Freedom Looks Like This – solo travel for women over 40 ready to choose themselves

The Decisions That Build a Solo Traveler Aren't the Big Ones

The small decision on a Sunday morning, the park or the cafe or the hotel room, is building something that will help you for your solo trip. I took myself on an overnight trip to Olomouc in the Czech Republic, a city about three hours from Prague, because I was tired and I knew from experience that if I stayed home with a free weekend I would work. What the trip made visible was this: between where you are now and the solo trip you haven't booked yet, there are lots of small decisions that have been waiting for you to make them. I made a small decision to I leave the Museum of Modern Art in Olomouc after thirty minutes because I was done. There was judgment in that, the kind that asks whether you're cultured enough to stay longer. I noticed it, and I left anyway.. Psychologists call the relevant skill interoception: the ability to sense your own internal signals before you've reasoned your way to an answer. It's a skill, not a fixed trait, and it gets stronger the more you use it in low-stakes situations. Those situations, ordinary and small, are what build a solo traveler. That's the practice. Not the trip. In this episode: - Olomouc in late spring - Thirty minutes in the museum - Holy Trinity Column, covered - Park, cafe, or hotel room - Cognitive distance and the solo outing - The evidence account This episode is for you if: * ou've named the trip, know roughly where and when, but you still haven't booked anything * you're a woman over 40 who finds herself defaulting to the logical choice, and then wondering afterward why it didn't feel right * you've felt the slight pull toward something and then reasoned your way out of it before you had a chance to follow through * you're a solo female traveler who wants to understand what's actually building your capacity for bigger decisions, not just your ability to plan a trip Resources mentioned: * Go Alone guide: My free guide to taking yourself out alone, designed for step one of the process she describes in this episode. It walks you through how to design your solo outing, what to notice, and how to follow what surfaces. Free at freedomlookslikethis.com/goalone [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/goalone] * Free workshop, May 30th: a live online session with Damianne for women ready to take the next step toward solo travel. Details at freedomlookslikethis.com/training [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/training] About Freedom Looks Like This: Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2559400/support] Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community]

Searching vs. Meeting Yourself as a Solo Traveler

I'm sharing a conversation from Kellie Stirling's podcast Talkin About Midlife [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talkin-about-midlife/id1490365703] where I'm visiting as a guest rather than a solo host or interviewer. We started from the very beginning: Saint Lucia at birth, Canada at 12, then India for my first teaching job, then Sudan, Japan, and finally Prague, where I've been for thirteen years.  Somewhere in all of that, a Sufi teacher in India said something to me in my mid-twenties that's still relevant to me and an important reminder more than twenty years later. It directly connects to one of my key ideas these days: there is a real difference between searching for yourself and meeting yourself. In this episode: * Saint Lucia to Prague * The Sufi teacher's reading * Training the nervous system abroad * Searching vs. meeting yourself * Midlife, identity, and new roles * 20% more enjoyment This episode is for you if: * You've been traveling for years and still feel like you're looking for something, and you're not sure whether you're going toward it or away from it * You're a woman over 40 who wants to hear the full long version of how someone became a solo traveler, not the edited highlight version where it all clicked one afternoon * You want to understand what actually separates intentional solo travel from just going somewhere alone, because you've been wondering if you're doing it right * You've heard of the RAIN meditation but never heard someone describe using it while buried in fermented rice sand in Japan, with cotton balls in their ears Free Resources: * Damianne's free guide to start solo travel [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/solo-travel-starter-gift/] * Decide Your Trip [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/training/] workshop to figure out your first or next solo trip Meet Kellie Stirling: Kellie is the host of Talkin About Midlife, a podcast about life, health, love, relationships, the inner world, aging, and what it means to be human in a female body at this time in life. Kellie is also a somatic experiencing practitioner. Find her show wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about her podcast and follow at https://www.kelliestirling.com/podcasts [https://www.kelliestirling.com/podcasts] About Freedom Looks Like This: Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@changesbigandsmall.com Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2559400/support] Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community]

