Jack Simmonds
Tips for prioritizing your health and wellbeing while traveling
Jack Simmonds
Tips for prioritizing your health and wellbeing while traveling
We all love taking time away from our busy lives to rest and relax. But in order to do that to the fullest, it’s important you’re doing what you can to ensure your brain really is switching off while you’re on your adventures.
While most of us know we need to take time to unwind, understanding how to switch off is a totally different matter. Taking a step back and ensuring we’re doing what we can to reduce the load on our brains is tough. That’s especially true if you’re someone who’s proud of the work they do.
Any trip away which lasts six days or more is believed to have a genetic impact on stress reduction (which some think could even reduce the chances of depression and dementia later in life). As such, it’s more important than ever to know what you could be doing to keep your mental health in top shape while you’re on vacation. That’s exactly what we’ll discuss in this guide.
From scheduling your time, to turning the work messages off, here are four ways to prioritize your mental health and wellbeing while you travel.
1. Create a schedule for your trip
Having a rough agenda in place before you go takes half the hassle of a trip off your plate immediately. Having to plan your day, every day, can get old quickly – even if it is to do something fun. Knowing exactly what your day is going to look like well ahead of time means that as soon as you roll up for your trip, your schedule is already laid out for you.
If you’re going as part of a group, it might be hard to have your specific days set in stone. After all, not everyone wants to have their holiday planned out like this. That in mind, having a rough plan of where and when you want to see some of the must-see locations can still provide an added peace of mind.
2. Make a budget before you travel
Money, whether tied to travel or not, is often one of the primary sources of stress for many. When it comes to holiday spending it can be tempting to splash the cash on things we can’t afford. That’s particularly true thanks to the increasing popularity of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) schemes. In fact more than 60% of Americans in a recent poll said this type of payment method led to impulsive vacation spending.
Creating a daily budget before you travel is a smart way to know exactly how much and on what you can spend money while you’re on your travels. All it takes is a little basic maths throughout the day to make sure you’re not getting ahead of yourself when splashing the cash.
3. Turn off work notifications
The point of a vacation is to switch off and give yourself a mental break from work. Despite that, Forbes found that 54% of people continue to check their work notifications, emails and other messages while they’re out of office. I guess we all love our jobs a little more than we’re letting on?
In reality, it’s a sense of duty and perhaps even guilt which sees so many people continue to make sure the ship is still running smoothly in their absence. The important thing here is to try and reframe this in your mind. It’s your hard work throughout the rest of the year which has seen you earn this much-needed time off. And, realistically, what could possibly go wrong without you there? Hey, even if it somehow does, I guess that just shows how important you are to the team, right?
Take a break and turn the notifications off.
4. Remember that it doesn’t always go to plan
We all want to have a perfect holiday which we’ll remember for a lifetime. The key here is to remember that sometimes the imperfect can actually be just as good. While one disaster after another isn’t ideal, a couple of mishaps on your adventure shouldn’t be enough to ruin it altogether. Try to remember that and frame the less-than-ideal moments of any trip as slight bumps in the road, rather than full blown brick walls.
Even if something really does put a damper on your day, it could turn out to be a great anecdote which you’ll later look back on and laugh about.
Do you feel better prepared for a holiday full of some much needed down time? Make sure to use this post as a starting point for optimizing your mental health on your journeys.
Author: Jack Simmonds
Jack is an advocate for prioritising mental health while traveling, and enjoys helping others discover new horizons. He is a keen watersports enthusiast, and can often be found in the surf while on his own adventures
The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of the facts contained in this document and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of Tourism and Society Think Tank and do not commit the Organization, and should not be attributed to TSTT or its members.
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