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How to deal with overbearing stress of travel?
#travel #inspiration #experience #motivation #self-care
Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. (You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.)
Packing again? Where is my toothbrush third time this month? How many charger cables do I need? Should I install a streaming service on my phone, in case I’m bored by the destination? (No!) How am I going to pay for another travel this year? There are over 190 countries in the world, and I visited only 30, that’s barely 15% – what’s wrong with me?! How can I think about my gym and sports routines if I’m moving constantly? Where am I anymore?!
Do these questions ring any bells? If they do, let me provide some grounding for you – you ARE living a healthy and sane life. Keep going! Most people think travel is all fun and games. The comment I hear the most is “Your life is so easy, you just tread around!” – if you know a full-time traveler, do NOT under any circumstances say this to them, or they may beat you up. (And they have my blessing.) Travel does make our minds rich and forces us to live in the moment, yielding all the benefits of today. But it is not easy, especially if done frequently. The easiest thing to say to anyone is “I wish I were you. Being you is so easy.” – be mindful and do not judge.
I was recently asked, by a former coworker, is it exhausting to travel twice a month. Of course it is! But if so, why do travelers never complain? Well, because the hardships fall into the shadow of good times, new experiences and benefits of the today (I find “gifts of the present” to sound a bit tacky). And at the end of the day, it’s better to have a great new experience every few weeks and waste one whole Sunday not even trying to leave the bed, than just do the same old daily routine for the equal duration. So, how can we find enough time to take self-care, relax and live in the regular day-to-day present? Easy – more travel!
What we all tend to forget is the fact that travel is not only a 10-day summer/winter getaway, or even only a visit to a new city we’ve never been to. Travel also includes going to locations we know as well as the back of our hand, as long as we go to them for specific reasons. Did I get enough relax time in Rome and Barcelona earlier this year? It’s something we can discuss, but definitely both trips were eye-opening and mind-broadening for me. So, how did I unwind, if not there? Simple – I went to Vrnjacka Banja, which I had already visited at least 10 times up to that point. However, I did not go there to eat out, climb the Goc Mountain and drive around local villages. I went there to visit friends and get some downtime from the rest of the world. Also, a huge assistance was provided by turning social media off – Whatsapp included.
Doesn’t this sound crazy? Go to a well-known place to see friends and ignore my phone. Can’t we do that at home? We can, if we decide to exclude a key point – I went there to detach myself from the everyday life, primarily. And this, my friends, is enhanced by changing locations. Why I chose this city, rather than a new one? Because it is full of nature and fresh mountainous air – plus it’s full of great spa centers! Of course, I did not spend 24 hours each day with friends – that would not be downtime, now would it? My main patches of downtime included walking in the park (also walking a friend’s dog) and simply staring at the ceiling. In one of the ceiling episodes, I saw the preview of a text – Where are you traveling to next? I dropped the phone, looked back at the ceiling blissfully, and thought to myself – It does not matter! And it really didn’t. Not because I decided to quit my lifestyle of choice. On the contrary, because I decided to improve and enhance it! And not only that, but because I was enjoying myself looking at that very ceiling. The present was so good, there was no point thinking about the future or the past whatsoever. Oh, and BTW, Spain is the answer, for those curious among you.
A lot of people were shocked (to say at the very least) to hear that staring at a ceiling can be a fun pastime activity. What matters here is not the action itself – it can be a wall, a look through the window, a random object in our vicinity or distance, or even eyes closed. The essence is in the feeling of the present and fulfillment of the mind with living in the current moment, completely liberating ourselves from the grips of both the past and the future. Did we finish buying birthday gifts? Who cares! Did we plan all to-dos for our next trip? Whatever! Do we even have a source of income and a way to sustain ourselves? We’re just a particle in the Universe, and can easily act accordingly, at least every now and again! All the worries and pressures of this world start to fade away and lose themselves in the overwhelming ocean of peace and splendor. We can worry about the problems the next day, there is no reason to allow them into each moment of our existence!
My friends (who know about my decision to ignore social media) are angry with me, texting me to look at my Instagram DM. I ignore those texts – if they know about my decision to dedicate time to mental health by vacating a bad habit, they should support it, not throw mud at it. Or they can stay angry, the ceiling looks more fun than them, at this point. But, how hard is it to keep a good physical health routine? After all – in CORPORE sano… This part I have not yet figured out. Once I do, I will share it with the rest of the world. What I can say so far is that doing at least 20 minutes of exercise in the morning, right upon opening our eyes, will be beneficial for our physical health, as well as helping us wake up more effectively.
I spoke to a friend last night/day (depending on who’s time zone you’re viewing it from), sharing this marvelous experience. We came to a mutual conclusion – moderation in all things! Had I decided to stay at Vrnjacka Banja, in the same conditions, for a few days more, I would’ve become anti-social – and that was not the point. Even when feeling our best with the present, it’s good to know when to stop, even if we don’t want to. After all, life is full of challenges and new experiences awaiting – if we let ourselves fall asleep in this peace of the ceiling, waking up from it can become a worse nuisance than the boring world of social media we used to live in!
In my case, it was usually moderation in all things, but one. You guessed it, FOOD! Buffet dinners? Shut up and take my money! The gentleman took a chair and placed it right in front of the buffet table, in order not to have to get up for extras. Some dessert, perhaps? Yes, a defibrillator, please! Jokes aside, but this is another common place that got me thinking about moderation. And why the lack of it is not always beneficial. It won’t prevent me from overeating again as soon as this weekend though, but the good thing in it – I found a place where I can grow! (Pun non intended, I was not talking about physical growth.)
And finally, what did I do with my ongoing and future projects? Just left them alone and unattended? In a way yes, but mostly no. This is a differentiation we have to make up with ourselves. I knew which time would be appropriate for me to take the back seat for a short while. And another important thing, I didn’t really just ignore them – and I’m not advising anyone to do so. As a matter of fact, I purposefully used this opportunity to unentangle all the ropes in my hands, so I can pull them again, when ready.
In the spirit of “in corpore sano” – would you want to do some yoga and online fitness? Or do you prefer to travel and would rather live and work in Spain, Portugal or the Philippines, for a couple of months? What about digital products, such as design and eBooks – are you a fan? Stay tuned to see the magic that Courageous Wanderer’s business incubator is doing. If you just want to hear more about my city of Barcelona, see you as soon as next Tuesday!
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