How to take a life-changing journey
What you’ll learn
Week 1
- The many reasons why people travel
- Different perspectives on the value of virtual travel
- How to set an intention for your next journey
Week 2
- How to choose a destination that aligns with the life change you’re seeking
- How to create an itinerary and budget
- Different ways you can be changed by everyday travels
- How to see familiar places in new ways
Week 3
- How to make the most out of your arrival in anew place
- How to be fully present while you travel
- Ways you might document your journey
- How and why you should integrate stillness into your trip
Week 4
- How to navigate cultural differences
- How to meet people and make positive differences in the places you visit
- How to make sense of your encounters
- Shifts you can make to live differently when you return home
What you’ll get
- 1 welcome video
- 2-4 audio teaching segments/week (73 minutes total)
- 2-5 individual activities/week (16 total)
- 1 virtual live event/week (attendance is optional)
- Community discussions, polls and chat
- Support from a TED Courses facilitator
- Carefully curated related resources from TED
- PDF course workbook
- After the course, access to an archive of course videos, activities and curated resources
To get the most out of the course,
plan to spend at least one hour each week–longer, if you plan to explore the optional curated resources or join the virtual live event.
Here’s what learners are saying about this course:
“Pico is a treasure. I listened to him more than once. He's already changed the way I am approaching my next trip.”
“Thought provoking and inspirational - ready to pack my bag!”
“Will have a much deeper travel experience on all my future journeys, both near and far. Thank you!”
“I have only just started this course, yet instead of being with it in one or two sittings, I am finding that I want to be present with the journey, taking it slow, reflecting on what is being offered, meditate on what is provided.”
"Beautiful and thought-provoking."
"I feel truly inspired and have a lot to reflect on in my future travels and adventures... This is probably the most fun online course I have ever taken."
"Pico was wonderful to listen to. I liked that the content was available in small bites... Well thought out and reasonably priced."
Raised by Indian parents, Pico grew up in England and the United States, working in New York City before a life-changing layover in Japan prompted him to move there in 1987. He settled in Kyoto and planned to become a monk, but instead met and fell in love with his wife Hiroko.
Outside magazine has called Pico Iyer "arguably the greatest living travel-writer” and the New Yorker said, "As a guide to far-flung places, he can hardly be surpassed." Since 1988, Pico has published 15 books, translated into 23 languages, on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism, from the Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism. They include such long-running sellers as Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul and The Open Road. He’s also written the introductions to more than 70 other books, as well as liner and program notes, a screenplay for Miramax and a libretto. At the same time he has been writing up to 100 articles a year for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, the Financial Times and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide.
His four talks for TED have received more than 11 million views so far.
Since 1992 Pico has spent much of his time at a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, California, and most of the rest in suburban Japan.
To learn more about Pico and his work, visit picoiyerjourneys.com.
