Creating Calm With Personal Travel Rituals

Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about travel rituals. I realized recently that I have some travel rituals and I wouldn't have expected that, So, that that's kind of a thing. And do you have a travel ritual that makes every journey feel special or any journey feel special? Is there something that you do every time no matter what? So, rituals are important to us as humans because they create a sense of stability and comfort. And because travel can be stressful, there's a lot of unknowns, there's a lot of things out of your control, having rituals subconsciously or consciously aid in stress reduction because that's how our brains work. What small habits can you think of that bring you peace when you're away from home? It could be always bringing a nightlight. It could be that you always stay at the same type of hotel or the same brand of hotel. This is something very common with, road warriors, people who used to work and travel a lot.

They would love to stay in the same brand of hotel because everything was normally in the exact same place. No matter which room you were in in the hotel, it was just certain hotels would set out their rooms in certain ways and so that brought a feeling of familiarity as a home away from home. Now there are a lot of popular travel rituals out there, it could be choosing the exact same seat on the plane if you get the option to, maybe visiting a favorite cafe, wearing a particular piece of clothing. For me, I I realized I have lots of mini routines, and rituals. So one is normally at least a week before my flight. I will go in and double check the flight because airlines make changes and sometimes they notify you and sometimes they do not. So going in and just double checking that everything is the way I think it is is really helpful. Because there was one time I didn't do that and I booked a flight for a different day.

So always try and do that. I always try and pack three or four days in advance, and then that gives me a chance twenty four hours later, a) see if there's anything I've forgotten, a little unremembered something, and b) just to go something like do I really need this? And I go through it and refine and refine. Twenty four hours before my flight, normally check-in time, but also I use FlightAware to go in and put in my flight details, to give it to anyone who might be picking me up or want to know where I'm flying, but also it gives me notifications normally before the app does on whichever airline I am flying with. Then, I tend to have a very specific travel outfit more or less depending on what I'm doing. I've realized I go to the same check-in lane at my home airport every single time, I also tend to stick to the same treats, might be the same things that I get on the airport. Airports do change, like they swap out things like my new my local airport suddenly got a Starbucks which I never had before, but I try and get the same little treats every single time. Also, repacking after security I will have my bag packed a certain way to get through security and then on the other side I will repack and take things out and do certain things before getting on a flight. So, I have things close to hand like I'll have my my, nose cancelling headphones, masks, those sorts of things, I'm putting on my compression socks.

Those kind of things I will do so I know. Yes, my passport was always in this place no matter what. My wallet is always in this place no matter what because I'm hyper aware of losing things, forgetting things, leaving things by accident. And so, making sure that I do the same thing every single time gives me a feeling of safety. Small consistent things are great, and another thing I do if I especially if I'm traveling through airports is I will find the gate first, then I will go and get food or go to the restroom or whatever it is. I will go and find the gate that I need to leave from, scope it out, see if there's seating, see if there's plug points, whatever it is I'm looking for, but just get my eyeballs on that's where it is and then go and search for other things. So, just thinking about what travel rituals you might have imagine starting every trip with a sense of calm and joy because you know that oh I'm going to buy that special treat, or I'm going to go sit in that rocking chair, or I'm going to do whatever it is. So, So reflect on your travel habits and consider incorporating a new ritual that brings you joy or that you haven't thought about before.

Thank you for listening. This is Janice at the Career Introvert helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.