Finding the inner strength

It has always been clear to me that the best way to travel is on two wheels. Being on the road for most of the time while feeling the wind and weather conditions directly on your body. Without a doubt a cocktail of emotions that makes you vibrate. And now he needed a new challenge. Something that I had never experienced before but that allowed me to continue to leave my comfort zone. Something that was not easy for me. I have made long trips by bicycle, but never by motorcycle, as I did not have the degree.

So as soon as I got it, I planned my next trip. What I didn’t know at the time is that what I saw so clearly in my mind could turn out to be too long and complicated a journey for someone who had only ridden 125cc motorcycles and had a one-week license. Taking a 750cc, 220 kg motorcycle with a load through a totally unknown area and with roads in the worst conditions that I could expect would be a much greater challenge than I had imagined.

Travel preparations is always the part I like least. I don’t like preparing or organizing anything: I enjoy flowing more. So, I leave it all for the last day and last second (which gives more intensity to the challenge), in this way I do not overwhelm myself and avoid factors that limit me and complicate my trip more. But it is precisely there when I feel the most fear.

The decision-making process is quite fun. First you think about what you want to do, where to go, you have ideas about how, etc. Little by little you go around it until you translate that initial idea into something more serious and firmer. And you feel a lot of emotion and you want to live it (everything is already in your mind, even if it is totally different afterwards from how you had imagined it). But once the days go by, it is inevitable to feel that common and present feeling before starting an adventure of this type: fear.

It is in the days before starting the trip, just when I see that I will have to face the unknown imminently, is when I feel the most fear. But after having lived so many similar experiences, you simply know that there is no alternative. It is normal to feel fear, and it will always be there. The important thing is to stop listening to it and take the step into the unknown. Something that helps a lot in this regard is sharing it with your close circles: then you know that there is no going back. Once you decide to accept and face those fears (will I be prepared? Will everything work out?), Everything starts to go smoothly.

On the day of the trip I left the door of my house and that fear no longer existed. There were only positive emotions. I felt an intense tingle and I couldn’t stop thinking what I would say about what I was about to experience if I met someone I knew on the street. The decision was made. I was about to step out of my comfort zone again. And that encouraged me even more. The further I get from the point of origin, the more motivated I am. The further I get away from the known, the more I get into my natural habitat.

My goal with this trip was to see where my limits were. Live a totally new experience that took me out of my comfort zone in a totally different way than what I was used to. And of course, I did.

What at first seemed like a vibrant route capable of generating unique memories, little by little became a very hard physical challenge. I was in the middle of North Africa with a very heavy motorcycle that I had trouble controlling. My lack of experience was beginning to show. A sun that did not stop emitting incessant rays on me, made the heat unbearable. All this made me very tired with driving, until I lived moments in which I had a really bad time. What was the purpose of all this? Why had I decided to make this hard journey?

Nothing made sense in those moments. But it is in those hard moments that I remember exactly why I embark on trips of this kind. It is in those moments when I can’t help myself that I understand again that life is just that. I don’t think we are made to live to work in an office from 8am to 3pm and earn a fair salary to survive. I disagree with the idea of having to direct and dedicate your whole life to it. I sincerely believe that we were born for much more. And right there, under the warm African climate and with a motorcycle that weighed 3 times more than me in my hands, I remembered it. That was exactly what kept me going.

It’s hard to explain how you feel right now, but if I can describe it in any way, it’s more alive than ever. Emotions are a very strong mix, but there was one main one: to move on and think how to move forward. And that’s what I did, feeling one of those transformations that allow us to take a step forward towards our best version.

But the adventure had to go on. There is something truly transformative and that only in places like this can we experience. And that would be my next stop.

For several days I collaborated directly with a group of Spanish volunteers at a local school.

Being able to share so many moments with the children and young people of the town, people who want to change the world and who leave their skin helping other people and trying to change the rules of the game to be able to live in a better world, is something that does not have price. I felt more alive than ever, full of energy and like a little boy who is exploring and learning every day from everything he sees. Pfff, there is so much so much to learn and so much and so much to see that it really is an indescribable feeling… And I learned a lot from these wonderful children and young boys.

