How to deal with travel anxiety

Often the fear of the unknown is what prompts anxiety and stress in our lives. Not knowing what to expect or anticipating things going wrong, steals our joy and causes us to worry. This is especially true when traveling. Over the last year, as a result of the global pandemic, our collective stress and anxiety levels have skyrocketed. As the world begins to slowly open back up and more people starting to think about what travel looks like in the wake of COVID-19, the sense of stress around travel has also increased. If you’re looking for tips on how to deal with travel anxiety, the following ideas may help you put everything in perspective as you head out on your next adventure.

How to Deal With Travel Anxiety When You’ve Got a Lot Going On

One of the easiest ways to deal with travel anxiety is to stop it before it starts. Often, the regular stresses of life whether it be work and family obligations, health or medical issues, and appointments are enough to keep us in a state of anxiety at least for periodic stretches in our lives. Add travel into the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster.  The best way to deal with travel anxiety is to plan your adventures around any major events going on in your life.

If you’re planning a small family get-together to celebrate an anniversary or birthday and are simultaneously planning to travel, don’t schedule one right after the other. Give yourself at least a week or two to get everything in order before you move onto something new. Traveling, especially in the midst of a global pandemic, brings with it its own set of challenges and issues you need to address. Getting everything related to a party either in order before the fact or cleaned up after is just another level of stress you don’t need – and we all know how long it takes to truly get a party put away once it’s complete. Space out your travel so that it doesn’t coincide with anything that could make navigating the two, challenging or stressful.

Create an Itinerary But Remain Flexible

There are essentially two types of people when it comes to travel. Those who plan every last detail right down to the minute and those who fly by the seat of their pants and leave everything up to fate. There are those who are a mix of the two, especially depending on the type of vacation or destination like Walt Disney World, which does require quite a bit of advanced planning. But if you’re one of those people who deal with travel anxiety, being organized is often better than leaving things up to chance.

Create an itinerary for your travel so that you have a general idea of what you’re doing on which days. This will allow you to mentally prepare and may help calm you so that you can actually enjoy your vacation. Sometimes the stress of travel is a result of the unknown, especially if you or someone you care about lives with anxiety and/or depression. Having that bit of structure to fall back on can greatly ease the overwhelm you may feel about traveling.

Keep Necessities on Hand at All Times

Packing for a vacation can be a significant source of stress. That stress is compounded especially if you’re one of those travelers who wait until the last minute to get everything together. To reduce travel anxiety, keep a toiletry bag and carry-on packed and ready to go, especially if you travel often. Have your bags stocked with necessities like an extra phone and laptop charger. You could also stash that book you’ve been meaning to read into your carry-on luggage. Stow an extra travel toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant in your toiletry bag. This practice can help you eliminate any last-minute travel stress. Include the things that tend to get forgotten as you’re scrambling to pack everything.

Keep a running necessities list on hand. This way, when you run out of something you can easily replace it in the moment rather than hoping that Amazon shipment arrives before you’re set to leave. Have your bags packed ahead of time with items you’ll need during travel. This is a great way to deal with travel anxiety because it allows you to be proactive and productive simultaneously.

Making Lists is a Key Way to Deal with Travel Anxiety

Just as keeping a list of necessities for your travel bags can help you deal with travel anxiety in a proactive way, making lists leading up to your travel is a great way to combat overwhelm. There are quite a few ways to go about this. If you’re not sure what you need to pack or worry about forgetting something, create a list for clothing items you need to bring.  If you have a ton of things to do before you go, create a to-do list and check items off as you accomplish them.

The act of checking off items, in some, can greatly reduce anxiety as they’re able to clearly see what they’ve accomplished and what they still need to tackle. For others, however, tasks in list form can be just as overwhelming as the concept of how to deal with travel anxiety. Those who prefer not to use a list may benefit from a journaling method as eluded to in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Clear describes a method of creating a to-do list that is more like writing in a journal. He advises that we either on paper or in our minds think, ‘ok I am going to do this one thing, because…’ and then think of the next thing you’re going to do. “After I do that thing, I’m going to do this next thing.”  Breaking up our tasks into an inner dialog rather than a list of words on paper makes it more personal and individual; this connection to self can often reduce your anxiety overall in life, not just when you’re traveling.

Manifest the Best-Case Scenario

When we approach the topic of how to deal with trave anxiety from a best-case scenario perspective and have done all we can to eliminate potential stresses, often our perspective can shift. Rather than anticipate what could go wrong, try shifting your mindset. We often get back what we put out into the world, so move through each stage of travel with the mindset that things will go smoothly and chances are you’ll experience a smooth travel experience reflected right back to you.

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