The Slow Travel Diaries
Welcome to The Slow Travel Diaries—the podcast where travel meets transformation.
If you're a woman navigating life transitions, seeking healing, or craving deeper self-discovery, this podcast is for you. Through the power of slow, intentional travel, we explore how stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to clarity, confidence, and renewal.
🌍 What You'll Find Here:
✨ Inspiring Personal Stories – Real journeys of women who’ve healed and grown through travel.
🗺 Expert Insights & Practical Tips – Mindset shifts, travel strategies, and cultural connections.
💫 Deep Conversations on Growth & Healing – Exploring how travel helps you overcome fear, embrace change, and rediscover yourself.
🎙 Hosted by Sarah Hoover, founder of The Wanderer’s Anthology, this podcast is more than a travel guide—it’s a movement toward fearless living.
💌 Don’t just listen—be part of the journey! Subscribe to our must-read newsletter for exclusive travel inspiration, soulful self-discovery prompts, and insider access to retreats & coaching.
🚀 Ready to explore the world and yourself? Hit play and let’s begin your transformation.
The Slow Travel Diaries
Finding Closure Through Solo Travel and Self-Discovery with Special Guest : Emily Pennystone
Can travel truly heal emotional wounds and guide you towards closure? Join us for an insightful journey with Emily Pennystone, a mindset coach who has transformed her life from a restrictive evangelical upbringing to one where she empowers entrepreneurs. Emily shares her wisdom on why letting go of the past is so challenging and how embracing discomfort can lead to profound personal growth. We also touch on personal stories of overcoming fear and imposter syndrome, demonstrating the transformative power of stepping out of one's comfort zone.
Discover the liberating experience of solo travel, especially after major life changes like divorce. Emily and I discuss how immersing oneself in a new environment can bring solace, clarity, and self-discovery. We explore how travel can help untangle from manipulative relationships and provide a humbling perspective on personal problems. Emily also introduces her impactful self-talk journal and the resources available on her website, EmilyPennystone.com, sharing her dedication to empowering others through self-development. This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking personal transformation through the power of travel.
Don't forget to subscribe on Spotify and follow us on Instagram @theslowtraveldiaries
Get the Beginner's Guide to Slow Travel below:
https://thewanderersanthology.ck.page/d89f0d837a
Welcome back to the Slow Travel Diaries. Today's episode is a special one, as we explore how travel can be a powerful tool for finding closure and letting go of the past. Whether it's stepping into a new environment or revisiting places tied to old memories, travel can offer a unique opportunity for healing and personal growth. I'm especially excited today to introduce my guest, emily Pennystone, a mindset coach who has transformed the lives of many through her work on shifting perspectives and letting go of emotional baggage. I actually met Emily a few years ago through a copywriting community I am part of, and we hit it off immediately. Her insights and expertise resonated with me on such a deep level and I knew I had to share her wisdom with all of you. Emily, welcome to the Slow Travel Diaries. I am so excited you're here today to share your approach to mindset closure and how travel can help us move forward.
Speaker 2:Hi, sarah. I am so thrilled to be here. I was so excited to connect with you, reconnect with you and to hear about this amazing project that you're working on and this podcast that you're building, and I just resonated so deeply with the message and the heart of what you're doing and I'm just so thrilled to be here and excited about the conversation we're about to have. Yay.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, if you don't mind, if you could just share with everyone a little bit of your background, your story. I know we have very similar pieces that we've talked about before, but if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about that. And then I have a couple questions that I would like to ask you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Well, let's see. Okay, I'm trying to think of how deep I want to go into my background. It's interesting because, with this theme of travel, my background was deeply immersed in very like fundamental evangelical religious background that was pretty controlling, repressive, and I grew up within a missionary family. And so it is interesting thinking in the context of travel because in my early years travel was exclusively around you know, evangelical work and but, being a Sagittarius, I always have loved traveling. It always has been so expansive to me and has been thematic in my life.
Speaker 2:So, moving through real quick, went through a whole process of really reconnecting to myself, deconstructing and reevaluating my belief systems. Serial entrepreneur, started many businesses Several years ago. My feet landed in mindset coaching for entrepreneurs because I see how incredibly powerful the entrepreneurial journey is to self-discovery. And so belief work, inner work parts work, inner child, shadow work, all that stuff is like my jam, my favorite stuff to talk about, shadow work, all that stuff is like my jam, my favorite stuff to talk about.