The first thing I did was reaffirm how lucky I am, not only for living in a country with all the comforts, comfort and possibilities that Europe has. But also, to have the possibility of going to other regions of the world to see how they live, how they think, how they interact. But what I really felt lucky for was having the desire and interest to be here with them and learn. I will never forget them, neither them nor their attitude and vital energy.

An adventure as intense as the one I was living, apart from generating experiences that you always remember, also consumes a lot of energy. So, I needed to stop, rest and gain strength to continue with the trip, so I took my experience of isolation with great enthusiasm and enthusiasm. It was in a cabin very close to the beach. There I lived with two young boys and a large number of different animals. A totally unique experience.

I had so much to think about, reflect on and so many moments in my mind that I felt the need to slow down to think about everything I was experiencing. The truth that became the moment I remember the most as “flow or arousal”. I remember I had the energy, I was in the perfect environment to develop my thoughts, work on my ideas, meditate, sit and contemplate and be grateful for everything I had.

It was a moment that in this case I can describe: MAGICAL. At the same time that my body worked slowly, my head flowed 10,000 times faster at the level of ideas and moments. Perhaps it would take 100 whole days in Spain to develop and generate all the ideas that I had in 3 days isolated in that little African hut. And it is that we do not realize it until we experience it.

We live surrounded by noise and stress, at all levels. And that all that does is occupy our minds with negativity and thoughts that lead us nowhere: they cloud our ability to create. But when we managed to disconnect from this routine and overloaded world, we discovered that our mind was capable of much more. We just hadn’t given him enough space to express himself. We had not allowed ourselves to connect with ourselves.

After those days in isolation I felt very grateful and very happy for what I experienced. Making the decision to start this adventure was one of the best things I did. I felt new and ready for all the new challenges that might arise. What at first seemed like a never-ending challenge without any meaning became one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. The original idea was to go from Spain to Senegal, and I ended up doing a lot more! So much so that it crosses countries at war and inhospitable regions. And all that only showed me one thing: that I am capable of doing much more than I think. I surpassed myself and pushed my limits a little beyond my comfort zone again, expanding and feeling even more powerful than I already had. And all that only showed me one thing: that I am capable of doing much more than I think. I surpassed myself and pushed my limits a little beyond my comfort zone again, expanding and feeling even more powerful than I already had.

I have learned a lot on this trip. Especially from human relationships. I have greatly improved my interpersonal skills and have had a lot of time to clarify what I want, who I am and where I am going. In addition, I realized that not everything depends on me, but that many times I have to flow more with the environment and accept everything that happens around me.
Thus, thanks to this trip I have been able to:

1. Know myself better and know how to face adverse situations.
2. Relativize day-to-day problems according to the needs of the moment.
3. Enjoy the present and what I have in the moment.
4. Listen more and talk less. I am a tiny part of this universe where everything is interconnected.
5. Always help others and be nice to everyone who crosses my path. The power of appreciation is too great not to use.
6. Smile, smile and smile. The harder and harder the moment, the stronger I must smile and move on.
7. Never give up. There are always moments when you think you can’t take it anymore, but it is always possible to continue.

The return to routine after such a trip is rare. It’s like you’re not here, but your head is beyond. Like you feel more alive where you were than where you are now. The truth is that it is a mix of very intense sensations. You have the feeling more than ever that everything is temporary and nothing is forever. Like that we are part of the whole and that we are nothing independently. As you feel smaller in terms of the ego and the material and enormously larger in terms of the spiritual, to flow, to feel and perceive.

You have the feeling that nothing changes but at the same time everything changes. You feel that you are no longer you. You have evolved. You have changed, although surely what happens to you is that your priorities, therefore your scale of values, have changed forever! I believe that experiences like this change you so profoundly that they affect you in all facets of your life. And the truth is that it is a change for the better.

It has helped me a lot on a day-to-day basis, learning how to face it and how to overcome adversity and problems that arise. There is a connection between what you live in such an adventure and what you live in your routine. At a different level, but everything learned and lived can be transferred.

Having had to face so many adverse situations, you get many tools to overcome day-to-day problems. Now you will no longer see problems as such, you will see opportunities to overcome. And one of those very useful tools is your memory. You will be able to remember moments of your adventure, and relive how you overcome them. This will help you tell yourself that anything is possible, and that you can apply that same spirit to your current problem, but for this, we must first say yes to an adventure into the unknown.