Full time van life and mental health.

For many, when they hear or see someone living the ultimate van life “dream” they proclaim:
“Oh, I’d love to live this way, but….”

When I share photos from my lifestyle many people tell me how envious they are of my
lifestyle, how they wish they could do it too. They tell me how amazing it is and that I must
be very brave and fortunate choosing this lifestyle. Leaving everything behind, my family and
friends, my grounding, security of income and health services.

Their feelings about nomads is mixed. On one side they get excited about the idea of living
this lifestyle on the other hand they see is as lunatic and irresponsible.

What they don’t see, as most of us when looking at something from the outside, everything
that’s behind this decision. What it actually really takes leaving all behind and heading
towards new horizons without not always having a plan.

Yes, there are many van life nomads who have the resources to live this way and who, with
the support of their beloved, live this way because they believe in the freedom it provides
them with.

We have one thing in common, all the van life nomads, I dare to say. And it’s to be on the
edge of the society and not wanting to be a full part of the rat race.

But inside of this there is also the group of nomads who decided to hit the road and explore
the world as a mean of living because there was something missing in their previous static
life. Maybe they opted for this lifestyle to look for this missing part, maybe they left to ease
the pain.

We all go through something in life and each of us decides to deal with it the way we decide.

I personally associate nomad lifestyle with loneliness. At least I left and hit the road because
there was simply no one “holding me back”. I had no reason to stay. Once I had a
conversation on this topic with a friend of mine who has also been travelling even though is
settling down now in Switzerland with his girlfriend. He also has no strong family roots or
someone to go back to as often. We have friend who went onto travel but after a short period
of time returned home to be with their loved ones.

Is it that people who feel outsiders, alone end up nomads? I’ve met people along the way who
left their home precisely for this.

Reasons vary. Some surely have loving families waiting for them home and what moves them
forward is the eager need to discover the world and oneself.

But what I want to concentrate more on is the mental health of nomads.

If not getting out of my comfort zone and deciding to travel I might have never finally address
all of my insecurities. Not saying that travelling suddenly solved all my problems. Not at all.
But the sense of movement, sense of liberty helps one to look more deeply inside. On what is
really and actually going on within. It still might take the whole lifespan to figure things out.
But being enclosed in familiar surrounding all the time might make it harder to find the
answers.

Sometimes getting lost can open eyes to new dimensions and build new hinterlands.

So do the nomads who are so “lucky” living the life of dreams have it all figured out? Or
actually on the contrary?