How to Take Care of Yourself While Traveling
It's natural to get caught up in the details! However, taking care of your mind, body, and spirit while traveling is essential. Humans value patterns and routines, and some of our travel plans have a way of steering us off our game. This chaotic change can misalign our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. So next time you pack your bags, check in with yourself and your health as part of your packing checklist.
Make an Effort to Sleep Well
Let's face it—there are many moving parts to our travel plans, and you'll inevitably encounter a few curveballs. However, our intentions, regardless of the results, are what's most important. Pack your bag with sleep aides such as headphones or earplugs, sleep masks, and calming teas or melatonin. There's only one sure-fire remedy to fight a headache, body ache, or general tiredness: a good night's rest. You can't control your environment, but you can control what you pack to aid your sleep while on the road. It's important to give yourself every opportunity to charge up as best you can while traveling. Just think of it this way: you will make more vibrant memories when you're well-rested, and you don't get to experience these moments twice.
Turn Your Exploration into Exercise
Long trips on a plane, train, or car will wreak havoc on your body. So, balance any indoor time by exploring your new surroundings outdoors. Moving your body around a new environment will not only enrich your trip and your body but also work out any stressful kinks you might be experiencing emotionally. Motion and unique, exciting experiences do wonderful things for our brains and emotional states—it's a win-win-win situation! So, pack a pair of comfortable shoes to follow your new adventure.
Let Go of Expectations
Rules dictate our everyday lives, so be sure to embrace a sense of spontaneity while you are traveling. Control is not always in the itinerary! Now, this is not to say that you should throw all caution to the wind and be at the whim of fate—you can loosely plan your activities for the day. However, we all know that hotels fill up, flights get delayed, and tours get canceled, so adopt a sense of “go-with-the-flow-ness” to ensure that you don't spoil a trip over the details.
Record Your Experiences
Have you ever thought that you should have journaled more as a child? Memories can fade over time, and moments that are most important and magical to us aren't spared from this erasure. While on your trip, take as many photos and write as many journal entries as possible. The extra time you take to reflect and digest your trip will continue to reward you and transport you back to these beautiful places and experiences for many years to come.
Our experiences are what we make them—head into your next trip rested, energized, open, and reflective to turn your travels into memories that last a lifetime.