From Giggling Through Cairo to Leading 30+ Solo Travel Retreats

Most women have a definition of solo travel in their head, and it's usually the thing keeping them from taking the trip they dream of. If solo means handling every unknown by yourself with no one to call on, of course you're not booking the trip.  Gina Cambridge built her business as a travel coach on the gap between that definition and what solo travel can actually look like. In this episode of Freedom Looks Like this, we talk about solo travel retreats within a group tour and how that still counts. Gina has led over 30 retreats and tours across destinations like New Zealand, Bali, and Cuba. We also get into safety abroad and the difference between what the news tells you about a place and what living there actually feels like. In this episode: * Group tours that still count as solo * Snoring, single rooms, and matchmaking * The bunk bed that led to Bali * Lunch with the phone put away * Cairo, giggling, and going alone * The family beach day and permission This episode is for you if: * you are curious about taking a group trip * you've considered a group tour but worried about choosing the right one * you're an introvert who wonders how anyone is supposed to make friends on the road, especially with everyone glued to their phones * you've taken solo trips before and want to try different approaches Resources mentioned: * Gina Cambridge's free guide to Fearless Solo Travel [https://mailchi.mp/wanderlustsolowomentours.com/fst] * Wanderlust Solo Women Tours [https://wanderlustsolowomentours.com/] * Gina's podcast Wanderlust Solo Women Travel "Unscripted" [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6uFw6HZLfBkzqq8Z2KVYVRmdR9PNricW] on YouTube * Gina on Instagram: @wanderlust_momentum and @wanderlust_travel_coach * Gina on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-cambridge-584837193/] * Gina on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/WanderlustSoloWomenTours/] About Freedom Looks Like This: Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2559400/support] Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community]

Why Not? Stop Overthinking Solo Travel

Maybe you've been thinking about a trip for months, looking at flights, reading about the destination, knowing roughly what's there. And still not booking. Or you've already been on the trip and running a calculation the whole time: how do I make this count? Was this worth it? Both versions have the same problem. The question you're asking doesn't close. It just generates more conditions. In this episode, Damianne introduces the two-word question she's used for years, one that doesn't require a perfect reason to go, just the absence of a real blocker. With three stories from three very different decisions, she traces how the same question opened doors she couldn't have planned for, including thirteen years in a city she'd never seen before she arrived. The "why should I go" question has a problem: it's designed for explanation, for optimization. It needs a good reason, and so it's easy to delay. Instead, you generate concerns. Address one, and another appears. The timing isn't right. The savings aren't there. Something at work needs you.  Solo travel for women over 40 isn't really a logistics problem. It's a question. So we need to ask better questions. In this episode: * The cherry blossom calculation * The question that keeps generating conditions * Two words and how they work * Off the main path in Sapa * A pyramid in Tirana * Thirteen years late This episode is for you if: * you've been looking at flights for a trip you haven't booked, and you're genuinely not sure what you're waiting for * you travel solo and find yourself measuring the experience instead of just being in it * you're a woman over 40 who wants to stop generating conditions and start deciding * you've answered one concern about a trip only to find another one waiting in its place Resources mentioned:  Free workshop — freedomlookslikethis.com/training  Make the trip decision in a small group with Damianne. Next session: June 6. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2559400/support] Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community]

You Never Feel Ready to Travel Alone Before You Take The Trip (and that's alright)

You probably have a condition before you'll book the trip, something that needs to be true first. But if you look back, a version of that condition has likely already been true. You met it, and then something else came up. The timing wasn't right, and then it was, and something else came up. There was always something. This is what practising deferral looks like. Every time you defer, you're getting better at putting yourself last. And after a while, that feels natural. It looks responsible, from the inside and the outside. But the woman you're becoming while you practise it is the one who doesn't quite trust herself to choose. That accumulates. And it compounds. The clarity and confidence you're waiting for don't come before the decision. They come after you've moved. In this episode: - Conditions that keep moving to stay out of reach - Building evidence, for or against yourself - The school bus in September - Nine months without a plan, but moving - Writing the trip as a decision This episode is for you if: * you've been wanting to take a solo trip and keep finding reasons to wait * you're a woman over 40 who makes thoughtful, reliable decisions for other people all day and can't quite remember the last time you made one that was purely for yourself * you're a solo female traveler or seriously thinking about becoming one * you've been telling yourself you're being responsible by waiting, and some part of you suspects that framing is doing double duty as a reason to stay put. Resources mentioned: * The Science of Well-Being: a free online course on happiness, with Laurie Santos * Learning How to Learn: an online course on approaching new skills and subjects, with Barbara Oakley About Freedom Looks Like This: Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo — or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2559400/support] Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community [https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community]