Freedom Looks Like This – solo travel back to yourself

People often ask me if I get lonely when I travel on my own, and it's a fair question. But after more than 40 solo trips, I realize that being alone and being lonely don't really have much to do with each other.I took myself to see The Devil Wears Prada, the musical, in London, on my own, with two empty seats beside me and a very tall woman right in front of me. What happened in that theater, along with a note from a subscriber, Irene, were important reminders for me.In this episode, I take apart the difference between loneliness and solitude. You can feel lonely in a marriage, in a crowd, or in the same loop of the same week and still feel completely content at a table for one. I get into the research on the capacity to be alone and share the small, ordinary shift that made solo travel feel lighter after 40. If you are a solo female traveler, or a woman who wants to be, and you keep bumping into the worry of what if I get lonely out there, this is the conversation for you.In this episode:The empty seats beside meTaking up space on your ownTaking a book to dinnerAlone vs lonelyOnwardThis episode is for you if:you've talked yourself out of a dinner, a show, or a trip because you'd have had to go on your ownyou travel solo, or want to, but the thought of a table for one in a bright room stops you coldyou're a woman over 40 who does alone at home easily, yet dreads being alone where other people can see youyou've reached for a book or your phone as a buffer so you don't look like the woman nobody came withTake the Solo Travel Fit Quiz at https://freedomlookslikethis.com/solo-trip-fitAbout Freedom Looks Like ThisFreedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

We plan our trips around the famous sights, the must-do list, the things we'd feel a little silly skipping. And then we come home exhausted, having seen everything without focusing on enjoyment.What if the trip you'll actually enjoy is the one you subtract down to yourself? Think about the best afternoon you've ever had on a trip. I'd bet it wasn't the landmark everyone photographs. It might even be something you'd never have written on an itinerary, and you still think about it months later with a smile.This episode is about how to plan a solo trip around the woman who is actually going, not the one you think you should be, and it doesn't start with where to go but with a better question that prioritizes your enjoyment.We focus on a trip built for delight instead of for more, more, more, and the simple reason a choice that genuinely fits you, what psychologists call self-concordant, is the one you put more into and get more back out of.In this episode:- The afternoon that wasn't on the list- The myth of the one right trip- The subtraction effect- Being good company for yourself- The Krakow evening I skipped the sights- One swap before you goThis episode is for you if:You've decided you want to travel solo and the planning advice you keep finding feels like it's written for somebody elseYou're worried you'll do everything right, see all the right sights, and still come home feeling like you didn't really enjoy itYou keep a famous landmark on the itinerary just because you'd feel silly skipping it, even though you don't actually want to goYou're a woman over 40 who wants a trip that fits the woman you are now, not a twenty-two-year-old backpacker with no preferencesYou already travel solo, or you want to, and you're ready for the howAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and give yourself permission to start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

We keep telling ourselves we'll take the trip we actually want once we've finally figured everything out. What if you have that backwards? You will not think your way to your next chapter from inside the old one, and the clarity you keep waiting for tends to arrive out in the doing, on the trip itself. This is the adult gap year, reimagined, and it does not have to be a year, or a leap, or anything as big as you are picturing. After all, this is not Eat, Pray, Love.In this episode:The season you didn't chooseThe trap of thinking harderThe habit discontinuity effectA quiet month in FlorenceInterrupting one autopilotThis episode is for you if:you're in a season that ended before you were ready, a role, a relationship, the shape of your household, and you keep waiting for clarity before you do anything about ityou've wanted a solo trip but told yourself you can't take the time, the job needs you, or you have to figure your whole life out firstyou've been calling this stretch a transition, or limbo, and some part of you is ready to do something with it instead of waiting it outyou're a woman over 40 in a midlife transition who wants to feel like yourself again, not just keep showing up for everyone elseyou already travel solo, or you want to, and you're ready for the how, and you've heard enough of the whyAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Solo travel as a 40-year-old looks different from solo travel at 25 in ways that have very little to do with the budget or the boutique hotel. By 40 you already know what you want clearly enough to design a trip around it, and the work at this stage is to stop overriding yourself when something cheaper or more convenient shows up. This week Damianne tells the story of walking out of a Sapa travel agency with the wrong tour booked until she caught herself hours later.The 40+ solo travel advantage is clarity, and the work is to stop negotiating against yourself when you book.In this episode:[00:00] The 40+ solo travel question[07:03] Booking and unbooking the wrong tour[14:21] What a private tour really gives[17:28] The question that changed[23:56] This week's invitationThis episode is for you if:you've talked yourself into the cheaper trip and then realised hours later it wasn't the one you wantedyou're a woman over 40 who knows what you want but keeps overriding it for someone else's idea of a good dealyou travel solo or want to, and you're still using rules you set at 25 about money, group tours, or eating on the goyou keep optimising your solo trips for cost or group availability when what you actually want is fitAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

