. While you're listening to this, I got you. I want you to reflect. Most likely, you already listened to the other episodes and now you're in your soulful trip and you're having a great time.

Speaker 1: 35:22

I still want you to take time to journal. You could do this by the poolside, you could do this while you're traveling in the tour bus, you could do this right At any time, and it could be a small notebook that you took with you to write. It could be your notepad, it could be your iPad, it could be your phone note, right. So I want you to ask yourself this what new experiences have I had today that were meaningful to me? So this is during your trip. It might be at the end of the night that you want to reflect back on what experiences you've had so far. So what new experiences have I had today that were meaningful to me? You see how I said meaningful to me, so it's to you, not anybody else.

Speaker 1: 36:04

Then I want you to maybe answer this question as well for yourself how did I connect with myself or others today? So, in your soulful trip because you're in this trip right now how did you connect with yourself and others? So answer for yourself in your journaling prompt that I'm giving you and I highly encourage for you to answer this how did I connect with myself and others today? And this will help you to see how are you doing connecting? It's almost like tracking, right? How are you involved? It might be that day one and two you're too overwhelmed, but you'll see it. Maybe you're more isolated, maybe you're not connecting with people, and that offers you the opportunity to reflect and pivot and make changes. Remember staying open and flexible.

Speaker 1: 36:49

Another question you can have for yourself to journal during the trip and to think about is what unexpected moments brought me joy or insight. So, what unexpected moments brought me joy or insight? And unexpected moments can happen at any time. So during your trip, I want you to reflect on that, right. What were those unexpected moments that brought you some joy or insight? Right, I want you to be intentional about connecting to joyful moments, and sometimes you experience during your trip joyful moments that they pass by and you're in them, but you're not intentional about stopping and reflecting and maybe being grateful and learning something from it. How did you feel when you connected? So, what unexpected moments brought me joy or insight? That's a good reflection, all right. So I hope that these journal prompts are helping you.

Speaker 1: 37:45

Now, if you are already back from your trip and you're like, wow, gee, I'm already back from the trip, this was great listening to this podcast, but I already went right and I had a great time, or whatever the experience was for you, I want you to reflect, also post-trip. So now take the time to unwind, right? Some people say I have to take a vacation from the vacation. Hopefully in this soulful trip. That was not the case for you. But if it was, then unwind, decompress. But I want you to take time to reflect on this past experience that you had.

Speaker 1: 38:23

These three journal prompts can help you to do that, so one would be I want you to answer this for yourself what were the highlights of my trip and why? What were the highlights of my trip and why Get into it? Start thinking about what were those highlight moments for you and why were they a highlight for you. Why was that moment or specific moments a highlight for you? What was it about it? Why, right? And another journal prompt for you is how have I grown or changed from this experience? So I want you to think about that and reflect and write down. How have you grown or how have you seen any change from this experience? Have you changed anything from you? What have you noticed? Take notice in post the trip, what you are frequently thinking about right away when you come back. Take notice of your body, your behavior, your thoughts. What has changed for you? Okay, and in this post trip, right that I want you to be intentional about reflecting.

Speaker 1: 39:34

Another journal prompt that can help you and I would love for you to answer is what lessons have I learned that I want to carry forward into my daily life, that I want to incorporate in my daily life? Right? What are some of those lessons that you learned? There could have been some tough lessons. There could have been some spiritual lessons. It could have been in a trip. If you went with the family, maybe there were some lessons there, right, about family dynamic, family communication.

Speaker 1: 40:03

But what do you want to apply from what you learned from this soulful trip to your daily life? And also, you may I want to stretch this a little further and say maybe there were things during your soulful trip that you observed in your own behavior or others that you're like you know what. I don't want to be that way anymore. I don't want or I don't want to encourage that anymore in my life, cause some of these attributes that came out during the trip or that I saw or even experienced in another culture, I really don't want to adapt that for me or I've seen myself maybe being that way in the trip certain things that I'm not too pleased. They don't serve my healthy mindset, they don't serve me to be more in tune and more calm with myself, and I don't want to actually continue to be that way when I go, when I'm home, so in my daily life. So think about that as well. Right, that's all part of the lessons, right? What did you learn that now you want to incorporate in your daily life and what are the things that maybe you want to release, cut out of your daily life that you maybe identified in this soulful trip?

