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March 29, 2011

The 7 Essentials of Being a Nomad

Written and photographed by Ursula Jorch

Rising with the Light

Many people have asked me how I do it, how being a nomad works in the day-to-day.  They ask, because they see the possibility of doing something like this themselves, to break free from their daily lives and their stuff, and to explore the larger world.

The start of every new adventure is to allow yourself to consider the possibility.

So this post is all about how to make breaking free happen.  Even if it’s just for a few weeks, it is an experience that will surprise you with unexpected a-ha’s and woohoo’s!

Here are the 7 essentials of being a nomad:

1.      Plan ahead at home.  Make arrangements so that your time away is as free of concerns about what’s happening at home as possible.  That could involve arranging for mail holds or pickup/forwarding to your new location, care of your home and yard, renting out your home or swapping it with someone else (and earning or saving some money to finance your trek), and online or automatic bill payments.

2.     Plan ahead for the road.  Uprooting yourself from your day-to-day life for more than a week or two can be a little unsettling, so if it helps you to feel braver in other ways, plan ahead a little bit.  For example, you may want to arrange for the first place you’ll stay while you’re away, to give you a home-away-from-home base to start from.

3.     Don’t plan ahead.  What?!  This isn’t a contradiction: as much as you can tolerate it, don’t plan.  Just go where your intuition leads you.  Nomads follow where the grazing is good – whatever spiritual, emotional, or intellectual grazing you need to do, follow that nourishment.  For example, next month, I’ll be travelling to Europe, a kind of pilgrimage to my cultural homeland – I didn’t see this one coming, but it’s an intuitive urge I’m going to follow!

4.     Be open to adventure. You’ll come across some surprising opportunities – take them!  This is the doorway to unforgettable experiences.  I had the opportunity to be part of a hot-air balloon rally in New Mexico – and I took it.  I helped set up, photograph, and take down a balloon after landing, and had a blast!

5.     Expand your world by putting yourself out there and connecting.  One of the benefits of the mobile life is that you’re constantly meeting new people.  Even if you’re travelling with someone, you can open yourself to new people by striking up spontaneous conversations, going out on your own occasionally, and showing interest in other people.  This opportunity is incredibly rich.  If you choose to, meeting these people can broaden your perspectives, and occasionally even rock your world.  Rock on!

6.    Stay grounded.  All the uprooting that occurs in the process of travelling around from place to place can be unsettling.  Find ways to keep you grounded in yourself.  One practice that I’ve found especially valuable is a morning ritual: mine includes physical exercise/yoga/stretching, inspiring reading and affirmations, and emotionally supportive things like picturing the quality of my day right after I wake up.

7.     Take especially good care of yourself.  Your physical and emotional wellbeing are always paramount, especially as you challenge yourself with new environments and experiences.  Getting daily exercise (which lets you see new places close up), eating really fresh and healthy food (which lets you explore markets and local foods), and taking things at your own pace (which keeps you emotionally centered) are keys to good self-care.

This experience of being a nomad stretches you, it breaks you open a little (or a lot, if that’s what you choose), and it moves you into a closer connection with yourself, an inner knowing, in a way that might not seem possible from where you are now.

That connection is what you will carry with you when the nomad-ing is done and you return to your regular life – or create a new one!

Cherish it – it’s priceless.

 

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Filed under: Change, Personal Growth 

Comments

7 Comments on The 7 Essentials of Being a Nomad

  1. Kevin Trudeau Daily Life Essentials on Tue, 29th Mar 2011 10:43 am

    2. [...] Link: The 7 Essentials of Being a Nomad | Ursula Jorch | The Intentional … [...]

  2. Noreen CampbellNo Gravatar on Tue, 29th Mar 2011 5:55 pm

    3. Ursula! My she-ro! Love it. When I get to this point, I will remember this! Continue to have fun on your great adventure.

    [Reply]

    Ursula JorchNo Gravatar Reply:
    March 30th, 2011 at 9:18 am

    Aww – thanks, Noreen! Wanna hear about your nomad dreams! Go for it!

    [Reply]

  3. JoyNo Gravatar on Wed, 30th Mar 2011 6:30 pm

    4. Beautiful wisdom from your journey, Ursula! Thank you. Have a blast in Europe next month!!! Can’t wait to hear more about it when you post.

    [Reply]

    Ursula JorchNo Gravatar Reply:
    March 30th, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    Thanks Joy! I look forward to sharing about this next leg of the journey.

    [Reply]

  4. Sue SullivanNo Gravatar on Tue, 20th Dec 2011 12:09 pm

    5. Ursula,

    This is a great post! I have had similar experienced in my travels. I’ve even questioned if I was doing too much work ahead of time getting things in place, like the right shoes, the right backpack, easy access to information, etc. But it has always paid off in a great trip where I feel free to follow my bliss and not worry about all those details.

    Thanks for sharing your wonderful experiences :-)

    [Reply]

    Ursula JorchNo Gravatar Reply:
    December 20th, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    You’re welcome, Sue. Being able to be present and really enter into a new place without worrying about your stuff amps up the whole experience – great that you’ve done that!

    [Reply]

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