Traveling, particularly overseas, can be a great experience. For many people, it can also be an expensive one, which means you need to know how to save on expenses.

Saving Money When Traveling

For many people, traveling is the ultimate method of rejuvenating their zest for life. On one hand, you get away from the constant interruptions of daily life that occur at work and home. On the other, you get to see a whole different way of living in another location, even if it is in your country. The only problem with traveling, of course, is it can put a whammy on your bank account.

Saving money when traveling is not as hard as you think. The number one thing to remember is that practically everything is negotiable. If it is not, such as the cost of flights, there are often timing issues that can result in savings. While there are hundreds of tips, here are a few you might be unaware of.

Traveling in a group is a great way to save money. Businesses in the travel industry like groups because they represent a pool of guaranteed money. If you can swing a group of 10 people for a trip, hotels, cruises, guides and such will provide you with their services for free. Just you, not the entire group. This may sound like a strange strategy, but it can work if you are mad about some location. You simply offer to provide a guided tour to the area and do some marketing. The cost of your trip is next to nothing and you may be able to write-off much of the remaining expense on your taxes. Of course, make sure to run it by your accountant.

When it comes to hotel bookings, it is important to understand that the price of every room is negotiable. A hotel assigns four, five and even ten different rates to each type of room they have. Obviously, they want to get the most for it, but they offer all types of deals to attract bookings during slow times. The best way to take advantage of this is through online hotel booking sites. Since these sites move massive quantities of bookings, they usually get the lowest or close to lowest prices. You just need to compare prices, point and click.

If you are traveling somewhere by plane, you are inevitably going to need ground transportation. Car rentals at airports tend to be price compared to in town options. If you must rent at the airport, the best way to get a deal is through your frequent flyer miles. Rates can be half as much as those posted at the desks. If you do not have frequent flyer miles, try to book through the online sites for the various rental companies. A number of them will be offering specials that can really add up to significant savings.

Taking small steps to save money on trips can make all the difference. Follow the above advice and you should see less of a drain on your bank account.

Life is all about experience. Most of us have quite a vast intellectual knowledge of the world. Intellectually we know what’s available to us as human beings and although most people haven’t got everything they want, they at least have an intellectual knowledge of it. They know what exists and they know what is available. There is, however a huge difference between intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge.

We all long to experience the objects of our desire. Knowing simply isn’t enough. We want to feel and we want to experience that which we know by engaging all our senses and all of our nervous system to fully comprehend that which exists only as impulses in our minds. Until and unless you actually experience something it will remain an idea and a concept that will always leave you wanting more. Experience is the process by which you turn your intellectual knowledge into a physical experience and when you experience it, it becomes real because you get to feel it in your nervous system. You involve your emotions and, in the process, you get to feel the fullness of a concept turned real and made manifest in reality. You can know yourself to be kind, but until and unless you do something kind, the idea will remain intellectual and weak. Only when you take the idea and act on it will you create the experience. Having the experience of kindness is what you really want.

Experience then is something we create by taking an idea and putting it to use through action. It is when you use your will to take action when you get to “see” the invisible idea take shape in physical form and through physical experience. We all have a deep seeded need to experience that which we know intellectually and that which we crave to experience through our senses and our emotions. From this point of view we are all constantly striving to experience through our physical bodies and our emotions that which we hold as an idea in our intellect and our minds.

The easiest way to turn your ideas into reality is through action. When you use your will you can take any idea and just do it to have the experience of your knowledge. The real purpose of knowledge is action for what good is knowledge when you can’t use it? The challenge for most people is that they are held back by their own limiting beliefs and fears. Fears and limiting beliefs are actually imaginary for the belief that taking action might lead to a specific “bad” outcome is what actually prevents you from taking action. It is the fear that doing “this” will mean “that” or will lead to “that” even though it has not occurred yet (and will most probably not).

The reality is that all experience in life happens through contrast. We live in a world that is relative. Everything in life exists in relation to something else and everything in life has it’s reciprocal. A wise man once said that someone born blind will never know the meaning of darkness for he’s never seen the light. Neale Donald Walsh explains it beautifully in Conversations with God when he said that in the absence of that which is not, that which is, is not. For us to experience anything we must also experience the opposite. Life can never be just a flat and one dimensional experience. It simply does not exist.

The challenge is that most people live in the delusion that their lives are in shatters because there are some things they do not like. In reality they are just experiencing the opposite of what they do want. Hot does not exist without cold. There can be no rainbow without the storm. It is in the contrast that we get to truly live life through the experience of both . When you learn to see life experiences as different states of the same thing you can start to really appreciate all of life and truly have the experience of living life. Appreciating and acknowledging that which is not the way you want, will give you a totally different perspective on everything that you do not like in your life, both past and present. Whether you are feeling lonely, depressed, sad or frustrated you can actually start to appreciate these emotions for it’s because of them that you can experience love, vitality, joy and passion.

Regardless of whether you call something good or bad, experience is what will give you fulfilment in life. You have one incredible gift and that is to take your inner desires and experience them. This gift is the gift of action which is your ability to take an impulse of thought and desire and put it to use.

