"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Already back in the 17th Century, the poet John Donne stated that humans are not born to be alone or to isolate themselves but we are all – in part – dependent on one another for survival.

                

Four centuries later, Donne’s words have been put aside as we now live in an individualist society. A more self-centred society is now what the world has to offer. The predominance of social networks, selfies and self-indulgent Facebook status has replaced the way people used to interact with each other, making us selfish and more narcissistic than ever.

 

Is solo travelling the latest symptom of our narcissism? A steady growing number of people are travelling by themselves, preferring their own company instead of sharing their travel experiences with other people.

 

Up to 13,000 people decided to opt for lonely explorations on their latest holidays, with a 15 percent increase from 2013, according to Visa’s 2015 Global Travel Intentions Study. And around 51 percent of people are expected to set sail for unknown places on their own in 2017.

 

The millennials are more socially liberal than ever. Many researchers have shown that the increase of divorce rates, single-child families and solo dwellers in the past century are clearly signs of a society that encourages individual rather than collective interests.

 

As a solo traveller myself, I think we need to push our limits to fully appreciate the experience of travelling. And voluntarily putting yourself in the condition where the only person you can rely on is yourself is the best way to do it. The idea of discovering the world alone is actually triggered not by an egoistic desire, but by a fearless willingness to test personal limits. It becomes a free run towards life itself to let boundaries fall, to experience inner growth and to broaden knowledge.

 

In a BookYogaRetreats.com analysis of over 300 travellers, it turned out that more than half step out of their comfort zones to enrich themselves and to realise their potentials. Nearly 30 percent want to explore a new destination and around 33 per cent want to learn a new skill, compared to those 14 per cent whose travel purposes are visiting relatives and friends.

 

In the last couple of years, I have experienced at first-hand what it means to be heading to mysterious, fascinating and frightening-as-hell adventures with nobody on my side.

 

Travelling solo is a tough, risky and exhausting life test. But every day is a new way to open your mind and heart to the world’s challenges, putting everything into perspective and learning to question yourself. When you start travelling alone, there’s no turning point. The more miles you walk, the broader your view of the world and the people you meet become.

 

Other people might decide to travel alone for pure dissatisfaction with the society they live in, leaving in search of a more meaningful existence.

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This was probably the case of Jack London, one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century. He spent most of his life looking for a way out of a boring routine and found one first as a tramp traveller on the American roads, then as an adventurer in Alaska.

 

Christopher McCandless, a 24-year-old graduate from a wealthy Virginia family, decided to simply cut off contacts with his parents after college and donate his $24,000 in savings to charity. He too travelled across the States and eventually hitchhiked to Alaska.

 

They are clearly rebels who tried to set themselves free through travelling, breaking away from imposed limitations, false securities and material excess.

 

Although stepping out of your comfort zone can help you to temporarily forget about your problems, you will soon discover something new. The journey you began will be slowly shifting from your own self to the world’s problems instead.

 

When I spent two months in Asia, I naively believed I could easily adapt to the environment and the culture as fast as I would have done in Europe. I was the alien in that strange threating world: a pale skinned red-head with green eyes Western type of girl. The first couple of weeks I had to think about my own survival, not getting really in touch with the people around me.

 

South-East Asian countries have shown me an extreme poverty and taught me a great surprising humanity. In a poor village in North Vietnam, Sapa, I have bumped into the most extraordinary, ordinary people who gave me everything when they did not have anything to give. Hospitality, kindness, altruism: such spontaneous human acts that shook me from the inside.

 

Developed countries have been more concerned over their material well-being than actually preserving some of the most important human values, losing them along the way. My solo travel experience turned out to be a chance to do more good, helping out in poor communities and detach myself from a greedy world.

 

It is too simplistic to define solo travelling just as a matter of pure selfish individualism. It must be done alone because it is only alone that we are forced to learn and understand what we, as human beings, are capable of. The discovery of a deeper sense of humanity and altruism is an important consequence of self-knowledge.

 

Back to my days in Asia, I had a nourishing discussion with an old Tai Chi teacher over some Buddhist teachings. “You first need to help yourself in order to help others.” I thought this was such a selfish concept to take but only now it is clear to me that it is a process that any individuals need to go through sooner or later. 

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Photographs by Chiara Brambilla