*Evolution Through vacation will hold an official launch party on July 17, starting at 6 p.m., at Keegan’s Irish Pub, 16 University Ave. NE. RSVP in the blog section of the Evolution Through Vacation website.*

When Elissa Gjertson and Gretchen Helmer headed to a 2005 State Fair concert with their best friend Keri, the carefree college friends weren’t thinking about anything besides taking in the sights and enjoying the show.

They fantasized about trekking around the country, following their favorite band and enjoying some girl time.

But three weeks later, Keri died unexpectedly.

Then began the tears, the thinking and the healing — and ultimately, the innovation that is now Evolution Through Vacation, a joint online venture by the Gjertson and Helmer. Their aim: to improve people’s perception and their lives.

On vacations, the two say, people are relaxed, curious and open-minded. But that doesn’t have to stop when travelers head home, falling back into the daily grind.

The program — which includes a website and features a $25 “e-guide” for purchase — isn’t formulaic. It’s open-ended because everyone’s different, said the 34-year-old Gjertson. “It’s about playing with possibilities to see what you want to be.”

Helmer, 35, a certified life coach, applied many tenets of that craft to this project. “It’s about inspiration,” she said. “It’s coaching through travel.”

The program has several steps, which can be done in or out of sequence, completely or not, Helmer said, based on the individual. Steps include self-reflection on life areas such as health, relationships and expression; cultivating ideal visions for each of those areas; and “opening your inner suitcase” to see what baggage is helpful on the self-journey or is better left behind.

Evolution Through Vacation is all about doing something different — vacationing to see life in a new way and working to keep that outlook.

Simply adopting a tourist mindset in a familiar place can be eye opening, Gjertson said. “It’s about getting out of a destination-based travel guide,” she added.

It worked for Jenny Lannon, 26, of St. Paul. She was part of an old friend’s bridal party, obligated to attend the wedding in small-town Colorado, surrounded by people she didn’t know.

“Truthfully, I wasn’t really looking forward to it,” she said. But then Helmer, a former co-worker, explained Evolution Through Vacation, and Lannon gave it a try.

“I decided to take it as a really big adventure, instead of being negative or timid about it,” Lannon said. “It was about deciding to give myself permission to have a lot of fun and take advantage of the vacation time.”

But the vacation needn’t be to a foreign land, or even out of the neighborhood. Exploring a hidden park, stopping to talk to strangers and being excited about what might be found — the way people are on vacation in an unknown place — help cultivate an open mind, and “evolution,” through the vacation mindset.

The destination can even be a familiar one. Sarah Lehmann, 29, of Roseville, is one of 21 people selected by Gjertson and Helmer for a test run of the program. Lehmann has applied Evolution Through Vacation to about 10 trips since hearing about it a year ago.
Some getaways have been exotic, some unexciting and routine. They included trips abroad or to Twin Cities-based events that Lehmann said she wasn’t excited about — but the program helped change that.

“I’ve learned a trip doesn’t have to be what I initially thought it to be,” she said. “I can use Evolution Through Vacation to make the trip more meaningful and take things back from the trip I wouldn’t necessarily have before.”

But sustaining that eager-to-learn, open-minded mentality isn’t always easy.

“It’s hard for me personally, once I get back into my daily grind, to keep those things with me,” Lehmann said. “Sometimes it’s harder than others, but whenever I have moments that are just too hard, I think back on what the trip was and what I learned about myself.”

For Lannon, the experience with Evolution Through Vacation was situation-specialized. She keeps in touch with friends she made at the wedding, and she is mindful of her mindset, but translating that into everyday living is challenging.

“I think the approach that I took for what I was doing was specific to that trip,” she said.
“But being consistent with using that on an everyday basis is different because, you know, it’s life.”

Gjertson said the struggle to integrate Evolution Through Vacation principles into the daily grind isn’t uncommon.

“It’s about hope and choice,” she said. “It’s meant to be a channel to tap into stuff pulled under bills, laundry — everyday life.”

The program isn’t for everybody. While Gjertson said it can bring out magic in people, the program can’t magically transform lives without some work.

“It’s about a ‘seeker’ personality,” she said — someone who’s curious, open-minded and willing to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

The target group? For now, it’s Generation X, a generally skeptical group the two women say has focused on limitations. “That’s a group that distrusts authority, and inadvertently distrusts their own authority,” Gjertson said. “It’s about looking at boundaries in a different way and breaking boundaries down.”

Gjertson and Helmer hope to integrate their idea into the mainstream — making partnerships with airlines, travel agencies and even study-abroad offices to supply their program to travelers willing to put the self-evolution spin on their vacations.

last revised: July 14, 2008

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