The small decision on a Sunday morning, the park or the cafe or the hotel room, is building something that will help you for your solo trip.I took myself on an overnight trip to Olomouc in the Czech Republic, a city about three hours from Prague, because I was tired and I knew from experience that if I stayed home with a free weekend I would work. What the trip made visible was this: between where you are now and the solo trip you haven't booked yet, there are lots of small decisions that have been waiting for you to make them.I made a small decision to I leave the Museum of Modern Art in Olomouc after thirty minutes because I was done. There was judgment in that, the kind that asks whether you're cultured enough to stay longer. I noticed it, and I left anyway.. Psychologists call the relevant skill interoception: the ability to sense your own internal signals before you've reasoned your way to an answer. It's a skill, not a fixed trait, and it gets stronger the more you use it in low-stakes situations. Those situations, ordinary and small, are what build a solo traveler. That's the practice. Not the trip.In this episode:- Olomouc in late spring- Thirty minutes in the museum- Holy Trinity Column, covered- Park, cafe, or hotel room- Cognitive distance and the solo outing- The evidence accountThis episode is for you if:ou've named the trip, know roughly where and when, but you still haven't booked anythingyou're a woman over 40 who finds herself defaulting to the logical choice, and then wondering afterward why it didn't feel rightyou've felt the slight pull toward something and then reasoned your way out of it before you had a chance to follow throughyou're a solo female traveler who wants to understand what's actually building your capacity for bigger decisions, not just your ability to plan a tripResources mentioned:Go Alone guide: My free guide to taking yourself out alone, designed for step one of the process she describes in this episode. It walks you through how to design your solo outing, what to notice, and how to follow what surfaces. Free at freedomlookslikethis.com/goaloneFree workshop, May 30th: a live online session with Damianne for women ready to take the next step toward solo travel. Details at freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

I'm sharing a conversation from Kellie Stirling's podcast Talkin About Midlife where I'm visiting as a guest rather than a solo host or interviewer. We started from the very beginning: Saint Lucia at birth, Canada at 12, then India for my first teaching job, then Sudan, Japan, and finally Prague, where I've been for thirteen years. Somewhere in all of that, a Sufi teacher in India said something to me in my mid-twenties that's still relevant to me and an important reminder more than twenty years later. It directly connects to one of my key ideas these days: there is a real difference between searching for yourself and meeting yourself.In this episode:Saint Lucia to PragueThe Sufi teacher's readingTraining the nervous system abroadSearching vs. meeting yourselfMidlife, identity, and new roles20% more enjoymentThis episode is for you if:You've been traveling for years and still feel like you're looking for something, and you're not sure whether you're going toward it or away from itYou're a woman over 40 who wants to hear the full long version of how someone became a solo traveler, not the edited highlight version where it all clicked one afternoonYou want to understand what actually separates intentional solo travel from just going somewhere alone, because you've been wondering if you're doing it rightYou've heard of the RAIN meditation but never heard someone describe using it while buried in fermented rice sand in Japan, with cotton balls in their earsFree Resources:Damianne's free guide to start solo travelDecide Your Trip workshop to figure out your first or next solo tripMeet Kellie Stirling:Kellie is the host of Talkin About Midlife, a podcast about life, health, love, relationships, the inner world, aging, and what it means to be human in a female body at this time in life. Kellie is also a somatic experiencing practitioner. Find her show wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about her podcast and follow at https://www.kelliestirling.com/podcastsAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Email: [email protected] the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Most women have a definition of solo travel in their head, and it's usually the thing keeping them from taking the trip they dream of. If solo means handling every unknown by yourself with no one to call on, of course you're not booking the trip. Gina Cambridge built her business as a travel coach on the gap between that definition and what solo travel can actually look like.In this episode of Freedom Looks Like this, we talk about solo travel retreats within a group tour and how that still counts. Gina has led over 30 retreats and tours across destinations like New Zealand, Bali, and Cuba. We also get into safety abroad and the difference between what the news tells you about a place and what living there actually feels like.In this episode:Group tours that still count as soloSnoring, single rooms, and matchmakingThe bunk bed that led to BaliLunch with the phone put awayCairo, giggling, and going aloneThe family beach day and permissionThis episode is for you if:you are curious about taking a group tripyou've considered a group tour but worried about choosing the right oneyou're an introvert who wonders how anyone is supposed to make friends on the road, especially with everyone glued to their phonesyou've taken solo trips before and want to try different approachesResources mentioned:Gina Cambridge's free guide to Fearless Solo TravelWanderlust Solo Women ToursGina's podcast Wanderlust Solo Women Travel "Unscripted" on YouTubeGina on Instagram: @wanderlust_momentum and @wanderlust_travel_coachGina on LinkedInGina on FacebookAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Maybe you've been thinking about a trip for months, looking at flights, reading about the destination, knowing roughly what's there. And still not booking. Or you've already been on the trip and running a calculation the whole time: how do I make this count? Was this worth it? Both versions have the same problem. The question you're asking doesn't close. It just generates more conditions.In this episode, Damianne introduces the two-word question she's used for years, one that doesn't require a perfect reason to go, just the absence of a real blocker. With three stories from three very different decisions, she traces how the same question opened doors she couldn't have planned for, including thirteen years in a city she'd never seen before she arrived.The "why should I go" question has a problem: it's designed for explanation, for optimization. It needs a good reason, and so it's easy to delay. Instead, you generate concerns. Address one, and another appears. The timing isn't right. The savings aren't there. Something at work needs you. Solo travel for women over 40 isn't really a logistics problem. It's a question. So we need to ask better questions.In this episode:The cherry blossom calculationThe question that keeps generating conditionsTwo words and how they workOff the main path in SapaA pyramid in TiranaThirteen years lateThis episode is for you if:you've been looking at flights for a trip you haven't booked, and you're genuinely not sure what you're waiting foryou travel solo and find yourself measuring the experience instead of just being in ityou're a woman over 40 who wants to stop generating conditions and start decidingyou've answered one concern about a trip only to find another one waiting in its placeResources mentioned: Free workshop — freedomlookslikethis.com/training Make the trip decision in a small group with Damianne. Next session: June 6.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

