There is the old adage “it’s about the journey, not the destination.” Travel is unpredictable, here we explore how to maintain a healthy mindset when difficult situations occur on the road. These 10 steps help you protect your precious emotional ecosystems without allowing negative setbacks to rule your much needed vacation.
Why a Healthy Mindset Crucial While Traveling
Adopting a healthy mindset during travel is vital for a variety of reasons. It helps you manage stressful situations and fluidly adapt to unexpected challenges. This ensures that minor inconveniences don’t ruin your trip.
Unexpected weather, delays, strikes, and lost luggage are just a few events that can negatively affect how we feel while traveling. Grumpy travel companions and corrupt officials can also add to the stress. Maintaining a positive outlook can make these situations more manageable and even light-hearted.
A healthy mindset enhances your journey and your appreciation for new experiences. It supports personal growth, resilience, and gaining new perspectives. Additionally, it improves your interactions with locals, fellow travelers, and ticket agents.
Embracing stressful travel situations from a positive mental space promotes a better overall experience. It allows you to enjoy your trip despite any challenges that arise. And ultimately, a healthy mindset ensures that you get the most out of your travels.
10 Steps to Take for Healthy Mindset
1. Identify Your Emotions
When you notice a shift in your energy that you don’t feel comfortable with, start by identifying what you are feeling at the time. Take a moment to tune into it and try to express what you are feeling or experiencing. The most frequent negative emotions people experience while traveling include:
Anxiety, stress, frustration, lonlieness, homesickness, irritiabilty, confusion, fear, disappointment, and feeling overwhelmed.
Physical Signs of Negative Emotions
Negative emotions prompted by traveling can manifest in various physical signs, including:
- Butterflies or nervous knots in your belly
- Digestive issues
- Changes in appetite
- Dry mouth
- Tightness in the throat
- Sweating
- Hot or cold flashes
- Trembling or shaking
- Feeling dizzy or disoriented
- Difficulty focusing
- Tension headaches
- Tense muscles or pain
- Clenched jaw
- Rapid or shallow breathing
- Pacing or restlessness
- Fidgeting
- Rapid Heartbeat
- Elevated blood pressure
- Lethargy and low motivation
- Tears
Once you determine how you are actually feeling it’s much easier to bounce back to a healthy mindset.
2. Name the Trigger
The trigger can come from a million sources, internally, externally, or both. Identiftying what caused this feeling will help guide you back to a healthy mindset. Ask yourself,
Who or what caused me to feel this way?
What specific circumstances or events led to these emotions?
I am hungry and my feet hurt from walking all day.
We are lost and running late for our scheduled tour.
The woman at check-in was really rude to me and unhelpful when I asked her a relevant question.
Internal sources include (but certainly are not limited to) travel burnout, setting up expectations, self-doubt, comparative thinking, cultural differences, feeling a loss of familiarity, or just waking up on the wrong side of the bed as they say.
External sources can be a custom officer having a bad day, protests, political unrest, finding yourself in a dangerous situation, bothersome vendors, accommodations that don’t match your expectations, unexpected weather, a flight delay, or a hangry travel partner.
3. Determine What You Can & Cannot Control
The Circle of Control and the Circle of Concern are concepts explained by Stephen Covey.
The premise is that you can only control your own behavior, emotions, and health and well-being.
You can influence the outside world and how you interact with it, but you have zero control over it.
What I can Control
- My thoughts
- My words
- My behavior
- My actions
- My reactions
- My choices
- My attitude
- My mood
- My expectations
- My perspective
What I can't control
Literally anyone or anything else outside your person. All those external sources and then some that could have an effect on your trip.
Do you have the power to get the plane off the runway? Unless you’re the pilot or the head of air traffic control, then the answer is NO. Will being angry with the flight attendant fuel the plane? Most certainly not.
These things can affect you, but you ultimately choose how to engage with them. Emotional preparation for travel can help you greatly prior to embarking on your journey.
4. Breathe Deeply and Ground Yourself
Yep, it’s the breathing again.
We do it all day, all night, and now you must dive deeper and breathe some more. The extra oxygen to your brain calms your nervous system and tricks your brain into a more calm and restful place.
Deep breaths this time.
5. Assess the Situation & Stay Calm
If you are in a dangerous or chaotic situation, what is the best way to handle it?
Hint: It’s not panic. Try to stay calm and think clearly instead of allowing the adrenaline and cortisol to get the better of you.
If you hit traffic on the way to the airport and the gate closed, the best thing to do is to stay calm, get creative, and figure out how to catch the next flight.
If you find yourself in a violent scenario or a natural disaster, look for the best and safest way out of that environment. Your safety is a priority, your belongings are not. Everything (while inconvenient) IS replaceable.
6. Be Objective
If someone or something is negatively effecting your travels, try to see it from another perspective.
Why are they stressed? Angry? Upset? Is this something you can understand? Empathize with? Were you the cause of their frustration? Could they have been affected by something that they have no control over?
For example, the train you originally booked in Italy has been cancelled because the workers are on strike. Is it inconvenient for your holiday, absolutely, no doubt. Are they striking to receive better compensation and pay benefits. Yes. Now, time to get resourceful and think of a new way to get from point A to point B.
7. Create Space
Personal space and stepping away from a problem helps you identify your needs without distractions. This can be especially beneficial while traveling with others.
Sometimes this means physically changing where you are in the situation. Take a walk, create your own personal travel bubble and dig into what you really need.
When you feel more level headed, return to the situation fresh and be ready to move forward.
8. Communicate Your Needs and Follow Through
What do you need to return to a healthy mindset? Once you identify your needs, what can YOU do to feel better about the situation you are in? How can YOU improve your current state?
Establishing an assemblage of tools that can help you reframe your attitude and pull you out of your travel funk. Having several playlists, a meditation downloaded, seek out a serene space, journal and get your stressful thoughts down on paper.
Finding a way to stay positive and protecting your well-being is largely based on emotional boundaries. This is not turning a blind eye to a negative situation, in fact the opposite. Acknowledge it is there and choose not to take on the burden of the negative emotions or feelings of the outside world.
9. Reflect On It.
Once a situation has already happened, it is helpful to talk through it again.
Try to avoid chewing on the problem, talking in circles again and again until it has stirred you up into a frenzy again.
Instead, seek support. Talk to a friend, your family, write about it, post it on Facebook, speak with a therapist, or reach out to your girl here for a travel coaching session.
Take the time to reflect on a difficult situation, learn from your mistakes and celebrate what went well.
What can you do better the next time you are in a similar situation?
How will you approach it differently?
What will you do to protect your well-being and be less affected by your surroundings?
10. Then, Let that Shit Go.
Dwelling on the negatives you had keeps you in that space. As humans, it is so much easier to harp on the bad stuff, but this your precious time, your mental energy, your life- don’t waste it on the past. Refocus on your good experiences, the outcome, the learning lesson, your commitment to try a different approach the next time.
It is not always easy to mantain a positive attiude while traveling, but following these steps will help.
If you are traveling and having a rough go of it, I feel ya. I’ve been there. Reach out and book a travel and mindset coaching call and let’s get you back to a healthy mindset and your beautiful self.
