Mindful travel: A transformative approach to travel

Headed on a trip and want to make the most of your time? Try mindful travel and allow yourself to truly connect with the experiences on your journey.

What is Mindful Travel?

The planning you put in ahead of time, the stress of transportation, and the logistics while you’re on the trip can all add up to make travel a more overwhelming experience than you’d like. Many of us are focused more on the how, when, and where than on the feelings behind the journey. Mindful travel is an approach that can help transform your experience both during and after. When you travel mindfully, you’re focusing on connecting with your journey, noticing the small things, and developing lasting memories.

Benefits During the Trip

Travelers who practice mindfulness can expect a less overwhelming and more engaging experience. Some of the primary benefits during the trip include improvements to physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

If you are present in the moment, you’re less likely to worry about upcoming logistics or changes to plans, helping you be less stressed or anxious.
Connecting with locals authentically might open the door to new travel opportunities that you wouldn’t find in a guidebook.
Paying close attention to the sights and sounds can help you adapt to the new environment and potentially overcome jet lag more quickly and feel less fatigued.

Benefits Back Home

Memories you create when you’re focused and attuned to the environment are more likely to stay vivid for years to come. You may also stay connected with others you met along the way. Friendships built from shared adventure can spur you to continue finding ways to explore in the future. If you’ve paid attention to how your mind and body felt during the trip, you may be able to incorporate practices into daily life that give you similar feelings of excitement, peace, or wonder. If noticing the local wildflowers during your tour of town gave you a smile, you might decide to start your own garden at home.

Mindfulness Tips

Being a mindful traveler means practicing mindfulness at home before your journey. These elements of mindfulness are applicable across many areas of life, so they’re good habits to form for lifelong wellness benefits.

Using Your Senses

A key aspect of mindfulness is engaging your senses. We often complete daily tasks running on autopilot, blocking out sensory inputs that aren’t important. Practice engaging all of your senses during small moments in your day. You can use a 5-4-3-2-1 pattern and write what you’ve noticed: five sights, four sounds, three touches, two smells, and one taste.

Recording Impressions

Analysis and evaluation can get in the way of truly experiencing a moment. Practice mindfulness by recording your stream-of-consciousness impressions after an event. Write anything that comes to mind, including sensory inputs you had or even questions that popped into your head. Try to avoid judging what you write or analyzing whether an observation is important.

Choosing the Present

Our daily logistical maneuvering means we spend time analyzing past decisions or thinking ahead to future challenges. Mindfulness asks us to focus on the present. Practice this choice by keeping a tally over a week: note how many times you’re thinking about the past, present, or future. If your “present moments” tally is the lowest, try to adjust your thinking by acknowledging one small thing that makes you happy every hour.

Photo: rdonar via 123RF

Mindful Travel Ideas

Practicing mindfulness at home will help train your brain to feel comfortable living in the present and truly connecting with the world around you. Take those skills and apply them to your next trip!

For Adventure Lovers

If you’re incorporating adventure into your travels, try the following mindful approaches to get the most out of the experience.

Limit reading reviews ahead of time; take the risk to have your own experience.
Try a solo activity; you’ll have to rely on your memory alone to relive the excitement.
Don’t book an experience ahead of time; ask a local in town what they suggest and take the plunge.
Take photos of small pieces of the activity that will trigger a memory or feeling when you look back later.

For Relaxation Seekers

For many of us, travel is about relaxing in a new, beautiful environment. To make the most of your time, try these mindful approaches.

Truly disconnect from home life; set an out-of-office email, ask friends to avoid texting, and delete your social media apps from your phone.
Pack a journal instead of an extra book; try to write twice a day in a quiet place.
Don’t make too many reservations ahead of time; let your mood dictate what you do and when, leaving plenty of time to go slowly.