You probably have a condition before you'll book the trip, something that needs to be true first. But if you look back, a version of that condition has likely already been true. You met it, and then something else came up. The timing wasn't right, and then it was, and something else came up. There was always something.This is what practising deferral looks like. Every time you defer, you're getting better at putting yourself last. And after a while, that feels natural. It looks responsible, from the inside and the outside. But the woman you're becoming while you practise it is the one who doesn't quite trust herself to choose. That accumulates. And it compounds.The clarity and confidence you're waiting for don't come before the decision. They come after you've moved.In this episode:- Conditions that keep moving to stay out of reach- Building evidence, for or against yourself- The school bus in September- Nine months without a plan, but moving- Writing the trip as a decisionThis episode is for you if:you've been wanting to take a solo trip and keep finding reasons to waityou're a woman over 40 who makes thoughtful, reliable decisions for other people all day and can't quite remember the last time you made one that was purely for yourselfyou're a solo female traveler or seriously thinking about becoming oneyou've been telling yourself you're being responsible by waiting, and some part of you suspects that framing is doing double duty as a reason to stay put. Resources mentioned:The Science of Well-Being: a free online course on happiness, with Laurie SantosLearning How to Learn: an online course on approaching new skills and subjects, with Barbara OakleyAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo — or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Each of us has a default response to unexpected moments, often without noticing it. I watched mine during a recent trip in Japan, paying attention to where I used to smile and keep moving versus where I'm now stopping, staying in the conversation, and letting things land.A place moves forward without you while you're away, and so do you. You don't just come home with experiences. You come home as someone who made a series of decisions, and that's what persists.This episode is set in Japan, a country Damianne lived in for four years starting in 2009. and it keeps returning to a comparison between who she was then and who she is now. The places have changed. The person is different. And both of these change the experience, not just because of the big moments, but through the accumulation of small ones: booking something despite not being sure it's worth it, making an appointment in a language you don't speak, sitting still on a balcony long enough to notice the light, letting someone's kindness actually land.In this episode: Crossing water to NaganoshimaThe yukata that finally fitWhen the chef paid attentionSakura, rain, and the highlight reelThe coffee shop pauseThis episode is for you if:you've been somewhere beautiful and caught yourself calculating what would make it better, such as measuring your actual experience against some optimal version that doesn't quite exist, and then having to remind yourself to appreciate what's in front of youyou travel solo or are thinking about it and you want to understand what it actually changes in you, beyond just the places you see and the meals you eatyou're a woman over 40 who has a long list of things she's already decided she doesn't like, won't try, or isn't worth it,  and you're starting to notice that some of those decisions were made before you had all the informationyou've had that split second where something unexpected happened and you could engage or exit, and you defaulted to exit before you could think, and weren't quite sure afterward whyAbout Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo (or who already do) and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Sometimes people tell me they don't know where to travel solo. I want to sit with that for a moment, because I think that when most people say it, they mean something closer to: I don't trust where I want to go. The destination is usually already there. It has been there for a while. The gap between knowing what you want and actually believing that what you want is the right answer, that is where most of us get stuck.In this episode:- The hill in Camiguin- Banaue and the pressure to do it right- Ella, the damaged train, and a waterfall from the window- The guilt of not doing enough- Writing the place downThis episode is for you if:you've said "I don't know where to go" and suspected that wasn't quite the full truthyou've arrived somewhere you really wanted to be and immediately started adding more stops, trying to make it countyou're a woman over 40 who keeps putting off a particular destination without a clear reason whyyou travel solo or are thinking about it, and you think you need more informationIn 2007, Damianne went to the Philippines because she saw a photograph of the Banaue rice terraces and something in her said yes. She didn't analyse it or make a spreadsheet. But once she was there, the pressure to do it right crept in: more stops, more sights, moving faster through a place she had chosen specifically to slow down in. Nearly 20 years later, a trip to Ella, Sri Lanka repeated the pattern. The train she planned to take wasn't running. Her driver mentioned waterfalls. She changed her plans, found exactly what she needed, and then nearly talked herself out of it anyway because of the familiar voice telling her she was wasting Ella, that she should go see the bridge, get the photograph, do the walk.The gap between those two moments (Camiguin in 2007 and Ella in 2026) is what this episode is really about. In both cases she already knew where she wanted to go. The harder thing was trusting it.About Freedom Looks Like This:Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

