Travel and Health: The Trip That Asked Me to Dream Bigger

“Failure is not the opposite of your dream.  Sometimes it’s the training ground for it.” -Carla Shellis (1) The only way I could have heard this, is my putting my travel and health first.

Travel and Health -A Reset For The Mind

Initially, many people don’t realize that travel and health have an impact on one another. Enter my first trip in 8 years -the ICING Women’s Conference. There were many speakers at the ICING Women’s Conference March 2026 in Dallas, Texas.  I of course wanted to go to see Terri Savelle Foy (TSF).  One of the beautiful women inside and out who have helped me see with my eyes of faith what God can and will do in my life.  By committing to TSF’s methods I was able to obtain a new apartment and new job within weeks of each other about a year ago.  Indeed, this was very exciting for me. I couldn’t believe it but God blessed me with both.  To this day a year later, I’m still incredibly grateful.

I wanted to continue using Terri’s methods however I was hitting a wall. There were moments of my past that I needed to put to rest.  Although I still deal with these moments, they are becoming easier and easier as time goes by.  The moments I needed to put to rest and redefine was failure and the domino effects it caused.  Or in better terms perceived failure.  Enter one of TSF’s friends Carla Shellis.  Carla Shellis spoke about failure and what it really means.  This has helped lessen the pain of what I perceived as failure and I hope it does the same for you.  Most importantly, I would not have been able to hear her powerful message if I had not prioritized soul-filling travel.  Travel and health are not luxuries. They are necessary components to living healthier, living well, and living beautifully. 

Are You Normalizing Sacrifice?

Many high-performing women (house manager/homemaker, high-profile jobs, single-mothers, and those working full time jobs & wanting more) de-prioritize their travel and health.  I was one of these women. There was “never enough time”.  I was “always busy”.  However, the questions that needed to be asked were, “Am I doing what I want to do?” “Am I living the way I would like?”, “Am I experiencing what I want?” “Am I feeding my soul?” And these questions are just the beginning.  Without these questions, how can you, myself, or anyone prioritize what’s important. How can we make goals and accomplish these goals if we don’t know what we are aiming towards? 

High-performing women usually put everyone (people) and everything (tasks) before taking care of themselves.  How does that help her grow and accomplish her own goals?  Sure -some of her goals may be accomplished in the business of life but is she living intentionally.  Or is life passing her by with no clear direction or goals to target.  Is life filled with nothing but sacrifices and nothing to show for it in the end?  Because she has helped everyone accomplish their dreams and goals quietly expecting the favor in return.  Only to figure out, many people focus on their needs and wants.  I’m not calling these other people bad.  It’s just that clearly defined goals provide a target to reach and subsequently requires strategy and teamwork; instead of sacrifice.  

Travel and Health: Faith, Community, and Rest

Faith 

Faith strengthens the immune system; Christianity, Islam, Jewish, and Buddhist faiths have been determined to help relieve stress and anxiety.  Managing stress well through faith has been linked to living longer. Has been linked to mental and physical health.  Decreased inflammatory markers such as cytokines and increases the strength of the immune system to fight off infection and/or cancer (2).  I’m not saying every trip has to be a faith based trip but this trip opened my eyes to what it was like to prioritize myself and travel.  Faith was the vehicle and it did not disappoint. 

Community 

By going to a conference in search of faith-based empowerment, I found an instant community of like minded women.  Therefore, while I was there it was easy for me to discuss my faith, dreams, and common hurdles with other women in an amazing comfortable environment with cake of course! If you know, you know 😉  

Having a sense of community and belonging -faith based, family (the one you’re born into or the one you choose), friends, clubs/groups/organizations -all help slow the rate of decline in cognition aka slow down dementia (issues with memory) such as Alzheimer’s disease for 5 years  or even improve cognition (3-5).

What researchers have found is that across the globe including North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe -weekly interactions with friends and family slows down the rate of cognitive decline (6).  Another important fact is that strong social connections (interactions and engagements between people) as opposed to a support network (having people available) leads to social buffering.  Social buffering is when positive social interactions decrease the devastating effects of neurological and endocrine systems reactions to stress (7).  These social interactions often allow/re-inforce positive coping skills (8).  There is a saying: Friends divide stress and multiply joy! 

Rest

When people go on vacation, they set the tempo.  They decide when they’d like to rise up in the morning or lay down for bed.  They also choose their adventures during the day, what and where they’d like to eat.  There’s a relaxed flow.  Usually many high-performing women like to pack many tasks into their schedule to accomplish. And this feels like a race of some sort.  Rest allows us to process and assess our actions, goals, and events that are/aren’t in alignment with ourselves.  Rest allows our bodies to repair themselves, lower the stress hormone cortisol, and amalgamate our memories.  

