The saying “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” is a bit cliché. But it’s understandably so. I want to go everywhere too. I want to see the world, meet the people that live in every nook and cranny of this world, and become a part of cultures and traditions so radically different from my own. I wanted this so badly that when I was young, my dad and I vowed we would travel the world and photograph one million smiles. This goal, while still close to my heart, has grown to be “travel the world and find out what makes those one million people smile.” So what’s wrong with having everywhere on your travel to-do list? Frankly, nothing. But what’s equally, if not more, important is that nowhere should also be on that same travel to-do list and often times we not only overlook it but actually run away from it.

In his TED talk, “The art of stillness,” Pico Iyer, a seasoned world traveler and journalist, paints a picture of the candlelit temples in Tibet and the music-filled seafronts of Havana. He captures the audience with these wild, exotic stories of his travels but then quickly changes tune. After travelling to all these incredible places, he found that going nowhere was just as exciting if not more. Responding to the puzzled faces in the audience, Pico begins to articulate the beauty inside our own minds, this beauty and understanding of what’s going around us that we can’t access until we slow down.

“So much of our life takes place inside our heads, in memory, imagination, interpretation, or speculation,” Iyer says. The white noise of bugs during beautifully radiating sundowners in Kenya; the rhythm of each soul salsa dancing in the streets of Cuba; that overwhelmingly grateful first exhale at the top of the mountain you just climbed up in Slovenia; the breathtaking, far-beyond-its-time city of Machu Picchu in Peru; and all the heartwarming, humbling smiles, laughs, tears, embraces, heads on shoulders, hands held, and moments of comfortable silence that you’ve shared with every person you’ve encountered on your journey. These experiences, these moments, and these places all mean something because of our ability to reflect afterwards, in the moments of stillness.

Places don’t change people. People don’t change people; relationships, friendships, encounters, heartbreaks, and fights don’t change people. We change ourselves. Our minds change our experience. And that’s why it’s so important to go nowhere sometimes, to give ourselves the chance to reflect on the places we’ve been and draw out the why’s. Why was this place so special to me? Why did I come here in the first place? Why do I want to (or not want) to come back?

In an age of technology and constant digital access and communication, our minds crave a break. We don’t often notice it because we get so overwhelmed at the thought of what we could be doing in all the moments where we should be catching our breaths. But these moments of stillness, moments of going nowhere, whether you are home or abroad, are so important. They help you “sift through the slideshow” of the experiences you had that day, that week, that year. These moments of disconnect, of just you, help you turn these experiences into lasting, impactful memories.

They give you a chance to pull out and understand fully why some moments stand out, why some interactions mean more than others, and why some places and some people are so prominent in your heart. These moments of stillness allow your mind to catch up with your body, allowing you to return to work or travelling with a sense of rejuvenation. So whether it’s a couple minutes, hours, or even days, take some time to embrace the beauty of stillness. Disconnect from the world. And go nowhere.