I can feel right away when something is slightly off and I have to decide, quickly, what I’m going to do with it.Do I say something.Or do I let it go.I think you know that moment, the one where you’re still in it, and you’re already deciding what it means, whether it’s worth your energy.Sometimes you don’t say anything. But later, you’re still thinking about it.This episode starts with something that happened at a hotel spa in Sapa. But it’s not really about the spa. It’s about that moment where you realize you have a choice, and you don’t always know which one you’re going to make until you’re already in it.I’ve been noticing how often this comes up, also in my everyday life, in conversations, in relationships, in small everyday interactions that don’t quite land.What I’m starting to see is that there’s a cost either way. But you don’t always know what that cost is until after.If you’ve ever walked away from something small and kept thinking about it… or stayed in something longer than you wanted to… you’ll recognize this.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Most people think experiences speak for themselves. But something else is happening while you’re inside them.On this trip to Japan, I noticed three very different moments: a sand spa where I couldn’t control anything, a sushi dinner where I stopped managing and just responded, and a slow tour where I caught myself subtly adjusting to belong.Each one showed me something I hadn’t fully seen before.The way we think, interpret, and manage ourselves in real time doesn’t just sit alongside an experience; it changes it.In this episode,  I’m staying inside those moments and noticing what was happening as they unfolded.If you’ve ever found yourself overthinking, pulling back, or  adjusting even when you’re fully in something … this might help you see it differently.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

People think meaningful travel comes from big moments, the kind you plan for, experience, and remember as highlights. But some of the days that stay with you the longest don’t look like much at all.In this episode, I share a day trip to Awaji Island with a friend and her family,  a day that wasn’t supposed to be particularly exciting. It included small stops, simple meals, and moments that didn’t seem significant on their own.And yet, by the end of it, the day felt full in a way that’s hard to explain.This episode explores what actually makes a day feel meaningful, and how solo travel can deeper the experiences we have with other people..If you’ve ever wondered whether travel always needs to be big or impressive to matter, this might change how you think about it.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Have you ever stayed somewhere longer than you wanted to… just in case?Just in case something important happens at the end.  Just in case leaving early seems rude.  Just in case you’re ... fill in the blank.On a recent solo trip through Japan, I started noticing this instinct in a few different places.It showed up in a moment on a bus when I realized I was sitting on the “wrong” side to capture the ocean.It showed up again during a Buddhist fire ritual in Koyasan, when I found myself sitting there long after my curiosity about the ceremony had already been satisfied.In this episode of *Freedom Looks Like This*, I’m noticing a pattern many of us fall into while traveling (and in everyday life), especially when we’re trying to make the most of our time and avoid missing out. Then, we're determined to make the "right" decision. But some decisions can't be made with logic and a spreadsheetIn this episode- Solo travel reflections from Japan  - A Buddhist fire ritual in Koyasan  - A travel decision between Kobe and Awaji Island  - The pressure to stay until the end of experiences  - Noticing the moment when your curiosity is already satisfiedThis episode is part of the ongoing series exploring what freedom actually looks like when travelling and in everyday moments.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

