Freedom Looks Like This – solo travel for women over 40 ready to choose themselves

Damianne President – solo travel for women over 40
  • 5.0 (3)
  • PERSONAL JOURNALS

Freedom Looks Like This is a solo travel podcast for women over 40 who feel restless, disconnected, or tired of waiting for the "right time" to start living differently. Hosted by Damianne President, the show explores intentional solo travel as a way to rebuild self-trust, stop waiting for permission, and create a life that actually feels like yours again.  Solo travel is just where the story starts. What this show really explores is what happens when women stop waiting, take themselves seriously, and begin making decisions for themselves, without over-explaining or asking for approval.  Episodes dive into topics like:  solo travel for women over 40fear, self-doubt, and the hesitation to go alonelearning to trust yourself againidentity shifts in midlifechoosing what you want and acting on itWhether you’re planning your first solo trip or simply craving more freedom in your everyday life, Freedom Looks Like This offers real conversations and relateable reframes to help you move forward, whether at home or on the road.

  1. Searching vs. Meeting Yourself as a Solo Traveler

    2H AGO

    Searching vs. Meeting Yourself as a Solo Traveler

    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 enjoyment This 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/podcasts 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. Email: contact@changesbigandsmall.com Support the show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    48 min
  2. From Giggling Through Cairo to Leading 30+ Solo Travel Retreats

    MAY 6

    From Giggling Through Cairo to Leading 30+ Solo Travel Retreats

    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 permission This 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 approaches Resources 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 show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    36 min
  3. Why Not? Stop Overthinking Solo Travel

    APR 29

    Why Not? Stop Overthinking Solo Travel

    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 show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    29 min
  4. You Never Feel Ready to Travel Alone Before You Take The Trip (and that's alright)

    APR 22

    You Never Feel Ready to Travel Alone Before You Take The Trip (and that's alright)

    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 decision This 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 Oakley 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 Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.Support the show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    25 min
  5. How Solo Travel Changes You

    APR 15

    How Solo Travel Changes You

    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 show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    30 min
  6. What if I Don't Know Where to Travel Solo

    APR 8

    What if I Don't Know Where to Travel Solo

    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 down This 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 information In 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 show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    15 min
  7. Deciding to Speak Up When You Travel Solo

    APR 1

    Deciding to Speak Up When You Travel Solo

    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 show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    17 min
  8. What It Means to Be Present When You Travel Solo

    MAR 25

    What It Means to Be Present When You Travel Solo

    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 show Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    16 min
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About

Freedom Looks Like This is a solo travel podcast for women over 40 who feel restless, disconnected, or tired of waiting for the "right time" to start living differently. Hosted by Damianne President, the show explores intentional solo travel as a way to rebuild self-trust, stop waiting for permission, and create a life that actually feels like yours again.  Solo travel is just where the story starts. What this show really explores is what happens when women stop waiting, take themselves seriously, and begin making decisions for themselves, without over-explaining or asking for approval.  Episodes dive into topics like:  solo travel for women over 40fear, self-doubt, and the hesitation to go alonelearning to trust yourself againidentity shifts in midlifechoosing what you want and acting on itWhether you’re planning your first solo trip or simply craving more freedom in your everyday life, Freedom Looks Like This offers real conversations and relateable reframes to help you move forward, whether at home or on the road.

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