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Nobody talks about this part of travel, managing the emotional ups and downs. Long-term travel isn’t just about the places you visit, it’s about who you become along the way. As you journey across borders, you’ll stumble into breathtaking landscapes, forge unforgettable connections, and awaken a sense of freedom you may have never known. But alongside these gifts come moments of loneliness, uncertainty, overwhelm, and self-doubt. This is the honest terrain of the traveller’s path, both the outer adventure and the inner journey.
You might find yourself in a tiny cafe, staring out at a bustling street, and suddenly feel the sting of homesickness. You may wake up one morning in a dreamy location and wonder, why do I feel flat or restless here? You might wrestle with questions like, am I wasting time? What am I really searching for? Flights get delayed, plans fall apart, health wobbles, and sometimes the mind spins with overthinking in the quiet of a strange room.
This is where mindful travel truly begins, not in escaping discomfort, but in learning to meet it with awareness and kindness.
When you subscribe to this YouTube channel, my channel, Go Travel Mindfully, and also my website, GoTravelMindfully.com, you will learn some really valuable ways to be able to manage everything that happens in life along your journey into long-term travel. Here’s just a few.
Acceptance and commitment training. Now this helps you notice the thoughts and emotions that arise without getting entangled in them. Thoughts and emotions, particularly emotions, are beautiful signposts as to what is happening to us, even unwanted emotions. They’re not things to get rid of or to fix. They’re things to become aware of, to notice, and then to understand, what are they telling me right now? When loneliness, worry, or frustration shows up, you can name it, make space for it, and gently return your focus to what matters, whether that’s a walk through a new city, a meaningful conversation, or simply watching the sunset. You can still do all of those things while experiencing some element of uncomfortability. And I can help you manage, teach you how to manage all of those emotions and thoughts that you experience along the journey.
Mindfulness practice teaches you to ground yourself in the present moment. When the mind races or anxiety builds, say, in a crowded train station, or a bumpy tuk-tuk ride, or anything that’s going to trigger those unwanted feelings within you, which can be unique to all of us, you can anchor yourself with your breath, notice the sensations in your body, or take in the sounds and colours around you. You can do simple things like wriggle your toes. Yes, wriggle your toes. If you do that right now, you’ll notice how your attention is brought to the fact that you are wriggling your toes. And that is something that you are doing in the present moment. So that is something that you can do anywhere, at any time. This calms the nervous system and brings you back to here.
Trauma-informed care and polyvagal understanding. Wow, that’s a mouthful. But stress or trauma-informed care, which really is ongoing stress that’s been around for a long while, or it can in fact be things that have happened in your life that, wow, have been traumatic, and maybe in the past has held you back from doing the things that you really want to do, like exploring the world. When we can take on board trauma-informed care and then polyvagal understanding, that’s what is actually happening to the body through the autonomic nervous system. I know I’m introducing possibly new concepts here, but when we can understand the way our body reacts to stress and anxiety and fear and worry, we start to realise these are normal human reactions to life events. They aren’t following a deficit model where there’s something wrong with me. They are telling you something that needs your attention right here, right now. Maybe some changes to the agenda or the schedule. Or maybe just a better way, instead of controlling what is happening, but managing what is happening, based on our own personal history and life, when we get triggered.
So, this will remind you that your nervous system is adjusting to constant change. Feeling overwhelmed or shut down isn’t a personal failure, it’s biology. I help travellers learn soothing tools like gentle movement, self-talk, and sensory grounding to re-regulate when they hit emotional turbulence. You’d be surprised how massaging your earlobes will help calm the body. Sounds crazy, but there’s many methods like that that can help us focus a bit more on the present moment and in the process calm the body. It’s telling the body that right here, right now, we are okay.
A dash of absurdist and existential wisdom. Absurdism. I love absurdism. The world really is an absurd place. I hope it doesn’t sound too negative. It’s not meant to be negative at all. It’s about awareness and understanding and acceptance. The world is an absurd place. Basically, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. And really, the world couldn’t give two hoots about you. If we respect and understand our environment, it will then look after us because we are working in its domain. I hope that makes a little bit of sense. But if we can realise that the world is an unpredictable place, then we can help manage that unpredictability with a sense of greater confidence, more presence here in the present moment, and more joy. Go argue with the lamppost. Do something crazy. Really maximise your time in the present moment. The only time that you really have.
Feeling lost or emotionally off track is not a sign you’re doing life wrong. It’s part of the richness of being human in a shifting world. In the end, long-term travel isn’t just about kicking off bucket list destinations. If you want to do it long-term, it’s so important to really know who you are. It’s about becoming more intimate with yourself, with life, and with the reality that joy and discomfort often walk hand in hand. My role is to help you travel not just across borders, but into deeper connection with yourself, so you can meet every step, every high and low, with greater freedom, kindness, and presence.
Why not come along for the ride? You can start right now by liking this video, subscribing to my channel, and following along as I help you navigate long-term travel with greater joy and presence.
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