When you travel alone, it’s easy to fall into the habit of accomplishment: the pressure to see more and make the most of every moment.But what if the real question isn’t where you should go next?In this episode of Freedom Looks Like This, Damianne shares a moment from Japan that changed the way she thinks about pace, presence, and what it means to truly inhabit a place.After moving quickly through several countries, she arrives in Wakayama, a destination she first dreamed about more than 15 years ago. Standing on the cliffs at Sandanbeki, something shifts. Instead of moving on like everyone else and hurrying from place to place, she slows down. This turns out to be a moment that shapes the rest of the trip by opening a deeper reflection about slow travel, accomplishment, and the subtle pressure many capable women carry to “use time well.”As she considers two possible next destinations (Kobe or Awaji Island) another realization begins to surface: sometimes the question behind our travel decisions isn’t about curiosity at all.Through experiences in Japanese ryokan, public onsen baths, and the  rhythm of Wakayama, this episode explores:• how the pace of travel reveals more about us than the destination• the difference between accomplishing a trip and inhabiting it• why structure can sometimes create freedom while traveling• how to recognize the habitual voice that asks if you’re “using the moment well”• what happens when you choose presence instead of optimizationIf you’re a woman over 40 who is exploring solo travel, intentional travel, or the idea of slowing down while traveling, this episode invites you to reconsider how you choose your next destination and how you show up once you land.Damianne is currently deciding between two very different next destinations in Japan: Kobe or Awaji Island. She shares the dilemma in this episode and will reveal the decision in the next one.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

What actually makes a solo trip worth it?Is it how much you see? How early you wake up? The number of places you fit in? Your distance from home?In this episode of Freedom Looks Like This, Damianne reflects on the subtle pressure many women feel when traveling alone — especially in midlife — to “make the trip count.”After moving through Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, and now Japan, she explores the quiet tension between rest and expansion, depth and depletion, slowing down and overdoing it. What happens when you’re working remotely while traveling? When you feel tired but don’t want to shrink? When you wonder if you’re pushing yourself for growth or simply because you’re afraid of a flat experience?If you’ve ever:Felt drained on a solo tripQuestioned whether you’re doing too muchStruggled with travel burnout as a digital nomadWondered how to balance slow travel with meaningful experiencesOr felt pressure to justify the cost, time, or distance of traveling aloneThis conversation will meet you where you are.Rather than offering a checklist or destination guide, Damianne shares lived moments from Kandy, Laos, and the Sandanbeki Cliffs in Japan, and the internal negotiations that came with each one.Because maybe what makes a trip “worth it” isn’t what we’ve been told. And maybe choosing where to go next has less to do with what looks impressive and more to do with what you’re already carrying.If you’re navigating solo travel over 40, intentional travel, or simply trying to design a life that fits your actual energy, this episode will give you something to sit with.Listen in.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Can competence make you invisible?If you’re a capable woman over 40, the one who organizes, anticipates, manages everything, you already know how to move through the world efficiently. You know how to make things work.But what if the very skill that makes you strong is also the thing that keeps you partially unseen?As I traveled through Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Laos this past month, I noticed something unexpected. In unfamiliar places, where no one knew my history or reputation, I still defaulted to being the competent one. I handled it. I figured it out. I didn’t ask.And slowly, I realized: I disappear into competence.In this episode of Freedom Looks Like This, we explore how solo travel for women over 40 exposes the roles we carry, especially the role of “the capable one.” We look at how visibility shifts when context shifts, why independent midlife women often default to self-reliance, and how competence can quietly limit connection.This conversation touches on:• Solo travel and identity after 40 • The invisible woman experience in midlife • Confidence vs. competence • Independent women and self-reliance • Why environment shapes who we become • The tension between strength and being held • Midlife reinvention and personal growth through travel • How intentional travel interrupts old patternsSolo travel doesn’t magically make you fearless. But it changes the room. And when the room changes, you start to see which parts of you are habit … and which parts are choice.If you’ve ever been praised for being strong, capable, or independent, or wondered whether that’s the whole story, this episode will resonate.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

