Photo Credit: National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions
Hello Sojourners!
In the first 18 days of 2026, several people I have spoken with already feel busy and exhausted, before the year’s first month is even over.
One of the things I learned from spending many long days in television production was the importance of managing my energy. I would not be able to keep up with my schedule and lifestyle if I did not honor rest—even then, it can be a challenge.
Earlier this month, I wrote about what becomes noticeable when your pace changes while on a trip. I see it every time I travel with people—the body registers the change long before anyone talks about it. Now I want to take that a step further and talk about noticing your energy.
Traveling does more than slow things down. It removes many of the demands that often decide how your energy gets spent. Without back-to-back obligations, constant noise, or familiar pressures, you feel like you can relax and give yourself permission to be relaxed. For many, this can be a novel idea.
On a journey, these things show up in small, ordinary ways. You linger over coffee instead of standing up out of habit. How long you want to stay on a walk before turning back. Whether conversations feel stimulating or not so much. How much structure you need in a day. How much you do not.
At home, these signals are often buried under routine. You move from one thing to the next because that is what the day requires. Travel interrupts that pattern long enough for comparison. You have the space to notice what costs your energy and what restores it.
This matters because most people do not lack awareness. They struggle with how quickly that awareness is overridden once life resumes its usual pace. The question is not whether travel helped you feel better. The question is whether you recognized why.
This is where travel gives you insight into how you actually function when daily pressures are released.
Photo Op + Action Opportunity: Noticing Your Energy
Photo Credit: Alina Vilchenko
This is where you explore what you have just read.
Choose a moment this week when you notice your energy—when you feel engaged, tired, restless, or at ease.
Take a photograph of where you are or what you are doing in that moment.
Then, write a few lines:
What was happening just before you took it?
How did your body feel?
Did this moment give you energy, or take it?
What does this tell you or inspire you to do?
That is all. The value is in noticing what is already present.
SOJOURN EXPLORERS HIGHLIGHT BOX Crossroads of the Ancient World: Exploring Greece and Turkey
July 8 - 18, 2026 | 11 Days Limited Special Pricing | 102 Guests Capacity
Photo Credit: National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions
National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions and Food & Wine come together on this journey, bringing travel and cuisine into the same conversation.
Aboard the National Geographic Orion, the Aegean stretches between Greece and Turkey. Islands and rocky coastlines pass by routes shaped over centuries by Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman life. In Delos and Ephesus, marble cities from the ancient world remain visible in streets, columns, and public spaces. In the Cyclades, whitewashed villages offer time to walk, observe, and notice everyday life continuing much as it always has.
Food is part of daily life here. Ingredients reflect what grows nearby. Meals offer a simple way to understand place without explanation.
February 20–27, 2026 | 8 Days All-Inclusive | Limited to 16 Guests
Photo Credit: The Dwarika’s Collection
You arrive in Kathmandu surrounded by movement and life. Incense drifts from temple doorways, spices and earth linger in the air, and prayer flags catch the light between buildings where carved details appear unexpectedly. Stepping inside The Dwarika’s, the atmosphere shifts. Hand-carved wood, stone courtyards, and the glow of lamps create a sense of calm and containment. The air feels cooler, sounds recede, and your body begins to slow without effort, offering a gentle entry into temple visits, sacred sites, and traditions that have supported daily life here for centuries.
Midweek, the journey carries you beyond the city to The Dwarika’s wellbeing sanctuary in Dhulikhel. The road opens. Hills stretch outward, and the Himalayas come into view in the distance. Mornings allow time for breath and meditation as light moves slowly across the landscape. Days include mindful movement, time with an Ayurvedic doctor, and hikes in nature, with space to explore your inner world without distraction.
Photograph what holds your attention without needing to name it. Walk village paths. Conversations unfold naturally. Speak openly about how you live and how your body responds to it. By the time you return home, you will experience life moving with intention rather than demand, along with a clearer understanding of what matters to you now.
All-Inclusive | Limited to 10 Guests April 8–12, 2026 | 5 Days | All-Inclusive | Limited to 10 Guests
Photo Credit: Ted Turner’s Vermejo
Here, the land stretches wide, and the air feels noticeably clear. Settling into Vermejo’s historic Bartlett Cottage, you begin to notice how little effort it takes to feel present when space and quiet are allowed to do their work.
Days unfold through long walks across the land, watching elk move through open fields, noticing light shift across forest and meadow. Photography becomes a way of paying attention rather than documenting. Writing creates room for thoughts that rarely surface at home, when life moves faster and attention is pulled in many directions. Evenings draw you toward the fire, where conversation feels unforced and silence is comfortable.
Set within Ted Turner’s 550,000-acre reserve, this retreat offers time to consider what has been taxing your energy and what has been sustaining it. You leave with a clearer understanding of what supports your energy, your focus, and your sense of ease when life slows down—and what does not.
I approach travel the same way I approach writing and reflection. I pay attention to what a place asks of you rather than what it promises. I consider how an environment shapes thought, emotion, and perspective.
I curate experiences that make room for genuine engagement with place. That means allowing time to linger, choosing settings that invite reflection, and designing journeys at a pace that supports awareness rather than constant motion.
This is travel for people who value depth, discernment, and time well spent. The goal is not to collect moments, rather to have moments that clarify how you want to live.
If you are not into once-in-a-lifetime transformational adventures, you can unsubscribe here. To change your email or preferences manage your profile. 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
Seller of Travel Registration Number, California Office of the Attorney General: 2161028-70
Sojourn to Happiness
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