Permission

The faith, community, and rest I received from travel gave me foundation and permission to dream bigger.  

Dallas gave me the ability to travel for myself, do what I wanted to do; which I have not done in a long time.  I received renewal in terms of hope and peace.  There was clarity in what I was doing that was aligned with my goals, dreams,  and what I needed to stop.  Furthermore, there was a re-newed sense of excitement because I was dreaming again for a better, brighter future. While I was at the conference I learned an incredible perception of what failure really means. 

During the trip, I learned that our dreams don’t disappear but transform instead (1).  They also never expire, they develop over time (1). This allowed me to realize that God allowed me to accomplish everything I needed in life to achieve the next set of goals I have set out for myself.  Although a certain chapter of my life did not end the way I thought it would end, it does NOT mean it’s time to stop dreaming.  If anything, I’m just getting started.  No dream is too big simply because nothing is too hard for God.  The desires of our hearts are not random (9).  They are put there by God.   

Purpose

Additionally, I learned from Carla that our origin stories will likely be small, humble beginnings that are no less important than the big goal or massive success high-performing women wish to achieve.  In those humble beginnings, our new origins -this where we start to hone our craft, own our skills and story.  During this time of re-building God is adding skills we didn’t learn before and removing what no longer serves us. 

Furthermore, Carla taught me that my current work is my training ground and the audience although important is not more important than the purpose behind the work.  This was profound for me because every business needs an audience; however, if you lose sight of the purpose, there won’t be a business in the end.  So in addition to everything the ICING Women’s Conference gave me -I received renewed hope, permission to dream BIG, and my purpose.  In case you didn’t know, your purpose is what you would do for free.  Writing this blog to empower women to live healthier and longer for the upcoming longevity technology/revolution and living beautifully is my purpose.  

Travel and Health Go Hand-n-Hand

Conversely, before creating Longevity Locus and reading about longevity, I honestly believed travel was a luxury that I could not afford both financially and in the realm of “busyness”.  Yet, if we make our goals known to ourselves we can plan for trips (no matter how small in terms of length or destination) financially and know that “life” will be waiting for us when we get back! 

Will you put yourself first? Will you travel to that destination you have always wanted to go? Where do YOU want to go because “life” will be here when you get back! 😉  Most importantly, let’s say your aspirations are high for your travel adventures and you can’t afford to get there yet.  I suggest going to cultural festivals in the meantime.  The same principles apply: 1) Make time for yourself by planning ahead and keep this time as an appointment with yourself 2) Enjoy your time there, take in the scenes and choose not to rush.  

Go on vacation -Doctor’s Orders!

References

1. Shellis, Carla. SPEECH TITLE. ICING Women’s Conference. March 2026. 
2. Koenig HG. Maintaining Health and Well-Being by Putting Faith into Action During the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Relig Health. 2020 Oct;59(5):2205-2214. doi: 10.1007/s10943-020-01035-2. PMID: 32409989; PMCID: PMC7224109. 
3. Sommerlad, A., Kivimäki, M., Larson, E.B. et al. Social participation and risk of developing dementia. Nat Aging 3, 532–545 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00387-0 
4. Joshi P, Hendrie K, Jester DJ, Dasarathy D, Lavretsky H, Ku BS, Leutwyler H, Torous J, Jeste DV, Tampi RR. Social connections as determinants of cognitive health and as targets for social interventions in persons with or at risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders: a scoping review. Int Psychogeriatr. 2024 Feb;36(2):92-118. doi: 10.1017/S1041610223000923. Epub 2023 Nov 23. PMID: 37994532; PMCID: PMC11058077. 
5. Chen Y, Grodstein F, Capuano AW, Wang T, Bennett DA, James BD. Late-life social activity and subsequent risk of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2025; 21:e14316. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.14316 
6. Suraj Samtani, Gowsaly Mahalingam, Ben Chun Pan Lam, Darren M Lipnicki,et al. Associations between social connections and cognition: a global collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis.The Lancet Healthy Longevity. Volume 3, Issue 11, 2022, Pages e740-e753, ISSN 2666-7568, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00199-4. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666756822001994)
7. Michael B. Hennessy, Sylvia Kaiser, Norbert Sachser. Social buffering of the stress response: Diversity, mechanisms, and functions. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. Volume 30, Issue 4. 2009. Pages 470-482. ISSN 0091-3022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2009.06.001.. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091302209000405). 
8. Phoebe H. Lam. An Extension to the stress-buffering model: Timing of support across the lifecourse. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health. Volume 42, 2024. 100876. ISSN 2666-3546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2024.100876. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354624001546)
9. Olowu, Adeola. Icebreaker Speech: I Am Who I say I Am. Toastmasters (PSST). November 2025.