There’s a moment that happens so quickly we almost never notice it.You want something. Something small. Something light. And before you can even finish the thought, it’s already over. A reason has appeared. A story has formed to hold yourself back. It sounds reasonable enough that you don’t question it.In this episode, I’m exploring what happens in the first thirty seconds after desire shows up — before it turns into “later,” or “that’s a waste of time,” or “that’s not really me.”I share a moment from Angkor Wat when I almost stepped back from something playful because I didn’t want to be seen as too much. We talk about how conditioning shapes the speed of our self-talk. And I sit with a question I’ve been asking myself more often lately: why not now?This isn’t about changing your thoughts. It’s about noticing them earlier.If you’ve ever talked yourself out of something before it even had a chance, this conversation will feel familiar. Tune in and listen to the end for this week's invitation.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

I went to Sri Lanka expecting to work a little. To stay alert. To dust off old instincts. I assumed it would feel familiar in the way India once did, manageable, but intense. Instead, it felt easy.That surprised me.In this episode, I’m reflecting on what happens when a place is gentler than you prepared for and the hard parts you braced for never quite appear.I talk about arriving ready for effort and finding myself able to relax sooner than expected. Ease didn’t mean everything was perfect. I still had to pay attention. I still worried about missing out. I still caught myself trying to fit too much into a day. But I also able to reconnect with myself and others by noticing what was happening. That shift became the real story of the trip.Sri Lanka isn’t presented here as a fantasy or an escape. It’s simply the place that allowed me to notice what I’m like when things don’t demand so much from me. And that raised a question I didn’t expect to carry home: what do I do when ease surprises me?This episode sits inside that question without trying to solve it. It’s about learning to trust calm when it shows up, and about noticing the version of yourself that appears when you’re not bracing for difficulty.If you’ve ever traveled solo and found a place easier than you imagined, or wondered how to stay open to that kind of experience, email [email protected] to share your experience.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

At some point in midlife, many of us get very good at holding things together. We manage responsibilities and keep it moving. Over time, that steadiness can turn into a kind of muting of curiosity or desire and solo travel can take us out of that.I’m recording while traveling solo, in the early days of a trip where my body hasn’t quite settled yet. I’m slower than usual and less interested in doing things for the sake of momentum. I’m paying attention to how fatigue shows up, not just the physical kind, but the tiredness that comes from responsibility and long stretches of being “on.”There’s a particular tension that many women over 40 recognize. We’re taught to prioritize safety and be sensible. Even when we’re confident and independent, those narratives can linger in the background, shaping how freely we move and how visible we allow ourselves to be.In this episode, I talk about what it’s like to travel with that context still present, the pressure to feel oriented quickly.  The consequence is many small internal observations around independence and self-trust, especially in unfamiliar environments.By its very nature, the changes in rhythm when you travel reveal patterns you don’t always notice at home. It creates small moments where questions about safety, visibility, and autonomy surface in subtle ways.I share what I’ve been noticing as I move more slowly than I used to and how my body responds in new places. This episode doesn’t try to resolve anything. It stays close to the experience of being in motion, still adjusting, still paying attention, still letting meaning take its time.If you’ve ever wondered what solo travel can feel like beyond the highlight reels, especially as a woman over 40, this episode offers a look at what solo travel can really look like, in all its real messiness.Join the Skool community for a behind-the-scenes view as I travel through Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam here.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

