Sunrise in Jerusalem, Israel October 2015 Shot on LG G4
Where do you find freedom? For me, traveling and reading books have been ways to find the experiences of freedom. In Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey’s recent 21 day meditation experience, I listened to Deepak talk about the ways to experience freedom.
In my new Travel Writing Award, I invite you to share where you feel independent! The award closes on July 4, American Independence Day and we will give away $1000 in cash prizes!
“When you give in to fear, you are either projecting into the future or reliving the past. Here and now, you are safe.”
I hope you will share a story of how you stay in the present. As the daughter of a dentist, I found this next quote from his book very interesting!
“While fear is trying to convince you that it’s real, what’s really happening is that you lose touch with the present. The world turns into one big dentist’s waiting room with everyone anticipating the next thing that hurts.”
I promise you that it is important to go to the dentist, it does not always hurt and staying in the present is very important. I have spent much of the last two years rebuilding We Said Go Travel and my life after my divorce. When I stay in the present, things are much better.
Deepak tells this story:
“A little old lady goes into a restaurant. She eats a salad. Then she says to the waiter, ‘I’ll have an ice cream sundae.’ “‘I’m sorry to tell you, madam,’ says the waiter, ‘but in five minutes the world is coming to an end.’ “The little old lady thinks for a second, then she says, ‘In that case, heavy on the whipped cream.’”
It is important to enjoy our moments and have a sense of humor about our lives. I believe what Deepak shares that:
“Obstacles are signals from consciousness that we need to change direction, to take a new tack.”
I have changed tack significantly lately and it has been very challenging but it has been worthy it. I hope you will share a story of your path to freedom wherever you are on your journey.
I spent my birthday in Israel in October 2015 and it was an incredible journey! Please enjoy these 27 videos from my adventures in Israel.
Please comment below and enjoy these related articles
Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)
