Be travel-ready this summer without feeling depleted and crashing into pain flares
Summers where I live in the Pacific Northwest is long a 2-3 month long party. Finally, after months of gloominess and rare sun sightings, these next 2-3 months will guarantee the perfect 80 degree weather with daily sunshine and moderate humidity.
So now that summer travel season is officially here, are you travel ready?
Yes, you got your passport, your hat, and a cute sun dress. You're ready to show the world that glowing tan from your vacation.
But what of your self-nurture?
As exciting and novel as travel is, you are ultimately seeing new things, visiting new places, and being around new people. It can be a lot of stimulation for the body and nervous system.
Are you travel-ready?
Read on for some tips to keep your self-nurture in check when you travel this summer, so that you don’t bump right back into feeling stressed, depleted, and in chronic pain.
Here are some suggestions I personally use when I travel to help keep my systems regulated, and not overwhelmed or overly exhausted:
Establish a simple routine for your travels before you travel. I recommend that 1-2 weeks before you jet off or hop into the car for a road trip, choose a couple of self-care rituals that are easy and non-time consuming to do twice daily, morning and night. The body likes routine, and suddenly taking it out into a different environment or time zone can strain the system easily. By keeping a couple of routine things that your body is familiar with and recognizes, it can help with some of the overwhelm. Stick to 10 minutes or less. Because as you travel, you may have early morning flights, or late night dinners, and the last thing you're going to think about it whether you did your yoga practice or not. So, sticking to, let's say, a 5-minute simple stretching practice in the morning and a 3-minute meditation before bed, is an excellent way to give your body a sense of routine even amidst the constant movements of travel. Start incorporating these two simple rituals before you travel will help you get into the habit.
Continue sticking to your two simple routines during your travels. Now that you have established two simple routines before your travels and while you were still in familiar environments, these routines need to be reinforced during your adventures. They will help keep you systems more regulated, and after a long day of sight-seeing, isn't it nice to come back to something that feels familiar, grounding, and soothing? If you need help with coming up with your two simple routines as your anchors during your travels, you can dive into this workshop to guide you through step-by-step on how to narrow down your rituals.
Create mini check-in times with yourself throughout the day. It's very easy to get caught up with the constant stimulations around you, so be sure to buffer in extra time in your itinerary for a little bit of down-time throughout the day. This could look like lingering just a little longer in the cafe to be by yourself, buffering extra half days in where you have nothing planned, or resting at a park bench after some hours of walking. Use these times to check in with yourself, your body, and your systems: How are you feeling? Is your body needing something right now that you can provide? What kind of support are your systems asking for in these unfamiliar environments? The more nurture and tending you can provide for your body, the more it can feel assured (and less agitated, hypervigilant, and unsettled).
I hope these few tips help you prepare for your summer travels, because we shouldn't have to take another vacation from our vacation when we arrive back home.
Incorporating the practices above would help you stay regulated before, during, and after your trip.
More resources to help you be travel-ready!
Be sure to check out the Travel-Friendly Yoga series that I will be sharing more of this month inside the Sacred Nurture On-Demand Library! Choose from short practices you can do in confined seats and while waiting in transit. More practices will be added this month to help you feel travel-prepared!