Speaker 2:And, um, because you can't escape mindset, you can't escape the the deep inner, uh, inner parts of our human experience. And so I love you might want to, which we've talked about, yes, and I just love, love, love when people connect that deep inner work with things like travel or business or whatever and make it this like holistic experience. So where I am now today is coaching incredible, powerful female entrepreneurs and helping them let go of self-abandonment, really root into self-trust so that they can build businesses, have put their voice, their truth out there and really make an impact on this world and really like all the stuff you're doing, my friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I remember one of the conversations we had was, you know, kind of like getting past the fear right, getting past the fear of it, and that has been something that I've had to really struggle with, and so I'm very proud of myself that I'm doing this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It is like pushing past those barriers of all the things imposter syndrome, self-doubt, fear to speak your truth, to be visible, to show up is incredibly impactful and powerful and no small feat. So well done, thank you.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's jump right in here, Okay, so I think we want to start off by um. I guess question would be like why do you think it's so challenging for people to kind of let go and move on from things that have happened in their past? They get so stuck on them and they keep bringing them up and up and up, maybe like as excuses or self-doubt or things like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is such a good question. So our minds are wired to choose the familiar over what is good for us any day of the week, habits, everything that feels familiar and comfortable versus what we were just talking about, the discomfort that might be present in, say, choosing something that's more healthy for you. That's why you see people in the same toxic relationship dynamics or the same awful job situations. It's not because it's good for them, it's because it's familiar and that familiarity will win every time, which is why this like mindset work that we are talking about is so powerful to bring awareness to. Ok, this is uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean this change that I'm making is uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean that it's bad or wrong necessarily. So I think people can tend to be stuck in their routines and patterns for that reason, because it's familiar and therefore comfortable.
Speaker 1:Right, even comfortable in a way that they're they're familiar with it and they're used to it. Not quite that it may be comfortable.
Speaker 2:Not that it feels good, no, no. No, yeah, it's comfortable because it's familiar. And it's comfortable because it's maybe there's a certain level of predictability or certainty in that dysfunction, like um, and it just reminds you of familiar other patterns that you've played. But yeah, that is. We are creatures of that kind of habit, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so when you I mean, for example, for me, um, you know, when I got laid off and I decided I don't want to do this anymore, I'm going to do what makes me happy, even though I'm going to have to live with my parents and I may not have a lot of money for a while. But this is what I need to do, and it was very uncomfortable and very scary, but, you know, I feel so much like my nervous system is calmer now, you know. So, yeah, so I resonate with that a lot. Yeah, it is uncomfortable, but it's it's worth it, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I agree.
Speaker 1:All right, so jumping into travel. How do you think traveling to like a new or a familiar place could help someone gain closure from a difficult experience?
Speaker 2:Well, what's so interesting about travel is that it gets you out of your comfortable, familiar.
Speaker 2:Even if you're going, say, someplace that is like you visited before. You're out of your routine, you're not around your stuff, you're not around your stuff, you're not around your normal people, and just removing yourself from your environment is is A beautiful recipe for clarity, and I think that when you can have that clarity and perspective from being in a different environment, it lends to closure, it lends to release, because, just like what we were talking about a minute ago, when you're in that habitual, familiar pattern, it's just like it's just as this never ending echo chamber almost, and to remove yourself from that every now and again can help you not only see things that aren to look at, say, a loss or a breakup or a shift or change in your life from a more elevated area and not being so close to it. Have you ever heard that term? It's hard to read the label from inside the jar. When you're in your environment and you're swirling around, you're in with all your people constantly, you can be so close to the pain, the dysfunction, whatever that it's like, hard to even see what it is, and travel is such an incredible tool for that reason is it removes you from that and you get to look in and be like, oh, that's what that is. So I think, for that reason, travel for the purpose of finding some sort of closure is an incredibly powerful tool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know that personally I've used it. You know I've had, I've had a lot of things happen to me and, um, just the most recent one was I also got divorced, I think maybe around the same time as you, um, and it was very traumatic. And one of the things that I did when my divorce was actually final because it took forever, because it was during COVID um was I said I have to go to Paris, I'm going to Paris. I had no plans. I knew I was going to stay and I went, given I've lived there, um, I speak the language, but I had no plans.
Speaker 1:I literally I slept in, I just walked around, wandered around, um went to like my favorite areas in Paris and just like did nothing. Literally, I did nothing. I was in Paris but I did nothing special um, and that's all I needed to do. It was like, like you said it was, I just needed, I needed to be somewhere that helps me, like it's like it like fills my soul when I'm in France. So I was like I needed that kind of comfort, but it was a different type of comfort, you know. It was like it like fills my soul when I'm in France. So I was like I needed that kind of comfort, but it was a different type of comfort. You know, it was like this is familiar, but it's also different. And I'm not around. I don't have to worry about parents, work, friends, anything. You know, I can not feel guilty about sleeping in and eating seven croissants in one day. You know, oh yes, in one day. You know, oh yes, so yeah, so I I think that I agree with you 100% on that. I think it also leads to like self-discovery, which people don't really think about, but it teaches you a lot about yourself.