In it’s original latin form the word experience actually means to “test” or to “try”. When you relinquish your attachment to just experiencing pleasure you will start to see the use and even the meaning of pain for the one creates and defines the other. Experience has no, and needs no attachment to specific outcomes. Although it does not guarantee you a specific outcome, it does guarantee you a rich life that is filled with a multitude of contrasting sensations. Every cell in your body has a “memory” and through experience you get to feel and “record” your intellectual knowledge by engaging all of you. This is the true meaning of “knowing” for it comes with a deep sense of certainty that you feel in your whole body. This is when you “know it in your bones” it is a deeper understanding that can never come from intellectual knowledge alone. Your world cannot be grasped by contemplation and knowledge alone, but only through action.

You’ll See It When You Believe It Growing Your Life From the Inside Out

Generally you pick up on the things that resonate with your beliefs and your view of the world. This is why, when youre feeling bad, bad things rain down on you relentlessly.

There are the real, major issues that you have to contend with and then there are the generalizations that you have learned to draw from them, like: Life is hard It always seems to happen to me etc.

It isnt in any way your fault, of course. Its also true that bad things happen to happy people too.

Happy people are not necessarily fortunate people in the sense of everything in their life being hunky-dory. How many people do you know who have good relationships, good health, financial security and are still discontented, bored or only half-alive? I can certainly think of a few.

Happy people are the people who have learned to modify their mood, manage their emotions and choose their reactions. Language, which we all have, is the sole tool that they need to do so.

You end up believing what other people tell you, when they tell you something often, or convincingly enough. How many times have you found yourself believing some daft, but effective, advertising slogan, despite your better judgment? How many times have you reviled yourself for being lazy, or stupid or worthless, even when you know that is not really you, because thats what youve been told repeatedly?

If youll see it when you believe it, then the first thing to do is choose beliefs that serve you. You can do that because you only have to tell yourself a thing often enough and you will believe it. Unless, of course, your real mantra is: Well, Ill try it, but I know it wont work for me. In which case it wont because youll get what youve affirmed.

But you can choose an affirmation that allows your spirit to soar. You can start from wherever you are with whatever words seem most appropriate to you. Purely as an example, you could choose to affirm something like: I now give myself permission to celebrate my strength, my uniqueness and my precious humanity.

Say it once and nothing will happen. Say it several times each day, over a period of weeks and old limiting beliefs will start to lose their hold.

Or you could do it the way Sandy Forster advocates in How To Be Wildly Wealthy Fast. Instead of just saying your affirmation, you go through it, putting the stress on the first word first time round, the second word second time round and so on until you reach the last word.

An affirmation of 15 words, like the one above will probably take you 2 or 3 minutes to work through. By the time youve finished, it will have interrupted any habitual negative loop and lifted your spirits.

Do that a few times a day, when negative thoughts kick in and it wont be that many days before you start to feel different. And when you start to believe different things, youll start to see different things.

Yes, its cheap, cheerful and ridiculously simple. Often what stops you achieving something you truly want is not the enormity or the complexity of the thing. It may just be a small, but crucial bit of information you lack, without which nothing seems to make sense.

The question is: are you prepared to give it a go?

All of us have days when we’re out of sorts. You just wish you were in a better mood. You’ve had days like that, haven’t you? Perhaps you tried to get yourself into a better state of mind but struggled to achieve it.

Sometimes we get stuck in our own emotional dumps and forget how easy it is to feel happier, so here are seven simple ways to lift your mood. Many people have found them useful. Some of them may surprise you!

1. Go for a walk.

Most people know that going for a short daily walk is one of the best forms of exercise. When you are feeling down it is even more beneficial. If you can, go into a natural environment with plants and birds. Can you think of such a setting not? What do you notice first? The different shades of greenery, the fresh smell of country air, the sounds of birds, or the sunlight shining through the trees? Make it real by taking a short stroll.

2. Listen to quality music.

Music can shift a listener’s state within moments. It’s effect can be nearly magical. Dig out that CD you haven’t listened to in ages or tune in your radio to something you’ve never listened to before.

3. Open yourself to discovering something new.

Read something (printed, not on line) different than what you would normally watch. There are a ton of different types of magazines can you get these days. Visit your local library or browse through a magazine rack. Pick up or buy a magazine you wouldn’t normally buy. You may discover something wonderful.

4. Find something to laugh at.

Laughter is one of the best ways to lift your spirits. Find a humorous book, or watch a comedy. Even better, try to learn a few new jokes and tell them to others.

5. Simple breathing meditation.

Breathing meditation is a great exercise that you can do anywhere. Simply allow yourself to sit comfortably with your back straight. Now close your eyes and become aware of the flow of air into and out of your nostrils. That’s all there is to it. Do this for 10-15 minutes. Notice how pleasantly surprised you can be at how you feel afterward.

6. Doodling for the fun of it.

Most people can remember when they were young and used to doodle for hours. Kids love drawing silly little pictures. Drawing is not just for kids or artists. Whoever you are get some pens, pencils, crayons or whatever you have and just draw for the fun of it. Notice how your state of mind shifts.

7. Think of others less fortunate.

The fact that you are reading this article suggests that you are probably much better off than most people on this planet. At times this may be hard to believe, but if you can read and have access to the internet, just those two things alone means you are better off than most people in the world. There are many human beings that barely have access to the basics of survival. There are people in lots of pain. Allow your compassion for them to grow.

These are all pretty simple. There’s nothing profound or life changing, but when all you need is a quick pick me up these may be just the thing you need. Putting simple ideas, methods, tools and techniques into action will help you achieve change more quick and easily–surprisingly so at time– than you imagine.