Woman embarks on round-the-world trips over two years to overcome ‘inner …

And in her memoir Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World, which was published on Tuesday, the mother-of-one chronicles every aspect of the physical and emotional journey, which, she explains, she began in order to experience the world’s natural phenomena as a part of a spiritual quest to find herself after her son Archer, now five, was born.

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Unforgettable: Leigh Ann Henion wrote about witnessing Hawaii’s still-burning volcanoes and Venezuela’s intense lightning in her memoir Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World

Loving mother: Leigh Ann, pictured on Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island in Georgia with her son Archer, did not spend more than two weeks at a time away from her family 

‘I went through a great life transition and I didn’t know to process certain parts,’ the 37-year-old author tells the Daily Mail Online.

Leigh Ann, who has witnessed Hawaii’s still-burning volcanoes, Venezuela’s intense lightning and Sweden’s aurora borealis – among her many adventures – says the birth of her son in 2009 was as ‘awe-inducing and fantastical’ as the natural wonders she describes in her book.

But she notes that no one could have prepared her for how she would feel when she was ‘thrown into this very visceral experience’ of being a new mom.

Leigh Ann struggled with sleep deprivation, as well as her sense of self, during the first year of Archer’s life. She was only sleeping for three-hour stretches and she refused to allow anyone outside of her immediate family to watch her son for the first 14 months of his life – and even then she would only leave Archer’s side for a few hours at a time.

‘You know the saying: “It takes a village to raise a child?” I wasn’t letting the village in,’ she recalls.

Adventure time: The 37-year-old travel writer (R) posed with her sled guide (L) in Sweden for this photo

Natural wonder: During her trip to Sweden, Leigh Ann saw the aurora borealis, or the northern lights

And it wasn’t just her physical ailments that sent caused Leigh Ann to question her identity as a mother.

‘I had a year where I was convinced that I was never going to leave my house again, [that] I was never going to sleep again [and that] I was never going to write again,’ she says. ‘I was very confused and I was unsure how my life was going to be.’

Leigh Ann, who first began creating a list of the natural wonders she wanted to experience after watching the fantastical migration of the monarch butterfly in Mexico in 2007, before the birth of her son, says she vowed to visit the places she had dreamed of – even if it took her a decade.

‘I had a crazy idea… and when I started to pursue it, things started to happen and doors started opening,’ she says.

A few months after Archer’s first birthday, Leigh Ann embarked on her first trip, when she traveled to Puerto Rico to visit the island’s bioluminescent bays, which contain millions of micro-organisms, or dinoflagellates, that glow.

Life-changing moment: After seeing the migration of millions of monarch butterflies in Mexico (pictured), Leigh Ann started keeping a list of natural phenomena she wanted to experience 

African safari: The author saw a group of zebras during her trek to Tanzania

Leign Ann notes that wasn’t in the position financially to embark on these travels and they seemed very much like a ‘pipe dream’ when she wrote her book proposal.

‘When I look back on those years, I cannot believe that I did that,’ she says. ‘I cannot believe that I juggled it, that I fought so hard for the time to do it.’

Leigh Ann, who, in addition to planning her travels, was also teaching creative writing, while raising her son, said her quest had once seemed ‘impossible’ but soon began to take a life of its own.

Her story: Leigh Ann’s memoir was published on Tuesday 

The writer explains that during her two year journey she never left her son for more than two weeks, and adds that her husband would travel with her when he could.

As for any impending danger, Leigh Ann says she was more nervous about traveling around the bustling streets of Caracas, Venezuela, than witnessing the South American country’s fearsome lightning storms, because cities make her uncomfortable.

‘We all have things that make us nervous,’ she says, before adding: ‘You are more likely to be killed by a coconut falling from a tree than a shark bite.’

Leigh Ann believes that her journey ‘would be talked about in different ways’ if it were written by a father opposed to a mother – and admits that some people were shocked to learn that her husband was so supportive of her personal journey.

‘I remember distinctly in Hawaii I had a woman say to me: “Can you believe that her husband is letting her do this?”‘

She adds that, as a travel writer, visiting those far off locations and writing about her experience was also work for her, rather than just a series of carefree jaunts to exotic locations.

‘Can you imagine someone going to a business conference and having someone say: “Oh, I can’t believe that your husband let you come here?”‘ she asks.

Leigh Ann recalls other people saying things like, ‘Can you believe her son is home with her husband for a whole week?’ despite the fact that few people would likely ever question a child being left with his or her mother.

She says people mostly had an issue with her doing something for her emotional and spiritual health, noting that ‘it’s not something that we value in our culture’.

‘It was a story that I needed to live out,’ she says.  

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