I always hated it when people came back from a trip and then proceeded to talk about nothing else but that trip for the next six months. Well, I've become one of    orta. About a year ago I set out on a spiritual journey to reclaim all the pieces of myself I had ignored, hurt, and lost. I know that spiritual travel is intense, but I just can't even begin to describe what it was like to have this experience, although I've certainly been trying. In part, my sharing comes out of a desire to tell people about my own joyful self-reclamation and share the power of the experience; and in part, I tell people because I want to encourage them to go on their own spiritual pilgrimage.

It isn't enough to just go on living, thinking that you will change in all the ways you want to. Sometimes, you have to sort of cold-shock yourself, much like you do the batteries on your phone. I mean, I restart my computer all the time when it starts acting weird. Why not do the same thing for myself, on a personal level. My trip was not something I just did out of the blue. I had been feeling the need to get away and really spend some time with myself. I wanted to get to know myself and do the healing that I have been needing to do for so long. I kept having visions of myself dancing on a beach on some foreign shore to music I'd never heard before.

My trip wasn't all parties on the beach of course, although those were certainly fun. I also took classes and workshops while I was there and learned so much more than I ever could have imagined I would. Is it cheesy to say that I'm a completely different person? Because I am, I absolutely am. I am not somebody who is comfortable following their intincts and listening to their higher self. I know who I am and what I want and I am no longer afraid to ask for it. Now, this change wasn't made overnight, of course. I had some pretty amazing experiences that awakened some very deep concepts and ideas in me that I had to confront. I have worked very hard to remain aware of what I believe is my own highest truth.

When I came home, I expected everyone to immediately see how different I was and to respect the new me. That didn't exactly happen right away. People treated me as they always had, but this time, I was ready for it. I refused to be a doormat and began to tell people how I wanted to be treated and they listened. Many complimented me on my newfound self-confidence. Every day I sit down and do a meditation. Sometimes I just sit and think on all I learned and how I incorporate that into my life, and other times I simply just sit and listen. It is one of the things I learned how to do while traveling and I've never stopped. I think that the practice of that meditation is one of the best things that I brought back home with me. Now that I've done my initial healing, I can't wait to go on other spiritual journeys and see what else is out there for me to learn.

Written by Melissa Bryson. J   om offers personal development tools and workshops including    .