Travelling is often a great way to relieve some stress and relax yourself, but it can also be very stressful, especially if you don’t plan well. Here are some things you can do to minimize your stress before you go on your trip and for when you come back as well.
Before – Plan Your Stops
Where are you staying while on your trip? Do you have enough money for everything you want to do? Have you booked your accommodations already?
Instead of stressing out on your trip, take the time to plan properly, making reservations for those hotels, restaurants, and tourist sites you know you want to visit. If it is an essential part of your trip, then you should already have it planned and reserved ahead of time, if possible. This will save you from dealing with dashed expectations. Don’t wait for the last minute to make these arrangements, because you may not have time to find an alternative. The more planning you do ahead of time, the less of your travel time you have to spend on making arrangements.
Before – Clean the House
Who wants to come back to a messy home? During your trip, you will likely stay at nice hotels that are kept very clean. How will you feel coming back to your home in a mess after that?
You probably won’t feel like doing cleaning when you get back either, which is why you should take the time to clean before you leave out on your trip. You can either do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. The closer you clean your home to your departure date, the better it will look when you come back, so plan accordingly. You will appreciate the fact that your home is tidy and doesn’t need to be cleaned when you come back from vacation. Like many people, you might feel tired after all the travelling and not in the mood for doing house chores.
Before – Plan Extra Time in
Have you ever been on a trip where you felt rushed the entire time? Maybe you had to run across the airport to get to your flight on time or hurry to a restaurant to make your reservation. Or perhaps you had to hurry to visit all the sites you wanted to go to because you didn’t realize how long it would take to go to each of them.
Don’t make the same mistakes this time, and just plan to give yourself plenty of time. Take that later flight so that you have time to catch it without rushing. You don’t want to risk having to pay a rebooking fee, after all. Give yourself an entire day to experience most activities, because you want to factor in travel time and eating as well and not feel like you need to rush out of bed each morning.
You may need to extend your travel time a little bit to accommodate all you want to do or cut down on your list of activities. Just keep in mind that you may need more time to do each thing than you initially planned, and try out schedule that extra time in there to give yourself a bit of a cushion.
Before – Plan a Lazy Morning
Even if you are the kind of person who wants to make the most of their travel time, you should schedule in at least one morning to sleep in and not rush out the door. This will help to renew your energy and make your trip less stressful. You might not even realize how tired the travel has made you until you take that slow morning and just let your body catch up on its rest. This is especially helpful if you are travelling with other people who might need more rest than you and who will be less cranky if the have time to relax a bit.
After – Plan a Leisurely Activity
What do you have to look forward to after you come back from your trip? If you hurried from one place to another, you may need to de-stress when you come home. Even if you made great memories on your trip, your body and mind could be quite tired afterwards. To help you unwind, you can plan something low energy but fun for when you get back. This will give you a reason to look forward to your return rather than dread it.
Some ideas for what you can do include going out to eat with a family member, having a game night at home, going on a casual shopping trip close to home, or ordering in and having a movie night. You might not have a lot of energy when you come back from your trip, so be prepared to make adjustments to your plans and not stress yourself by doing too much activity right when you get home.
After – Slow Down Your Schedule
Being busy all the time can cause stress, damaging your wellbeing. If you are the kind of person who stays busy while travelling, then you will need some down time after the trip. Some people call this “a vacation from their vacation”. If you are travelling for work, then that downtime after the trip is even more important.
Plan to have your after-trip schedule be kind of slow. Don’t plan too many activities in a short amount of time, and consider cancelling some of the things you had scheduled after your trip. Determine which things you can move or reschedule, and then you should prioritize your list of things to do.
A trip can be incredibly relaxing, but only if you have prepared to deal with stress and to prevent stress from occurring in the first place. No matter where you are traveling to or why you are going, you can put these tips into use to make your trip and the time afterwards as stress free as possible.
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