Do you get really worked up before a trip? Everyone knows about the fear of
flying but what about pre travel anxiety. That moment that spans between booking
your trip and actually going away on vacation that can be fraught with
anxiety. Today I'm going to come up with some tips and tricks that can help you
overcome your pre travel anxieties. Hello my name is Clare and welcome to
Generation Calm where you can learn to reduce your stress and anxiety naturally
in your own time so that your mind and body feel great. Before we get started
today I'd love to know what specifically you stress about when you go on vacation.
I've created a poll in the community section so that you can just click on
what it is that stresses you out most of all and if what you find stressful I
haven't written on there, then please leave a message in the comment section
so I can make the right kind of video just for you. Newsflash,
you along with everybody else are going to always feel at least some kind of
nervousness before you go away on a trip. So some people have a fear of traveling
called Hodophobia. That's not exactly what I'm going to be covering in this
video today. I'm going to be talking about that pre travel anxiety where you
have a desire to travel, you've actually booked the trip but you're starting to
get really nervous about going away from home now. It's actually a type of
anticipatory anxiety. That means you're anticipating problems before they've
even begun. And the problem is is that our imaginations are amazing but they
can allow our stresses and worries to get away and run away with us.
It means we're anticipating problems and issues before we've even run into any.
Now with pre travel anxiety it might be that you're naturally an anxious person
and it's just rolling over to travel or it could be that you are specifically
worried about traveling only/ But know this, it is common to feel anxious
and nervous before you travel... everyone does and that's because there's a lack
of control. When we travel we are out of our normal routine and we're at the
mercy of the transportation, the airlines, we're at the mercy of whether the
photographs in the brochures do justice for the hotel room that you're going to
be staying in. We don't know if we're going to pick up bugs and get ill when
we're traveling. So there's an element of control that it's kind of difficult to
let go of. When we're at home or in a safe environment and routine it might
feel boring but at least it feels safe. But there are some things we can do to
help ourselves feel more in control and therefore happier and less stressed
before we go on vacation . So my first tip is try and keep up a healthy routine
before you go traveling. By that I mean eat healthily, exercise regularly, keep up
your sleep hygiene, drink plenty of water. Being well fed and healthy will help you
feel less stressed when any challenges arise during your travel plans. And if
nothing else, getting enough sleep is probably the most important thing to
help you feel less stressed before your travel/ Ok number two is one that I do
all the time and that is to keep a running list of what you need to get
planned and prepared before your trip. I literally keep a running list of things...
it's at my hands at all times because I could just start
thinking oh yeah I really mean need to remember to do that before we go away.
If I don't have my paper, my list then I'll forget that and then that runs
around in my head and I worry about it. So keep a running list and inventory of
all the things that you have to plan before you go away because we do have to
plan a lot more. And by the way there are plenty of other people's packing lists
to work off of if you Google packing lists or if you look on Pinterest for
other people's packing lists. And I find those a really good helpful starting
point. Another idea is to start a travel journal before you even
go away on your trip. And if you have children with you get a travel journal
for each one of the. Remember it doesn't just have to be writing, you can
draw in there, you can add travel tickets in there, you can put photographs
in there once you print them off at the end of your trip. And you can make it a
really nice journal to hold on to for years to come. And not only that when you
write things down when you're nervous or even excitable it's going to be helpful
to put those experiences down on paper because it helps us work through our
emotions and process situations more easily. So don't just use your travel
journal while you're traveling use a travel journal in your run-up to
planning for the trip as well. When it comes to work make sure that if
you have email for work make sure that you set an auto-reply for the days that
you're away but also I had an extra two days for when you return in case you
have some backlog of work load to catch up with. That just gives you a little bit
of leeway. Also if there's no way you can get out of answering emails while you're
away make sure you plan a certain time during your trip, let's say for one hour
a day, you're going to check your emails or reply to anything urgent and it's at
10 a.m. every day then the people you're traveling with know and the
people at work know that too. Before you go away make sure you use the internet
as a source of information to help you out. So for the first couple of days you
might feel disoriented. After your big travel day you may not feel like
going very far to a restaurant so make sure you've looked up some cafes, some
local stores and how to get there and the the times of opening and everything
so that you have a couple of days to kind of catch your bearings and know
where you're going. This also gives you that element of control of knowing where
you're going to go for the first couple of days. So on the day of your trip make
sure you use your cell phone to take photographs of your locking up.
This is a tip for you mum because we spent so many of my childhood
vacations with mum about two hours into the trip saying did I turn off the iron,
did I turn off the stove, did I unplug the kettle, did I lock the front door? Now
that we have smartphones we can actually video ourselves doing this. You can take
a picture of all the oven switches being on zero this just helps really give you
peace of mind when you go away. Now it's been proven that even a pretend smile
can help make you feel good. So if you can smile for 30 seconds at a time you
can actually help yourself to feel happy and less stressed before you go on your
trip. And you will feel happier because you're smiling. What you're feeling is
called anticipatory anxiety because you are imagining events that could possibly
go wrong in the future the sentences that run through your head probably
start with what if. What if the hotel room is awful? What if the plane is
delayed? What if somebody in my party gets ill?
These are bad events that may or may not happen. And this is where mindfulness is
your best friend. You're not trying to avoid the negative thoughts here but
just gently bring yourself back to the present moment. Tune in to your breath.
Ask yourself questions about your senses, what sensations you are feeling in your
body at this present moment. And that will help bring you back to the now. And
my final tip before you go away is not to watch any sensational news
programs. They are dramatic for a reason they're trying to get ratings. And what
will happen is that takes your emotions on a wild ride and that's the last thing
you need before you're going on your trip. So try to watch things that are
going to keep you calm and on an even keel. Thanks for watching and I wish
you a great trip wherever you're going!