The term "journey of self-discovery" refers to a travel, pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

, or series of events whereby a person attempts to determine how they feel, personally, about spiritual issues

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

or priorities, rather than following the opinions of family, friends, neighborhood or peer pressure

Peer pressure

Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member , or a social clique...

. The topic of self-discovery has been associated with Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

. A related term is "finding oneself".

Art and Literature

In drama, a journey of self-discovery is sometimes used to drive the plot of a play or film.
Some films use similar phrases, such as in the 2008 film Petals: Journey Into Self Discovery.
The 2010 film Eat Pray Love is also associated with the idea of a journey of self-discovery.

See also

• Pilgrimage
  Pilgrimage
  A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
  
   - a travel, often for religious enlightenment
• Coming of age
  Coming of age
  Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
  
   - reaching maturity, from childhood
  Childhood
  Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
  
   to adult
  Adult
  An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age....
  
  hood