Spiritual tours and travel are everywhere, it seems. So how do you know whether you should take a spiritual tour the next time you travel, as opposed to a regular tour, or just going on your own? Here are the Top 10 reasons to take a spiritual tour:
10. See an exotic culture and country, and learn how they worship and live. Spiritual tours - good ones, at least - will often give you insights into, or enable your participation with, how the locals pray. It's a great way to see past the general tourist experiences most foreigners would get, into the hearts and minds of the culture you are visiting.
9. Make life-long friendships with like-minded people. Many people on these trips think like you do, or are open to new ways of thinking. It's an opportunity to be more yourself in an environment where you will grow the friendships that come with being together for a week or two, uninterrupted. Single ladies, many tour companies can match you with other women as a roommate, and these "accidents of accommodation" can often form the basis for an excellent friendship.
8. Be pampered in a place where you won’t be distracted by daily life. Many tours include massage, meditation, facials, yoga, and time to lie on the beach. Since you won't have your kids, your phone, and your job needing your time, this can be just the ticket to allow yourself to really relax.
7. Renew your spiritual commitments. Often on a spiritual tour, people find themselves starting new habits, such as meditation, prayer, or journaling. All of these can be commitments you can carry back with you into your life at home, no matter how long it's been since you got away from these choices, or even if you never started before.
6. Visit sites like a pilgrim, not like a tourist. For many people, this can be an incredible difference. In Bali, for example, dressing like the locals do to pray, means being able to go into the inner sanctuary and being blessed by the pedanda (Balinese priest), getting to participate in prayers, and sometimes seeing cremation or marriage ceremonies that are normally off-limits to tourists.
5. Awaken your senses. Most people visit places like the Great Pyramid on their bus, see it, and then leave. Imagine the difference getting to go inside of it, and perform an initiation ceremony based on an ancient Egyptian mystery school. This kind of spiritual jump start can awaken your senses and quicken your growth tremendously, and many tours offer several such experiences on a single trip.
4. Get private access to some of the most amazing places in the world. On a spiritual tour, often special sites are viewed privately, where it is easier to do a ceremony or initiation. Yes,the cost of the trip will be higher because of it, but in a place like Karnak Temple, which is over 5 acres, to be one of 20-60 people on the grounds, as opposed to thousands of people and guides speaking in ten languages at once, can be an awe-inspiring experience not to be missed.
3. Create new habits of meditation, yoga, prayer, journaling, and connection to “all there is” On spiritual tours, there is often time built in for reflection and recapitulation that can help you delve into and make sense of what is happening to you while you are experiencing it.
2. Make a deeper spiritual connection – whatever your higher power is. Most people who go on spiritual tours experience a blossoming of their faith, whatever it is. It's a great opportunity to do something we modern people rarely do, and that is to focus on our inner journey while we are on our outer journey. People can have minor shifts, such as an AHA! moment about something that has been weighing on them, or more major ones, like realizing they need to change the direction of their lives. Occasionally, people make a powerful connection with Spirit, even if they have never done so before. Spiritual tours can help you achieve all this, and that's the underlying intention of the trips.
And the number one reason to take a spiritual tour...
1. Get away from your day-to-day distractions so you can focus on the most important thing in your life… YOU
If you're considering a spiritual tour, why not travel with Spirit Quest Tours on the trip of a lifetime!
Halle Eavelyn is Julie the Cruise Director for Spirit Quest Tours, which creates incredible, life-changing trips to exotic locations around the world, just for you! Check out our Eat, Pray, Love Bali trip, coming up next May!