You love travel, but it makes you anxious. You want to see more of the world, but often feel disconnected when you go. Here’s how to stay grounded while traveling and make the most of every experience.
Travel is one of life’s greatest gifts. The excitement, the adventure, the challenge. It fills us with energy and expands us in many ways.
We can immerse ourselves in new cultures, meet weird and wonderful people, and experience the kind of moments that belong in movies and in dreams.
I’ve had many such moments that left an indelible mark, there to remind me of the wonders of the world – from playing gigs in Ghana to swimming with a whale shark in Okinawa. Exploits, I’ll never forget.
But it’s not all fun, all the time. Travel comes with a unique set of challenges that can create a lot of stress and anxiety. It takes us out of our comfort zone and disrupts our daily routine. It also puts relationships to the ultimate test.
Travel can often leave us feeling unsettled, overwhelmed, agitated, exhausted, disconnected, un-grounded and longing for home.
When travel gets too much
The stresses of travel take there toll on body and mind. We’ve all experienced, or witnessed, the fallout of travel fatigue. It looks something like this:
- Stress and anxiety
- Anger and frustration
- Disappointment
- Exhaustion
- Illness
- Constant complaining
- Inability to enjoy the experience
- Hurling abuse at hotel and airport staff
- Arguments and breakups
- Coming home early
Some people are keen to travel, but often ruin it for themselves and for others.
6 ways to stay grounded while traveling
If you’d like to travel more often, but fear is holding you back, or, you travel a lot, and would like to be less stressed about it, here’s some useful tips to stay grounded while traveling.
Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness aligns us in the present moment and allows us to simply be. No matter what is happening around us or to us, a mind that is focussed and calm is able to observe, appreciate, process and flow with it.
You can establish little grounding practices within the chaos of travel to keep cool and calm. Do a few rounds of breathwork, whenever you feel anxious. Practice meditation, once you’ve boarded the plane. Do a morning flow before you head out for the day. Small but frequent practices will keep you present and connected.
Maintain the pillars of health
When we’re on the road, healthy food can be hard to come by and sleep often evades us. We end up feeling so anxious and exhausted because we’re not fuelling, hydrating, or recovering properly.
It might not be easy, but try to maintain the pillars of health as best you can. Whenever possible, eat healthy food, drink plenty of water, practice meditation and breathwork, move well and often, spend time outdoors and get enough sleep each night. This will give you the capacity to handle more stress.
Let go of expectations
One of the biggest causes of anxiety while traveling is the expectations we place on it. We think this trip has to be perfect, because we’ve spent so much money on it. Or, this experience has to be life changing, because the one we have back home is so dull.
Travel rarely lives up to these expectations. You’re still you, after all, just in a different place. There will be plenty of bad moments mixed in with the good, so practice letting go of expectations. Instead of trying to create the perfect getaway, just be curious and open to whatever unfolds.
Keep a journal
There’s a lot to take in when you travel. It’s an assault on the senses that’s often over-stimulating. If we don’t take a little time to observe and process what’s going on, we may feel increasingly anxious as the days go by.
Take a journal in your travel bag and find a quiet place at the end of each day where you can record your adventures, thoughts, feelings and emotions. All it takes is 10-15 minutes of focussed writing to feel calm and grounded. This is a great way to relax and unwind before sleep, and be more engaged in the trip itself.
Bring a piece of home
New surroundings. Constant motion. Distractions and entertainment. The things that make travel so exciting are also what unhinge us and make us miss home.
Why not bring a little piece of home with you? For a child this could be a cuddly toy, and for an adult a pillow, photo, or a special pair of pyjamas. This will comfort you when you need it and bring a sense of security in unfamiliar surroundings.
Embrace spontaneity
This may seem contradictory to the previous 5 tips, but the purpose of travel isn’t to be comfortable. It’s to explore and see what the world has to offer. When we try too hard to plan and maintain control, we feel even more out of it.
See if you can embrace spontaneity. Get comfortable with the discomfort. Make your plans, but laugh in their face when they fall to pieces. You’ll enjoy yourself far more and have the most incredible tales to tell.
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Featured Image: @marcolopez95
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