Travel Anxiety: 5 Easy Strategies To Beat Stress · Compass and Coastline

Struggling to enjoy traveling because of stress and anxiety? You aren’t alone! In this post, we’ll break down 5 helpful strategies to minimize travel anxiety so you can truly enjoy your trip. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s inside: how to let go of perfectionism, tips for staying positive when travel plans change, and smart hacks for distracting yourself.

Travel Anxiety: 5 strategies to let go of stress and enjoy your trip

Have you ever noticed how the happiest milestones in your life can also trigger a big dose of stress and anxiety?

Whether its graduation, tying the knot, getting a new job, or moving to a new city, all of these situations are wonderful changes (yet also stress us out!)

Travel Anxiety Is A Real Thing

For example: the thought of a month-long trip to Europe sounds fantastic…

But the reality is there’s lots of planning and coordination involved. Between the time and effort spent planning a trip and then the actual trip itself, it’s no surprise (and totally normal) to feel stress and anxiety along the way.

But luckily, there are things we can do to minimize stress-related travel and fully ENJOY the journey. I’m sharing 5 techniques that really work to calm your mind so you don’t get caught up in travel anxiety.

Tips To Beat Travel Anxiety

1. Slow Down

If you’re anything like me, you want to see ALL THERE IS TO SEE on your trip.

Yes, I’m totally guilty of trying to do too much. Like trying to squeeze 10 activities into one day. And that doesn’t do anyone any good, because you’re left rushing from one thing to the next, trying to do it all.

That’s a surefire recipe for stress and anxiety! Because when you don’t do everything you wanted to, you’re left feeling disappointed and stressed. And how can you really enjoy each moment if you’re rushing around?

Instead, try a different approach: SLOW DOWN.

Choose a few things you want to do on your trip, and focus your time and energy there. You’ll still see the most important things on your list, and by prioritizing, you get rid of the go, go, go mentality that triggers anxiety.

2. Let Go Of Perfectionism

I like to have things planned out. In my perfect world, my life would be scheduled and booked and things would fall into place like I envisioned.

But it’s laughable when you really think about it. Life doesn’t work that way!

So if you find yourself falling into the perfectionist trap of thinking that things have to go a certain way, or be in a certain order, just stop now. Having high (and often unattainable) expectations sets you up to be discouraged. It’s the perfect recipe for travel anxiety.

Maybe you planned to get to your destination at 1pm but you got delayed and didn’t arrive until 4pm. Is it really going to ruin your whole trip? Probably not. Let it go.

You can still have a phenomenal trip even if things don’t go exactly as planned.

I was in San Francisco for a weekend trip earlier this year and had this exact scenario play out. I had all these expectations I’d set for the trip, and when they didn’t happen I was bummed. But I chose to let it go. It makes a world of difference to just accept the situation and not worry that things didn’t turn out perfectly.

3. Stay Positive

Your mindset is a powerful weapon to fight back against travel anxiety.

It’s not always easy to stay positive, but it’s worth the effort. When you remind yourself of the good and choose to shut down negativity, you’re refocusing yourself in the right direction.

Dwelling on the bad things only makes you feel worse, and it doesn’t change the situation anyway. It’s basically a time-waster that keeps you in a funk.

One way to help yourself stay positive is to list the good things around you. Start tallying up the wins! You can use a gratitude journal, have an inner dialogue with yourself, or even jot down on pen and paper a few positive thoughts.

For example, maybe your flight gets delayed and you’re stuck on tarmac for hours. You could get angry, frustrated, and focus on how annoyed you are.

Better yet, reframe the situation into a positive one: now you have extra time to catch up on your favorite tv show you downloaded before the flight! Or you can squeeze in a nap so you arrive refreshed. For more ideas, check out how to keep your sanity on long flights or best podcasts about travel to inspire you.

Choose to be positive.

4. Know Your Triggers

Stress and anxiety show up differently for everyone.

You might notice it during the trip planning phase, or maybe it happens when you’re en route. Either way, start to pay attention to what exactly is the cause of your travel anxiety. That’s the first step to addressing it.

If the planning is stressing you out, take some measures to ease it. One idea would be to get help – enlist a friend, partner with a travel agent, or even download an app to make things easier. For me, I have less travel anxiety and stress when I have a packing list! That way I have fewer chances of forgetting something at home. The one I always use is below…

If it’s transportation-related and you find yourself worrying about delays or catastrophic events, be sure you aren’t thinking the worst. Remind yourself that the likelihood of something bad happening probably aren’t as bad as you might think.

Maybe your stress comes during the trip itself, and you’re having trouble relaxing. Be intentional and take deep breaths, notice your surroundings, and simply enjoy the company you’re with. And be sure to build in some downtime! Try booking a massage or plan to do something low-key.

The goal is to take some time to identify what sets off your travel anxiety, and take proactive measures to counteract it. You can do it!

5. Distract Yourself

If all else fails, don’t underestimate the power of distraction. When your mind is spinning, take a moment and step away. Focus on a new task, or do something different to break the cycle of anxiety.

Distraction is a great strategy and can be used in tons of different ways. Maybe you call a friend, grab a snack, take a break, stretch…. Just make the conscious effort to do a 180-degree turn from the source of your anxiety.

When I’m stressed or feeling anxious, I like to listen to a podcast or escape into a good book. Both of those things distract my mind from what I was worrying about and it totally works!