Speaker 1:I think this is like one of those things where, like, especially if you're like solo traveling to do this, I think that that, like that's one of the things like I recommend to people is like, if this is the type of thing you're trying to accomplish with travel, like at least one trip by yourself, because, again, you don't have to worry about what other people want the people, please are me, that's a big deal. You don't worry about what other people want. The people piece are me, that's a big deal, you know. Worry about what other people want, worrying about other people. You can just say, like, how do I feel today? What do I want to do today, like am I excited to go do stuff today or do I just want to, like, chill? Yeah, you know so.
Speaker 2:And that is like something that most people don't have any sense of in their normal day to day right, especially us mothers or us divorcees or wives or whoever like, whatever.
Speaker 2:We're all connected and we're all, like you know, usually fill up all the space that we have in our normal day to day.
Speaker 2:And solo travel for me was fundamental for my discovery of myself, especially like in my early 20s, and I remember I would teach all my like seniors that I would teach back when I was a theater and art teacher what I would always just encourage them if you can get away, go go to another country where you don't speak the language.
Speaker 2:And what I would say between the lines was go realize, like how actually very small you are in this big world and there's something really powerful about that, and especially in your younger years and your late teens and early 20s early 20s for realizing, like how big and full of possibility the world is and how maybe not so like life shattering that your problems are. There's so much more out there and so. But I do think that it is very easy to get caught into this, maybe fear trap around traveling by yourself, because up until my divorce I hadn't traveled by myself for 15 years because I was partnered and I always traveled with my partner, maybe outside of like, maybe one time I didn't. And then, after my divorce, I all of a sudden found myself like reacquainted with solo travel, and it was really powerful for me.
Speaker 2:I didn't make a pair of croissants, but yeah, that's just me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I feel like it's kind of a breath of fresh air because I think, especially after you know something traumatic like that it's, you just have to give yourself some grace and some peace and some you know downtime, because it's a lot to process, you know. And also like, for me it was a lot of like kind of like self-talk, like okay, made it through that. Like what do we want to do going forward? Like how, how do we want the rest of our life to be? Like what do we not want it to be? Like that was a lot of my um, because I, you know, mine was my marriage was filled with a lot of um, I don't know. It was like things that I think we talked about, that I didn't, and my therapist and I talked about that I didn't even realize were happening, like gaslighting and things like that, which when you, when you hear about them, then you're like oh yeah, okay, that makes perfect sense now, but when you're in the situation, you don't even, you don't even know that it's happening.
Speaker 2:You don't even. You don't even know that it's happening. And that's the nature of being in a manipulative, abusive relationship is you genuinely don't know it's happening? If it's in that like covert way, yeah, which is like that, that ball of yarn to untangle, like it is a thing like, is a situation that takes time, especially if you've been confused and gaslit and manipulated. And to have that, the support of travel, like how we've been talking about it, to detangle that, and because there is something about getting on a plane, being in the air or going for a road trip, being in a new space, that just automatically expands you and it gets you thinking new thought patterns and different, like these big, expansive questions that you asked what do I want my life to look like? What do I not want? What am I no longer willing to entertain anymore? Where are my boundaries? Like?
Speaker 1:what are my daughters was a big one, yes, absolutely and I think also it helped me with like kind of like re-establishing self-trust and also like I don't know, almost like like forgiving myself, you know, for for being in that situation of which I didn't create really um. And so it was yeah, it was just, it was really powerful. And so it was yeah, it was just, it was really powerful. And so I think I think that I've been to France many, many times and it's kind of like my reward to myself for getting through that ordeal.
Speaker 1:Um, and then you know kind of just deciding, okay, what do I want to do from here? And and and, and moving, trying to move past not that I'm ever going to forget that that happened, but just kind of taking like a breath and saying, okay, like now we're going, now we're going to keep going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, that's so beautiful. I remember my first trip after my divorce was actually a trip that I had planned with my ex, but I ended up just going on it with my daughters to LA and it was so interesting because it was. It was incredibly eyeopening for me traveling with both of my girls by myself, which I'd never done before, especially not a six hour flight with a layover and everything like that. And and it was interesting because it was such that trip stands out in my mind as really like rooting me in so much self-trust. And there's a specific memory from that trip that was interesting.
