Traveling is often an amazing adventure where you go to new places and experience new cultures. We often dream of traveling and spend a lot of time planning our next vacation. Traveling is wonderful but when traveling there will come a moment when everyone is stressed out, in a bad mood, and wondering why they decided to leave their home. In these moments it can be helpful to have some on-the-go mindfulness activities in your back pocket. Mindfulness does not have to be complicated or involve lugging around a lot of things. By being mindful we can find much needed moments of calm which allow us to continue to be our best selves and better enjoy the travel adventure we are on, no matter what challenges are put in our path.
When starting out on your next trip be mindful of packing your favorite travel foods. While it can be an important ritual to experience and enjoy new foods often there will come a point where you will appreciate having some comfort foods that are familiar and a known quantity available to you. You also might like being able to make your favorites such as pour over coffee, or have the particular type of tea you love on hand. It is much easier to enjoy the joy of the place you are traveling to if you know you have foods and beverages which remind you of home.
Take a few moments at the beginning of the day or the end of the day to just breathe and refocus on the wonders all around. It is too easy to get stuck in the challenges of travel, just going through the motions, while forgetting to really enjoy your trip. Think about what you are tasting and how it is making you feel. Allow these moments to remind you to slow down and enjoy life.
Your favorite foods and beverages can also inspire you to explore new locations. If you enjoy coffee you might explore Hawaii, Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, or Ethiopia. If you are more a tea fan you might want to explore China, India, Sri Lanka or Kenya. If you enjoy wine you might head to Italy, Spain, or France. And if you love chocolate the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, or Cameroon may be where you end up. No matter where you are planning to travel there are interesting local cuisines for you to try. Local cuisines also lend themselves to great stories for when you head back home.
Sometimes traveling involves extended periods of time in confined spaces and even the most hearty traveler can feel stressed. The good news is there are a lot of ways to use your sense of touch to make traveling more enjoyable. You might want to consider doing some travel yoga, which can be done even if you are unable to find a lot of space. You might take the time to give yourself some self massage. Rubbing your feet or shoulders may be small actions but these small actions can bring you a deep sense of peace. Activities can even be as simple as placing your hand over your heart and breathing mindfully.
Traveling can be a wonderful experience and it can be a challenging experience. When travel is becoming stressful take a deep breath. Enjoy the taste of your travels. Allow travel to touch your soul and inspire you. Recognize it is normal for you to get to a certain point and find travel a bit too much to deal with. In these moments take the time to give yourself some love in the form of a self massage or simply breathing. If you take these moments to relax you will better be able to enjoy your trip, and enjoy traveling in general.