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When we think of obligation, women – in particular – spring to mind. Historically, women have born the brunt of multiple expectations and roles. This has become all the more pronounced in an age where we’re a dominant force in the workplace; a liberation that (however welcome) ironically adds to our enormous plain of responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Read more: Three life-altering benefits of adventure hiking<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n “Women take on multiple roles in today\u2019s society,” reads an article from Cleveland Clinic<\/a>. “Some roles are by choice and other roles are chosen for women. Women\u2019s roles often include family obligations, caretaking for children and\/or elderly parent and work responsibilities as well as other roles.”<\/p>\n All too often, this roster of tasks leads to the erosion of our own desires; the self becomes stifled by obligations.<\/p>\n “As demands increase to fulfill these roles, women can feel overwhelmed with time pressures and unmet obligations,” the article continues. “They may feel a sense of failure in not being able to meet expectations for themselves and others. Often times women spend more time meeting the needs of others rather than nurturing their own needs. If functioning at high stress levels, women may not even recognize what their needs are.”<\/p>\n A drain on mental health<\/strong><\/p>\n Obligation takes its toll on men, too.<\/p>\n “Looking back on things\u2026when I was younger,\u00a0many<\/i>\u00a0of my expectations were set by family, friends and the people within my community,” says US-based therapist and mental health advocate,\u00a0Rwenshaun Miller<\/a>. “From the type of car I should drive to where I should live, and definitely, what I should do for a living.”<\/p>\n Read more: Want a happy career? Replace what with why<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Rwenshaun eventually became wise to the fact that these expectations were taking a serious toll on his wellbeing.<\/p>\n “Attempting to live up to the expectations and plans of others left me overwhelmed with stress and therefore contributed to the decline of my mental wellness, which evolved into moods of depression,” he writes for the Good Men Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n “It was too much to bear. As I began to focus more on my own interests, I began to drift away from thoughts built on the foundation of what others thought, and developed my own dream.”<\/p>\n Lifting the burden<\/strong><\/p>\n When you travel with people you know, you access some degree of freedom. You’re physically distanced from your everyday obligations. But, crucially, you still have someone who reminds you of them. Even if it’s as innocuous as something like, “Oh, how did that job interview go?” or “What about your mum, what does she feel about it?”<\/p>\n Read more: why every man should take a sabbatical once in his life<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Plus, there’s an added expectation that you will keep your travelling partner happy, whether that’s keeping the conversation flowing in a restaurant, or compromising over budget.<\/p>\n When you travel alone, you are entirely your own agent. No-one knows or cares about the obligations that have framed you throughout your adult life. You are free to do whatever you want to do, when you want to do it.<\/p>\n This also holds true if you decide to travel with a group of like-minded strangers, in the kind of scenario we facilitate here at Flash Pack<\/a>. Since you won’t know anyone, there’s no-one to hold you to your life and responsibilities back home. You can be who you want to be.<\/p>\n Revel in the freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n Obligation is the kind of stress that you only notice once it’s eased. And that realisation when travelling alone is a truly brilliant moment. Not only are there no obligations invading on you from back home, you also answer to no-one in the present moment.<\/p>\n Read more: Six career break worries that everyone shares<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n “Being alone freed me up,”\u00a0says Maggie Cawley, a 33-year-old who travelled solo from South Africa after she broke up with her boyfriend there. “People accepted me into their families, their homes, their friend groups. I wasn\u2019t intimidating. I fit in easily into their lives, being a single woman.”<\/p>\n “Somebody said, \u2018Have you ever heard of Mauritius?\u2019 I said, \u2018I\u2019ll look it up. It is four hours from South Africa and looks beautiful. I\u2019ll go there.\u2019 So it was totally just on a whim,” she tells Forbes<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The thing I like about traveling alone is the ultimate freedom you have.\u00a0 You can make the choice, what do you want to do that day,” she adds. “You can have a better sense of yourself, your own inner dialogue.”<\/p>\n An inner peace<\/strong><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BbJ7ZSbDVSr\/?hl=en&taken-by=elizabeth_gilbert_writer<\/p>\n Some people would say that shrugging off your responsibilities is selfish. That’s the accusation author Elizabeth Gilbert faced<\/a>,\u00a0as she embarked on a spiritual (and physical) journey in her bestselling novel, Eat, Pray, Love. Not everyone can afford to up sticks and escape their obligations when the going gets tough, after all.<\/p>\n But that’s the magic of an adventure by yourself. You’re not saying no to obligations and expectations forever more.You’re simply pausing the constant whirr of demands that have become so intrinsic to your everyday life. And that can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n Read more: Why women revel in the ritual of being single<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n “I get a lot of people who come to me,” says Emma Slade, a Cambridge graduate who traded in her life as a banker to become a Buddhist nun in Bhutan<\/a>. “People who\u2019ve done the right thing, they\u2019ve had a career, they\u2019ve gotten married, they\u2019ve had kids, they\u2019ve got a nice car, and they\u2019ve got a nice house, and yet they feel that sort of slightly empty feeling of not being dissatisfied, but not really being fulfilled.”<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BaQsUaPHPGj\/?taken-by=emmabhutan<\/p>\n To move forward, Emma says, these people need to find a calmness of mind. And this often comes from lifting the weight of obligations.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s worth placing a little bit more priority on cultivating a peaceful mind,” she\u00a0tells Time<\/a>. “Amid all the priorities that we have – we think we want to do this, we want to go there, we want to achieve that, or buy that – you very rarely find somebody that says, no, ‘I really want to make sure that in this life I develop a peaceful mind.\u201d So I think it\u2019s worth making that a little higher among the priorities.”<\/p>\n Plan your next adventure…<\/strong><\/p>\n Discover South Africa’s garden route<\/a><\/p>\n Explore the delights of Vietnam & Cambodia<\/a><\/p>\n Hike high and surf low in Morocco<\/a><\/p>\n Fancy a trip to jaw-dropping Jordan?\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/list-5.jpg\")
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