Why Your Body Knows Where You Need to Travel (Even If Your Brain Disagrees)

I'll never forget the moment I decided to quit my job and start my travel business. I was floating in a hot air balloon over Cappadocia, Turkey (check out my website header video), watching the sun rise over fairy chimneys, when my entire body just... knew. Within a week of getting home, I'd submitted my resignation from a 14-year career.

My brain? My brain was screaming at me the entire time. "What are you doing? You have no plan! Everyone thinks you're insane! You're throwing away stability for... what exactly?"

But my body? My body was calm. Quiet. Certain.

That's the thing about intuition that nobody tells you: it doesn't scream. It whispers. And it lives in your gut, not your head.

The Difference Between Your Brain and Your Body

I recently sat down with Krista Parks, an Internal Family Systems practitioner, Reiki master, and the resident "hippie-dippie camp counselor" from Camp Lola Whiskey, to talk about why travel seems to unlock something in us that everyday life keeps locked away.

"We've been taught to operate entirely from our brains," Krista explained. "We think our brain is our central processor that should make every decision. But we have so much wisdom in our bodies—especially as women—that we're completely disconnected from."

Here's how to tell the difference:

Your Brain (Fear/Anxiety/Ego):

• Feels like tightness in your chest

• Comes with lots of emotion and drama

• Won't shut up—constant rumination

• Asks a million "what if" questions

• Creates a thousand different scenarios for every decision

Your Body (Intuition/Inner Wisdom):

• Feels like a knowing in your belly

• Arrives quietly and matter-of-factly

• Doesn't care if you listen or not

• Gives you one clear answer, then moves on

• Has no emotional attachment to the outcome

"Your intuition is very faint, very quick, and very quiet," Krista told me. "It's like, boop, there's your answer. That's it."

Meanwhile, your brain is over there having a full meltdown about how you're going to end up homeless if you book that flight to Morocco.

And here's the tricky part if you're someone who struggles with anxiety like I do: anxiety asks questions. Intuition makes statements.

Anxiety says: "What if something goes wrong? What if I fail? What if everyone thinks I'm crazy? What if I can't handle it?"

Intuition says: "Don't eat the chicken." That's it. No explanation. No justification. Just a quiet knowing.

The problem is, we've been so thoroughly trained to listen to our brains that we gaslight the hell out of ourselves. "This is just me worrying. I'm being too negative. I'm probably just making this up."

And then we talk ourselves out of what our gut was telling us all along.

Krista during our first group trip together in Sedona. [📸: Allie Jorde Creative]

Why I Ignored My Body (And Paid the Price)

Let me get uncomfortably honest for a second.

Before I left my marriage, I had so many physical health problems that I was seeing specialist after specialist. Numbness in my face. Blurry vision. Mystery symptoms that sent me to neurology because they thought I might have MS or trigeminal neuralgia.

Every doctor ran tests. Every test came back normal. Finally, a neurologist looked at me and said, "I think you have anxiety."

I felt crazy. I wanted a real diagnosis. Something I could point to and say, "See? There IS something wrong with me."

But looking back now? My body was screaming at me to get out of that marriage. It was literally manifesting physical symptoms to get my attention because I kept overriding my intuition with my brain's excuses about why I should stay.

"It's familiar." "It's comfortable." "It's easier than leaving." "What will people think?"

You know what's wild? Now when I get stressed—like during the weeks leading up to summer camp when I was working insane hours—that same numbness comes back. That cold, tingly feeling under my eye. The blurry vision.

But now I know what it means: Stop. Chill the fuck out. Your body is trying to tell you something.

The Morocco Chicken Incident (Or: When Your Body Says "Don't")

Krista has a perfect example of ignoring body wisdom, and it involves undercooked chicken in the Sahara Desert.

For a week and a half on my Morocco trip, she watched everyone rave about the chicken. Finally, she decided to try a bite.

"I specifically remember my full body intuition was like, this is a bad idea," she told me. "But I was like, 'Everyone says it's so good!' So I had a bite."

Reader, she was not okay. Half the group ended up sick.

The lesson? When your body says no, it doesn't matter what your brain's logic is telling you. Even if everyone else is doing it. Even if it seems totally safe. Even if you really want that bite of chicken.

How Travel Cracks You Open

Here's what I've noticed after leading group trips for four years: travel doesn't just change people. It reveals people.

People show up seemingly having it all together. Buttoned up. Put together. In control.

And then—usually in the first few days or the last few days—they crash out.

"People put themselves in this very small box to keep themselves safe," Krista explained. "And when safety and fear-based decisions are on the forefront of how we operate, that box keeps getting smaller and smaller. So when people travel and they're in very uncomfortable situations where they don't feel safe because they haven't curated that within themselves, they fucking crash out."

But here's the thing: that crash-out is usually exactly what they needed.

Because when you're at home, you can maintain your little box. You can keep all your protective mechanisms in place. You can stay in your comfortable, familiar discomfort.

But when you're in the Sahara Desert? Or hiking through Morocco? Or sailing in Greece? You can't control every variable. You can't predict what's coming. You can't manage everyone and everything around you.

And your body—your wise body—sees that opening and says, "Oh good, she's finally paying attention. LET'S DO THIS."

The Decisions That Changed My Life (Both Made While Traveling)

The two biggest decisions I've ever made—getting divorced and quitting my job—both happened while I was traveling.

I was at an Adele concert in Barcelona when I decided to end my marriage.

I was in that hot air balloon in Cappadocia when I decided to quit my job.

Is that a coincidence? I don't think so.

I've never planned a trip based on some mystical system. But when I look back at the places that have changed my life? There's always been this pull. This knowing. This sense that I needed to be there, even if I couldn't explain why.

My body knew where I needed to be to make those decisions. My brain was just along for the ride.

What Happens When You Finally Listen

I'm not going to lie to you and say my life is easier now that I quit my job and started this business.

Is my life harder than when I had a 9-to-5? Absolutely.

Do I ever romanticize what it would be like to just go to a job, have someone tell me what to do, and then go home at the end of the day and not think about it? All the time.

But am I living in my purpose? Am I doing exactly what I'm meant to be doing? Am I serving people in a way that actually matters?

Yes.

And that's what listening to your body gets you. Not an easier life. But a life that actually feels like yours.

Krista calls it "living in your Dharma"—that 5% of what you're meant to be doing in this world. "It was such a hard decision," she told me about leaving her successful business. "I hated making it every step of the way. But my guidance was like, this is the decision, this is what you're doing. And so I trusted."

No regrets.

Your Body Has Been Trying to Tell You Something

So here's my challenge to you: Book your next trip with your gut, not Google.

Stop asking ChatGPT where you should go. Stop planning based on what's "practical" or what will make the best Instagram content.

See where you're being called, not where you should go.

Is it somewhere that scares you a little? Good.

Is it somewhere your family thinks is "dangerous"? Even better.

Is it somewhere that doesn't make logical sense? Perfect.

Because I guarantee you—the places that call to you the loudest are the places where you have the most to learn, heal, and transform.

Your brain is going to freak out. Let it. That's what brains do.

But your body? Your body knows.

And unlike your brain, your body has never lied to you.

Want to hear the full conversation about intuition, astrocartography, and why some destinations literally make you sick? Listen to my full episode with Krista Parks on the Type 2 Travel podcast. We get into the weeds on everything from Internal Family Systems to why half my Morocco group got food poisoning in the Sahara (spoiler: it was definitely the chicken).

And if you're ready to stop planning trips with your brain and start following what your body knows? Check out my upcoming group trips. Fair warning: transformation is not optional.