5 ways to care for mental health while travelling.

Travelling is a relaxing escape but when you leave the routine and get into new territories mental health symptoms may trigger you. People have written about the restorative effects of adventure: the opportunity for enriched perspectives and life experiences, and the healing properties of rest. 18th-century doctors used to prescribe a seaside holiday but what do we know about how travel impacts our mental health? 

Only travellers know the magic of travel. It educates you by knowing diverse cultures, ideas and communities outside of the narrow corner of the world. It also, allows you to explore your inner self and help to zoom out of the mundane anxieties of general life. All it brings is a unique and often intense challenge to make your journey more exciting. Travel is often disorienting, tiring and anxiety-inducing. Drifters encountered the situation when they missed a flight at the last moment. 

The research on travel and mental health reflects this double edge. On the one hand, travel has been shown to have enormous benefits for our minds. Travelling helps us to unwind and recharge, providing respite from stressors and responsibilities and increasing life satisfaction. Exploring somewhere new can help us to think more flexibly and creatively, and in a buzz world, it makes us more empathetic, tolerant and trusting. 

Many of the factors at play in today’s world can compound to make travel a much more stressful prospect than it once might have been. In an age of social media where travel is increasingly experienced through the lens of a smartphone, pressures to capture (rather than mindfully experience) a trip abroad may counter its restorative effects. Seeing a highlight reel of other people’s travels on Instagram might also harm your mental health, giving 

In the tech age, social media where travel is increasingly experienced through the lens of smartphones, tend to capture the best sights rather than mindfully experience. Seeing a highlight reel of other people’s travels on Instagram might also harm your mental health. The impression that everyone else is doing life better than you. You might get feeling guilty and envious to see them. This is likely to intensify as we enter a new era of increased financial hardship and climate anxiety, of course. Both of these will inevitably come to bear on our changing relationship with travel. 

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How can we stop ourselves from falling into this trap?

Taking a break from daily life can do a world of good. The difference between a holiday that helps and one that hinders could be put down to a fundamental question: are you travelling to enrich your mind, or to escape it? Here are five tips on how to look after your mind when travelling: 

Prioritise self-care

Mental health doesn’t take a break when you are on holiday. If a routine is something that helps you to manage tasks and be in control, try to create them on your routine while you are away. It is important to prioritize things and turn them into mindful habits. It keeps you grounded when you are at home, whether eating well, getting in a daily yoga workout, taking medication or making time to do things you enjoy. 

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Setting Boundaries 

You only need to know the direction, not the destination. So, just because travel is meant to push you out of your comfort circle, doesn’t mean you should force yourself to engage in activities that you find upsetting or anxiety-provoking. You can simply choose what make genuinely make you calm and happy. Know your limits, communicate these to your travel companions, meet new people, and explore the place as possible as you can. 

Don't Suffer In Silence

Communication can be more effective but challenging while travelling abroad. This can be particularly hard if you are not surrounded by people you trust or know well. However, it might feel at first, sharing any anxious thoughts or feelings with others will help to take away some of their power, and will help you feel less alone. Later, you find that you are not the only one in your group finding things difficult.

Travelling Is Beyond Expectation 

On holiday, many travellers have immense pressure to have the best time ever or become the best version of themselves. Remember, this is all about travelling filled with the worst and most wonderful experiences, happenings, and random joy. Like all things in life, travel comes with ups and downs, and feeling low or anxious sometimes is normal. 

Get Support If You Need 

Just as you would seek medical attention if you broke your leg or caught a stomach bug, it’s important to find support for your mental health if you find yourself struggling. This could mean reaching out to friends or family at home, opening up to someone on the trip or finding a mental health professional at your hotel or in a nearby town.