Speaker 2:I had to. I ended up borrowing a friend's car and I wanted to go take the girls, my girls, down to like the beach and a park and stuff like that. And I'm like driving around LA and it was like scary traffic. And now I was. You know I'm coming out of a 14 year marriage in which anytime we were traveling, I was not the one driving and and so I remember feeling this insecurity in me just about navigating all of that by myself the traveling, the driving, all this and I even felt my girls' concerns around like mom, can you do this? They were little but and I did it all Like and I figured it all out just fine.
Speaker 2:And it was very interesting and eyeopening for me to recognize the parts of myself and my self-confidence that I'd kind of lost, um through the years and really rooting back into I'm so resilient, like I can do this, I can travel with a couple elementary schoolers, like I've got this, I can drive around LA, I can make these plans and do these things and do it all with a horribly broken heart, like that new Taylor Swift song. So that trip does stand out to me as this big like remembering myself in a huge way and kind of recalibrating and reorienting to what this next season of my life is going to look like. So I feel deeply resonant with you and your trip that you, that you took.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. Well, this has been so great, ok. So last thing I want to just ask you is so on these, on these trips? So?
Speaker 2:on these, on these trips. What are some things that you would suggest people to do to stay present, to stay mindful, to try and get the most out of these trips without being overwhelmed by emotion. Yeah, that's so powerful. There's this term that I really like to encourage all my coaching clients to practice. There's this term that I really like to encourage all my coaching clients to practice, and it's called cultivating what's called unstructured time.
Speaker 2:And I think and it's truly like what you just said your Paris trip was because it's very easy to fall into the trap of the opposite, of slow travel, which is like packed full that you're so anxious and you need a vacation from your vacation, travel which so many people do Like I've got to make the most of this. I'm just going to pack it full, like start to finish. This is exactly what I'll talk about in the last episode. Okay, I'm vibing with it. I'm vibing with it, and, and when you do that, that really is a recipe for getting a lot done, but maybe not having a ton of personal presence. And so, if you're able to and it's not don't do any of that.
Speaker 2:Sure, like plan stuff, but carve out a morning, carve out an afternoon where you actually don't have a plan, maybe let yourself wander a little bit. There's nothing like having a space of unstructured time for you to just tune in to what are your desires, what feels good? Is it another croissant? Go for it, like. Is it, you know, taking a nap? Is it resting? Is it exploring something? Maybe it's talking to that barista or making a new friend. And when you step out of just a packed plan and into just the flow, there can be really beautiful, magical things that happen there, and I think that that's how you cultivate a lot of personal presence while traveling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100% I, that is. That is literally what I talked about last time. Yeah, and that's kind of my. My philosophy on this whole slow travel thing is you know, if you let, if you allow yourself to just slow down a little bit and not be so rushed, there's so many unexplored, magical things, like you said, that can happen to you. It does teach you a lot about yourself and you come back from those trips with with deeper insight and and deeper you know trust in yourself and maybe even more, like I can do this again or I want to do now you know. So, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I do, I. I do think, just to add onto that, that the act of slowing down in the face of our hyperproductive capitalistic go, go, go, don't stop. You have to prove your sense of self-worth through how much you can produce world that we live in it is a beautifully defiant way to root into your sense of self-trust and a sense of abundance, like because there is something to me if I think of my most abundant self. She's got her butt on the beach with a book in her hand and not a thing to do, and I think it's time abundance, right Time abundance, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:And that spaciousness, so like there's something so deeply reinforcing of self-trust and so deeply in alignment with the energy of abundance that slowing down gives us. So it's just a beautiful thing and I love that. This is your message, that you're sharing with the world.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm so glad that you joined us today and hopefully we can have you back in the future. I love that, so I just want to let everyone know, if they resonated with this conversation today, to please follow you on Instagram. She shares a lot of really cool things. I love her so much. Her handle is Emily dot penny stone, and I also just want to do a little plug for your self-talk journal, because that was something that I got as a gift from you and it's just amazing, so I think that I don't know if you have your website on your Instagram, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my website is EmilyPennystonecom and you can find all sorts of information, including some info on the self-talk journal. Thank you for that plug. That was such a passion project for me last year and there'll be more stuff coming, I'm sure, with all of that. But yeah, I so appreciate you having me on. I so just like, honor and value what you're doing here and this message is so important and so powerful and I would be thrilled to be back for another conversation.
Speaker 1:Sounds great, all right. Well, everyone, have a great day and we'll see on the next one.