At some point after forty, many women start noticing something subtle but persistent. We're engaged and competent, but yet, in small everyday moments, we're not being seen in the same way.This realization doesn’t usually arrive as one dramatic incident. It shows up in quieter ways — in lines, in shops, in airports, in conversations — moments where you realize you’re expected to wait without explanation. When women talk about this, we often use the word invisible, even if we can’t quite point to when it started.In this episode, I talk about that experience, without turning it into a diagnosis or a personal failing. I share ordinary situations where invisibility has shown up for me, what it brings up emotionally, and why I’ve stopped accepting the idea that this is just what happens to women after a certain age.We look at how waiting becomes a habit — not because women are passive, but because many of us were taught to wait to be invited, chosen, acknowledged, or approved of. Over time, that posture can quietly shrink our sense of what’s available to us.Travel enters this conversation not as an escape or a fantasy, but as an interruption. When you travel alone, waiting isn’t neutral. You’re required to decide, to navigate, to speak, to take up space, and to respond in real time — sometimes before you feel ready. That’s where patterns around invisibility become harder to ignore.I reflect on moments where I chose to stay instead of leaving, to speak instead of shrinking, and what those choices have taught me about self-trust, exhaustion, and consistency. I also talk about the difference between invisibility that’s chosen and invisibility that’s imposed — and why that distinction matters.This conversation is about presence, choice, and what changes when you stop abandoning yourself in small ways.If you’ve ever felt overlooked, muted, or unsure how to respond when it happens — especially as a woman over forty — this episode will likely feel familiar.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Safety comes up for many women long before a trip is booked, sometimes before a place is even considered. It shows up while scrolling and while listening to other people’s stories about what’s “safe” and what isn’t. In this episode, Damianne reflects on how she thinks about safety now, shaped by decades of solo travel and living overseas,. This conversation shows how she decisions when traveling alone so you can do the same confidently. Drawing from experiences in Southeast Asia, Morocco, India, Sudan, and Japan, Damianne explores how safety is less about ruling places out and more about context, timing, awareness, and choice. She talks about using travel advisories and safety tools like TripIt without outsourcing judgment, the difference between awareness and hypervigilance, and why your tolerance for uncertainty shapes where you’re willing to go. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re being “too cautious” or not cautious enough, or felt caught between wanting to explore and being safe or "responsible", this episode offers space to think rather than instructions on what to do. This conversation is especially for women over 40 who are considering solo travel, international travel, or traveling alone safely, and who are tired of being told where they should or shouldn’t go. It’s about staying present, prepared, and trusting yourself without disappearing or living inside fear.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

What do you expect from your first solo trip, especially as a woman over 40? A lot of us carry the idea that if we plan carefully enough, choose the right destination, and do everything “properly,” the trip should go smoothly. It should feel relaxing and signficant! And when things go wrong, even in small ways, it can feel surprisingly upsetting. In this episode, I talk about why that expectation shows up so strongly for women traveling alone later in life, and what actually happens when a solo trip doesn’t go as planned. I share personal stories from years of solo travel, including moments of embarrassment, self-blame, and the pressure I still feel to be capable and in control. Tune in to understand how confidence, self-trust, and emotional regulation  get built over time, especially when you’re navigating a new place on your own. If you’re thinking about solo travel, worried about making mistakes, or feeling anxious about doing it “wrong,” this episode will likely feel familiar. Topics include: solo travel for women over 40, first solo trip anxiety, traveling alone as a woman, fear of making mistakes, emotional safety while traveling, midlife independence, and choosing differently. Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

I watched Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross and expected to be taken in by the beauty of it — the locations, the ease, the confidence. That part was there, but it wasn’t what stayed with me. What lingered were the imperfect moments, like her getting sick while traveling alone or sitting down to eat by herself. I could relate when she let her loneliness show up without trying to smooth it over or turn it into something inspiring. There is something disarming about seeing independence lived so plainly, without explanation or justification. In this episode, I talk through why that visibility matters — especially for women over 40. It doesn’t have to be a model to follow or proof of anything; it can simply serve as a disruption to what we might expect, or what others expect of us. When certain lives are made visible, it stirs questions we don’t always know how to name — about timing, expectation, and choice. What we were told adulthood would look like may look nothing like what actually feels true now. I keep coming back to the scenes where Tracee is alone — getting sick, sitting down to eat by herself — and how little effort there was to make them palatable. There’s no hard-hitting lesson. The moments speak for themselves. That’s the part I haven’t stopped thinking about.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Do you remember the first time you considered going into a restaurant by yourself, and hesitated at the door? For many women, the discomfort around eating alone isn’t really about food. It’s about visibility. About being seen. About the quiet rules we’ve absorbed around when it’s acceptable to take up space. In this episode, Damianne reflects on a moment from her twenties that still lingers, how solo dining has followed her across decades and countries, and why certain restaurants, and certain seats, can bring up more than we expect. This isn’t an episode about confidence tricks or forcing yourself to be brave. It’s a calmer look at what’s actually happening in those moments of hesitation, and how something as ordinary as a table for one can reveal much bigger stories about permission, desire, and how women learn to move through the world. If you’ve ever avoided an experience because you didn’t want to do it alone or wondered why that discomfort still shows up, this conversation will likely feel familiar.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Confidence doesn’t arrive all at once. It’s built quietly, one decision at a time. In this episode of Freedom Looks Like This, I walk you through what I call the confidence ladder, a series of small steps women take as they move from hesitation to readiness, especially when it comes to solo travel and choosing themselves. This conversation isn’t about being fearless or making dramatic leaps. It’s about recognizing desire, working with doubt, and taking one honest step forward at a pace that feels supportive. You’ll hear how confidence actually forms in real life, why hesitation is not a failure, and how worthiness plays a role in all of this. If you’ve been waiting to feel “ready,” this episode will help you see that you may already be further along than you think. In this episode, we explore: How confidence is builtThe hidden role worthiness plays in hesitationThe early, low-stakes steps that quietly build self-trustHow to stop waiting for certainty and start moving with clarityWhat the confidence ladder looks like in real lifeSupport the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Many women think solo travel is something you do in your twenties, before life gets busy and complicated. In this episode, I explore a very different truth. Midlife brings a kind of clarity, self-knowing, and freedom that can make this stage of life an ideal moment to travel on your own, whether for the first time or as a rediscovery. We talk about the quiet shifts that happen as you get older, the easing of expectations, and the surprising ways your priorities change. I also share how small choices can reveal more confidence than you expect, and why listening to what you genuinely want leads to a richer, more meaningful trip. If you have been wondering whether it is too late, or if solo travel still makes sense for you at this stage of your life, this conversation will help you see the possibilities in a new light. You may recognize yourself in parts of what I describe, or feel something inside soften as you imagine a different kind of trip than the ones you used to take. Press play to hear how midlife can open the door to a new, more grounded version of freedom, and why this might be exactly the right moment to choose yourself.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Choosing where to go for your first (or next) solo trip can be the biggest sticking point for women. It is not because the world is too big or because you do not have enough information. Something else is happening underneath the surface, and it is the real reason so many women get stuck before they ever book a flight. In this episode, I talk about the deeper forces that make destination choice feel heavy, even when part of you is excited. I also share a simple approach I use in my own life that takes you out of overthinking and into a place where things finally feel doable again. I tell a few stories from my early travel years, including what helped me navigate a brand new country where I did not know the language, and why another destination felt almost effortless even though I got lost constantly. At the heart of this episode is something I wish every woman over 40 knew about choosing a destination. It is not about finding the perfect place. When you understand what that actually means, the decision becomes much easier. If you have been circling the idea of a trip and keep getting stuck on the question of where to go, this episode will help you see the decision in a completely different light. You might even walk away with three destinations in mind before you finish listening.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

