YOU CAN MOVE AND STILL BE STUCK
Why reinvention doesn’t happen even with a strong Wi-Fi.
Welcome to Issue #024 of Sojourn. Each week, I share two original essays to help you slow down, reconnect, and rebuild with intention (hence ‘sojourn’), in a private community that uses travel as a path to reinvention.
WHEN THE WIFI’S STRONG, BUT YOU’RE DISCONNECTED
You book the trip.
You turn on “vacation mode.”
You post the club lounge photo.
You land, you unpack, you light the incense, you open your Notes app to write something deep…
But somehow you’re still scrolling by dinner.
Still half in your inbox.
Still carrying the weight of whatever you swore you were going to ‘leave behind’.
The truth is, movement is easy.
But allowing yourself to be changed by it?
That takes more than a location tag and a sunset photo.
WHY THE RETREAT DOESN’T ALWAYS RESET YOU
I hope I’m not alone in thinking this way, but how many times have we believed a new place would change everything?
We fill our calendars with healing workshops and journaling rituals.
We sign up for the silent mornings, the breathwork, the digital detox.
But by day three, we’re ‘quietly’ checking for bars.
And that’s ‘just in case’ something important came through.
(Like a dopamine hit. Or someone else’s transformation.)
We don’t mean to stay closed off.
We just don’t realize how tightly we’re holding onto the self we worked so hard to build.
Even when she no longer fits.
THE SHIFT I DIDN’T POST ABOUT
It didn’t come with a hashtag.
It didn’t happen in the middle of a yoga class or a plane window reflection.
It came the moment I stopped trying to document the journey and started living inside it.
When I stopped needing it to be beautiful and let it be… real.
I had to get quiet enough to hear what was no longer working.
Open enough to let the next version of me speak.
And brave enough to not share it until it was ready.
YOU HAVE TO MEET THE MOMENT HALFWAY
Travel doesn’t change you.
Not if you’re still performing.
Not if you’re checking growth off a list.
Not if you’re still in the role of “someone who’s got it all figured out.”
Real change?
It happens off-script.
→ In the moment you cancel the plan and follow your gut.
→ In the night you finally sleep without a to-do list in your head.
→ In the choice to not turn it into content, yet.
That’s when the transformation starts to arrive.
Not loudly.
But deeply.
PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
→ Are you still playing a version of yourself you’ve outgrown?
→ What does “change” mean for you right now, and are you letting it happen, or managing it?
→ What would it feel like to go somewhere and not make it a story yet?
THE REFRAME
You don’t need a bigger plan.
You need a softer grip.
Because the point isn’t to curate the perfect journey.
It’s to let it do its work on you.
Let it stretch you.
Let it soften you.
And let the change show up in the small ways first, before you try to explain it to the world.
~ Ana
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