Speaker 1: 41:22

And, lastly, the journal prompts that I want you to really work on in this journaling overall, whether it's the pre-planning, during the trip, post-trip. I want you to use this across whatever stage of the planning you are at. And that is gratitude, right, I want you to express gratitude to yourself, express gratitude to others, but I want you to start with yourself and I want you to answer these three questions that will help you in that journaling, in journaling your gratitude and being more in touch with it. One I want you to ask yourself what am I grateful for today? Not about yesterday, not about tomorrow. What are you grateful for today? And just let that come up for you. Just what comes first to mind when you ask yourself that?

Speaker 1: 42:18

Then I want you to ask yourself who did I meet that positively impacted me during the trip? Who did I meet that positively impacted my journey? So, during the trip, who did you meet that had a positive impact on you? Who was that and why? Why did they impact you? It could be a complete stranger that you met in one of the places that you stopped, in one of the cities, in one of the towns or communities or country. It might be a group of people that impacted you. I want you to take notice. What impacted you during your journey, during your soulful trip? What impacted you during your journey, during your soulful trip? Who was that person and why did they impact you positively?

Speaker 1: 42:59

Then I want you to ask yourself what moments of beauty or peace, or both did I experience today? So what did you experience today that you felt connected to beauty, to peace, right. What today made you feel that way? Okay, and then for you to conclude this planning ahead, I want you to continue to practice being mindful and present, and you can have some journal prompts that help you with that. I want you to ask yourself how did I practice being present today, like today, how did you practice being present? It could have been by listening to this podcast. It could be by going outside and just looking up to the sky. That could be a moment for you. So answer this how did I practice being present today?

Speaker 1: 43:55

Also, answer what sensory experiences stood out for me, and that could be using all your senses, right. Your sight, your sounds, your smells, the taste, the touch. Right, what sensory experiences stood out to me today? So it might be that you smelled an amazing candle today that you're like whew, that really helped me and stood out for me. I want you to get more in touch with your senses. That's why this is important to answer, and if, at first, you feel like this is a little challenging because I'm not noticing a lot with my senses, all you have to do is stop right now and notice, and you will. You notice around. What are you looking at? What are you seeing? Your sights, the sounds. What sounds are you listening to today? The smells, the taste, the touch. This helps you to stay present. This helps you to detach from distractions and be more about in touch with you and your senses as you are experiencing the day, the moment. Okay, and lastly, I want you to answer this question, and it's gonna help you to be more mindful, to be more present.

Speaker 1: 45:00

In what ways did I feel connected to the environment around me? So, in what ways? In what ways did I feel connected to the environment around me? So, while you did this soulful trip and now you're back, in what ways did you connect to the environment around me? So, while you did this soulful trip and now you're back, in what ways did you connect to the environment that you were in when you were in the soulful trip? Just be more mindful, following these tips that I encourage you to do and getting used to doing some journaling. That's why I gave you these prompts. It really can help you to establish, create, connect to a soulful experience, an experience that helps you to transform yourself. Right, soulful traveling is a transformative experience and that will help it to be a memory that lasts forever.

Speaker 1: 45:51

So I hope that you take photos. That's the last tip I have for you. If you don't like to take photos, push yourself a little bit to do some things that are different but that they can be so enriching to capturing the moments little video clips, little photos that when you're back home you can get into printing them. Doing a little album, do a collage frame, maybe a few that were the highlights of your soulful trip. Through the years you'll look back and you won't regret that. So I hope that this helps.

Speaker 1: 46:21

Stay tuned to part four, as we're going to be reflecting right Now. When you are back from a soulful trip, I want to help you to get into the reflection of this meaningful trip that you already experienced and how you can integrate right when you come back from this soulful trip. How do you reintegrate into your daily life, into the people, places and things back home now that you're back from this soulful trip? So I want to help you with that in part four, to conclude this series. I hope that this was helpful. Stay tuned for more.

Speaker 1: 47:00

Make sure that you're taking good care of yourself, that you are connecting with your inner power because we all have that within and that you enjoy your soulful traveling it's so important Solo, with your bestie, with family, with your children. It's, all in all, a beautiful experience and I hope that, whichever one you choose to do, that you do it in a safe way, being open to new experiences and bringing back to your daily life a more enriched you that's connected to this world in a way that it's meaningful, and that you're making more connection and spreading more love and kindness, and that's what we love to do here in Smiley. Empowerment is to spread more awareness, love and kindness. So go to the show notes, show some support. I highly appreciate it and I will catch you in the next one. This is your coach, smiley, signing out.