Embracing Slow: NAMKHA Trips and Spiritual Exploration
Mindful Journeys. Discovering Inner Spaciousness.
I started traveling on my own in the late 1990’s, when I was 19 years old. Little did I know that I would continue to travel non stop for 22 years after that first solo trip. I never had the clear goal to live nomadically for a long period of time, and much much less the wish to visit 100 countries. Those things just happened, in the same way that the seed of the oak tree grows into the beautiful oak. Then, naturally, if an oak tree is an oak tree, it will produce acorns. Much in the same way, naturally I created NAMKHA Trips. It was in “the seed of me” to take people traveling to special parts of the globe.
NAMKHA is a Tibetan word that means blue, the sky, space, spaciousness, and the nature of emptiness. It’s my spiritual name, and it naturally became the name of my niche travel agency. NAMKHA Trips organizes mindful journeys, and is not just a travel agency but a platform for enabling deep, meaningful journeys that foster self-knowledge and inner development. Each trip is designed as a spiritual journey, seeing travel as a vital path to self-awareness and growth. helps expand inner spaciousness through traveling, and it is a continuation of my work as a psychotherapist, eco-psychologist, and spiritual seeker.
In 2006, when I was living in London (UK), I was reflecting on my nomadic lifestyle, and noticed that I was living most of my life in nature, and then I would move to a new big city for a period of 4 to 6 months. London required a bigger time commitment because I was there for a 2 year postgraduate program. After a quick semester, I found myself wanting to escape the city. Like, really loudly needing to leave the city and possibly never go back. I embarked on a 5 month van journey, going from London to Marrakesh with my then boyfriend, now ex-husband. On that trip, and after a massive car accident that had me re-learning how to walk, and needing to integrate my second near death experience, I gained deep awareness of how nature-deprived I was in cities, and what effects that had in my life. I went back to London to wrap up my second Masters degree, say NO to moving to New York city to do my PhD, finish my era in academics, and ultimately put an end to my on and off life in cities. I have never again lived in big urban areas, and in the process of building an even more nature-focused life, I expanded my psychotherapy work to include eco-psychology and all things nature-therapy. My spiritual practice too, took a turn to included more of the deep wild world.
Practicing Nature Connection & Deep Ecology at a NAMKHA Trip in Bhutan, 2023
I’ve experienced first hand the benefits of becoming one with nature. I’ve healed my own physical, mental, and emotional issues by mixing deep nature connection with other healing modalities. Reconnecting to nature is inherently simple and readily accessible to us, yet its significance often eludes us due to its very familiarity. Just like that place so close to home that you never visit, even if you’ve already hiked the whole Himalayan range and explored places all the way across the globe. We tend to be more loudly captivated by complex and outstanding endeavours. Nature Connection is much more of a letting go into simplicity and pure belonging. It’s less doing, and more allowing.
I am very happy to say that by now I’ve seen it work time and again with many clients and friends. And I’m so glad that by 2024 there is already a substantial body of literature to attest to the amazing results of spending more time in nature and expanding one’s sense of eco-self. This is where my idea to organize Nature Connection trips comes from, and why it is an essential part of NAMKHA Trips. Nature serves as a gateway to spirituality, enabling us to transcend our individual selves and embrace a broader eco-conscious perspective, leading to a naturally enriched and expansive life experience.
Another essential piece in my life is slowness. I’ve traveled to 101 countries so far, and that number means very little to me in terms of volume. What I care about is how deeply (and slow) I’ve connected to my favorite places. I’ve lived there, learned the language (to the best of my ability), dove into the culture, wore the traditional clothes, learned to cook the local dishes, visited the markets, explored folktales, visited the temples, made friends, watched the films, danced the dances, listened to the music, and read the literature. To me, slow travel has always been an essential aspect of traveling, almost to the point that fast traveling feels like another verb altogether. I love to go beyond the surface, meeting the locals, getting to know a place, and do everyday mundane things in different cultures. Having the experience of life in several places, with the slowness that comes with not being in a hurry to see more and more, allows me to really be there, to slowly be there, present. This is embodied at NAMKHA Trips by only having one or two trips a year instead of many more, by visiting quieter places in our trips, pausing for nature connection moments, and in spacious itineraries that have as slow a pace as possible for trips with a duration that fits people’s lives. For me, the reclaiming of slowness is a radical step, and the choice to adopt other success metrics rather than “more is better” generates a movement towards a world I want to be part of building.
