A Guide To Travelling Mindfully

Last week my friend Kamila over at Travel FOUNDations shared her road trip tips for my readers and for the second part in this series I’m sharing some tips on how to travel mindfully.

I first started practicing mindfulness 3 years ago to help with anxiety related to an accident that I was in. Mindfulness helped me to manage my anxiety but it also helped to open my eyes to a whole new way of living.

That it’s possible to be in the moment and to get out of your head. Which is perfect for travelling because you don’t want to be visiting some amazing country and the whole time you are caught up with thoughts and worries that you can’t do anything about anyways.

how to travel mindfully

Eliminate distractions. Eliminating distractions when travelling involves some planning in advance. If you have any big assignments or work commitments coming up, either get them done ahead of time or delegate. Use your pre-trip time wisely and get as much off of your plate (and out of your mind) ahead of time as possible. This way you might only have to check your emails maybe once a day and you can instead enjoy your trip.

Turn off your phone. This might be a hard one for some people but try to turn your phone off as much as possible. Typically when I travel I get a data roaming package that way I can access the GPS on my phone for directions. When I’m not actively using it, I turn off the data, so I am not being bombarded with messages and notifications to my phone. Most places have free wifi you can use to check in with people as needed.

Schedule blocks of time for work. Recently I went to Ireland with my parents for a family vacation right at the start of the new term for my Masters program. There were a couple of online seminars that I needed to be a part of so I made sure to schedule them into our holidays. I needed to be in a place where I could access their wifi and not be distracted by other people. It was easy to set aside a 90 minute block of time on a Monday afternoon because I put it into my schedule. This way I wasn’t scrambling around for a wifi connection that worked.

What’s the focus? What is the point of your trip? Is it a family vacation? To go do some sightseeing in a far off place? Or to spend a week lying on the beach relaxing in the sun? Knowing the focus of your trip before you go can help you to be more in the moment. If you are hiking the trails of Machu Picchu you might not be so inclined to participate in a conference call. I’m not sure what the cell service will be like out there but it probably isn’t great! Knowing the focus connects back to tip 1. If you know you won’t have great cell service than you will have to make sure that you take delegate your work before you go. If it’s a trip with your kids, than maybe you schedule in some work time after they go to bed at night. Knowing why you are on this trip and what you hope to get out of it  can help you to figure out what your priorities are.

Turning the mind. Think about mindfulness like a fork in the road. Awareness is one fork and distraction is the other. Turning the mind means that you are consciously turning towards awareness. You notice that you are distracted and you mindfully with kindness and non-judgment you come back to the present moment. Sometimes you might have to turn your mind over and over again. Maybe even every few minutes. Noticing distracted thoughts and coming back to the moment as many times as needed.

Letting go. Know that probably not everything is going to get done ahead of your trip. Also understanding that you won’t be able to work and be present while traveling. So you let go of trying to do it all. This tip will probably be a lot harder for some people than turning their phone off!! The only thing that we can control in life is our response to things. Grasping and straining for things only leaves us feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Letting go of the things that we can’t control can help us to feel free.

With these tips you can start to travel more mindfully. Just remember, when you notice that you are distracted? That right there is awareness. So you begin again.