What if becoming a woman who travels has nothing to do with plane tickets, planning, or confidence … and everything to do with something far quieter? In this episode, we explore the subtle, almost invisible shift that happens long before your first solo trip, the one that most women don’t recognize until they’re already in it. It’s the kind of shift that shows up in tiny private moments, in questions you didn’t know you were allowed to ask, and in a version of you that’s been waiting patiently in the background. I’m sharing a few stories I’ve never told in this way before, including an unexpected encounter in India that changed how I saw myself, and a moment years later that made me realize just how much our identities are shaped by other people’s expectations. If you’ve ever wondered why the idea of traveling alone feels both exciting and unsettling … or why imagining it brings up more questions than answers. This episode will help you understand what’s happening underneath. You might discover you’re already becoming the woman who travels, even if you haven’t taken the first step yet.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Most women think they’re not ready to travel alone because they lack confidence, experience, or the “right” personality. But that’s not the real story. In this first episode of Freedom Looks Like This, I’m naming the deeper forces that shape our hesitation long before we ever open a map or consider a destination. If you grew up hearing to be careful, to stay close, to not do things alone … or if you were taught to put everyone else’s needs ahead of your own, it makes sense that solo travel feels risky or self-indulgent, even when the desire is there. These aren’t personal shortcomings. They’re inherited rules that many of us have followed for decades without realizing it. In this conversation, I’ll share how those quiet messages show up in midlife and why they make women second-guess their readiness. And I’ll offer a calmer, more honest way to understand your fear, not as a stop sign, but as something you’re allowed to move with it instead of waiting to overcome it. If you’ve been dreaming about a solo trip but can’t seem to take the next step, this episode will help you see the hesitation for what it really is, and what it isn’t.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

Welcome to Freedom Looks Like This — the solo travel confidence podcast for women over 40. If you’ve been feeling a tug to travel solo… a pull toward freedom, adventure, and choosing yourself… this podcast is for you. In this trailer, host Damianne shares the heart behind the show and what you can expect each week. After traveling to more than 70 countries, much of it solo, she’s here to help you build the confidence, mindset, and practical skills you need to explore the world on your own terms. Whether you’re dreaming of your first solo trip or ready to take your freedom to the next level, this space is for you.The first episode drops December 3. Follow the show so you don’t miss it.Support the showJoin the next Solo Trip Decision Workshop live on June 20. It's for women who've decided they want to take a solo trip and want help deciding the trip they actually want: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/trainingEmail: [email protected] Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community