5 Tips for Anxious Travelers

1. Do visual research before you go.

Anxious people feel more confident when they feel prepared and when their surroundings feel familiar. Use YouTube and Google Maps street view to do visual research before you go on your vacation.

2. Read the negative reviews.

Negative reviews will often let you know about problems you can prevent and mitigate. Use them this way rather than as an excuse to avoid travel altogether.

3. Utilize your strength of thinking ahead.

By thinking ahead, you can bring items with you that will make travel easier.

4. Utilize your strength of preparing for what could go wrong.

If you're prone to worry, instead of preparing for everything that could go wrong, prepare for the worst and most likely circumstances. For example, losing your ID would be a large problem, so perhaps you bring an additional ID and keep it separate from your primary ID. Your phone running out of battery when you need it for directions could also be very stressful, so bring a power brick.

If you can envisage minor annoyances/stressors that are quite likely to occur, even if not serious, then prepare for those.

Discipline yourself to take action to prevent or mitigate: (1) the single worst, but quite likely, incident that could go wrong (think: losing your wallet rather than a plane crash) and (2) the single most likely annoyance/stressor (like your hotel room not being ready when you arrive, or a rainy day on a beach vacation) before you allow yourself to worry about other events. Build this habit rather than fretting without taking action.

5. Treat travel as a skill you build through experience.

A hallmark of perfectionism is expecting yourself to be good at a skill even without extensive practice. Think of travel as a skill you will improve through practice. Try to enjoy the process of building that skill. In doing so, you will expand your access to a diverse range of positive emotions, like awe, positive surprise, joy, and relaxation. This will protect and enhance your mental health.

Read the complete article available at Psychology Today!

Reflection:

Do you struggle with travel anxiety?

#Anxiety #Travel #Mentalhealth