In my life, I deeply embrace the concept and practice of slow productivity. I was 18 years old when I remember for the first time telling my best friend: “My goal is to never have a full-time job.”. And I managed! Almost 30 years have passed since I said that, and I’ve only worked full-time for quick 2 periods of 6 months, when the nature of the project required it + I knew I’d have half a year off afterwards. Slow productivity makes life so much better. And a better life is a metrics I much prefer to the one of producing more. I don’t believe that our goal in life is to contribute to the growth economy by creating more and more of whatever we are producing as we abuse resources including abusing ourselves. We can make choices that go against the glamourization of busy and the legitimization of burnout culture. I love embodying sustainability at all levels, and I appreciate how slow productivity respects a balanced life.
For me, from the time when I first thought about it in 2004, to the actual registration, I had over a decade and a half to reflect on creating a travel agency. Taking that time allowed me to find a format that fits me, instead of just following a trend, or basing what I do on external expectations. I’m grateful for the deep reflection time. I have a process I set up when I’m starting big chapters in life, or when I want to start a project, where I get together a few friends + a few experts, and we do a sociocratic circle to create an action plan. I define the intentions, share my own point of view, and listen to everyone share theirs. I love how the collective intelligence comes out of the circle and I can serve the goal so much better than I could individually. One clear action step that came out was that I would cooperate with other agencies, to experiment the field, and see whether I really liked it, possibility join one of the already existing companies long term, or learn what I would need to change to create a model that worked for me. I’m grateful for that action step!
I ended up working and cooperating with 7 travel agencies and 3 travel researchers. It was fascinating! I created travel itineraries for them, did social design for 5 teams, implemented sociocracy in 3 of them (one is still using it effectively), helped turning one into a social enterprise, and connected all of them with people and places I already knew on the ground. I learned a ton in the process, and expanded my spiritual work along the way.
All the travel agencies I collaborated with followed business models that didn’t align with me. With the exception of one of them, they were all created by people who had either a business or a management degree, and the goal of creating their companies had been primarily for financial profit. While I encountered the word 'sustainability' extensively in the marketing of numerous companies, I found that very few of them truly embodied sustainable practices. Similarly, while the concept of slow travel was promoted in some of their online imagery, I observed that both the founders and the majority of employees lacked firsthand experience with slow travel, maintaining instead a fast-paced production rhythm. I observed that the majority of them prioritized marketing as their primary focus, with three standing out as exceptionally efficient selling machines. I also found that the metrics of selling more was spectacularly prioritized in detriment of founder, employees, and client happiness and well-being. Most of these agencies experienced high employee turnover and operated under predominantly patriarchal models. Although I discovered positive aspects within each agency, it became evident that none of them resonated with my values and ethos.
Mindful Traveling. Expanding Presence. Sunrise over Everest. Nepal, 2023
After this valuable experience, I reconvened with my mentoring sociocracy circle, and we designed new action steps to create a model that took in my experience, their new insights, and was in line with my values and goals. It may sound strange to want to design a travel agency that focuses on the spiritual, aims for slowness, and loves sustainable productivity. However, doing things in a way that works for me, even if it is drastically different from what most people do and from what is standardly rewarded in society, is not a new concept in my life. I had zero interest in creating anything that followed pre-existing models based on values that are not mine. They may fit well for other people, but if they mean nothing to me, they would lead to unhappiness. I chose to forge my own path. For me, doing my work is part of my spiritual practice, and I see it as a way to serve life. Otherwise, I’d just be doing a job and following external validation based on values I don’t subscribe to. Personally, I value invisible inner metrics much more.
Langtang Hike. Himalaya Mountains. Nature Therapy. Nepal, 2023.
As the founder of NAMKHA Trips, my own journey - marked by personal reinvention and profound encounters - reflects the transformative experiences we strive to offer our travellers. Just as I extended my nature connection and my inner exploration, NAMKHA Trips is dedicated to guiding others on their paths to self-discovery and spiritual depth.
Traveling, especially in the manner we curate at NAMKHA, is more than mere movement through space. It is a deliberate act of expanding one’s boundaries, exploring new landscapes both externally and within. Our trips are crafted to support this journey into the self, with the backdrop of some of Earth’s most inspiring settings.
Looking ahead, we are excited to continue creating journeys that not only share the beauty of the world but also foster a deeper understanding and connection among people & cultures. We invite you to join us, not just to travel, but to transform, to slow down in a world that often values speed over depth. Whether through the rolling landscapes, sacred sites, or the simple act of sharing stories under a starlit sky, each journey with NAMKHA is a step towards broader horizons and personal expanses.
For those ready to explore the blue vastness of the sky and the space within, NAMKHA Trips awaits. Together, let’s journey not just across the globe, but deeper into the very essence of life itself.
Visit our website to view upcoming trips, or contact us directly to discuss how you can embark on your next great adventure — mindfully, purposefully, and profoundly with NAMKHA Trips.
