Beating Post Travel Depression - 10 Tips To Keep Positive Travel Vibes Flowing
- Helen
- Oct 16, 2018
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 16, 2019
When you return home after time away travelling do you experience a drop in your mood? No matter the reasons for your travels - be that a holiday, backpacking or other type of break from your usual home and routine, the return to home life can be hard.
How do you cope with this?
What can you do to find an ongoing zest for life without waiting until your next holiday?
POST TRAVEL DEPRESSION
'Post Travel Depression' (PTD) is a term used to describe this post travel slump many of us experience. Although, not yet recognised by the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (international bible of mental health conditions); PTD can affect people with varying degrees of severity.
After a trip, especially if the travels have been busy, there can often be a feeling of relief to be home.
The thought of your own bed, a night in front of the telly and catching up with friends and family can hold some appeal.
Within a short time though you might be looking around and realising that little has changed.
Real life and old routines quickly re-establish themselves.
The daily grind of normality: work, eat and sleep returns and you feel like you have never been away.
Looking forward, the immediate horizon holds little appeal, with few breaks from the mundane to look forward to.
Following my recent travels, I returned home to experience a dose of PTD which left me reflecting on this phenomenon overall and how to overcome it.
Luckily there are things you can do to overcome PTD and you need not merely 'grin and bear it'!
10 Practical Tips to Keep Positive Travel Vibes Flowing:
1. PLAN!
Once you return home, keep your sense of adventure and urge to travel alive by planning more trips.
You do not necessarily have to book anything immediately (although bonus points if you do!) but research where you want to go, what you want to see and do.
Connect with other travellers, explore options and find inspiration.
Create that bucket list and work out how to make it real.
Just having things on the horizon to look forward to can help reduce the feeling of ongoing monotony and keep a sense of adventure alive.
2. SHAKE THINGS UP
Just because you are back home does not mean that you automatically HAVE to revert to old habits and routines.
Once in our usual home environment it is all too easy to find ourselves going back to autopilot and there is precious little to make one day stand out against the next.
Find ways to break some of these routines and habits. Once you break one small routine (even something like eating breakfast at a different seat at the table) it can open the mind up to then changing more patterns through the day.
Rearranging things at home, such as moving furniture or ornaments, can also help stop the brain reverting back so quickly to auto-pilot and stay inquisitive.
3. REMOVE THE BLINKERS!
When we are travelling we tend to take in more of the sights, sounds and differences to our environment and appreciate where we are.
In our home environment when we are busy pacing through the rat-race, it is very easy to put the blinkers on and not see the beauty in our own home region.
I'm not trying to sound too woo woo here but a bit of mindfulness might go a long way.
Each day try to remove the blinkers, at least temporarily, and really take in and appreciate the immediate world around you. Take in the sights, sounds, smells and colours of where you live - I bet it is more beautiful than you give it credit for!
4. BE A HOME TOURIST
When we live in a location, how often do we actually take time to visit sights and attractions immediately around us?
As travellers, we will visit exotic world destinations, seeing every sight offered and yet have failed to ever visit the World Heritage Site 20 miles from where we live (ok, slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean!).
Consider - if you were a traveller visiting your home region what would you take the time to see and do? Where would you go?
If you have a local tourist office why not visit it and pick up more ideas of what to do in your area?
Take time out of everyday life and explore locally.
5. EXPERIMENT WITH WHAT AND WHERE YOU EAT
Part of the travelling experience for most people is eating new foods and experiencing world cuisines.
This change in tastes, flavours and even when and how we eat adds to the sense of fun and excitement of being away from home.
Why though as soon as you return home should you automatically revert back to your usual home foods if you are finding them dull?
World cuisine can be enjoyed at home too.
If you are a cook then seek recipes for international dishes and enjoy being creative.
Go to international local restaurants or find some of the quality home ready prepared meals that are available now.
6. EVALUATE YOUR ASPIRATIONS AND DIS-SATISFACTIONS
When you were away travelling and breaking from your usual day to day life, did you have thoughts of how your life would be different, 'if only...'?
What dreams and aspirations do you have that you are not honouring?
What is causing the dissatisfaction with your current life, that is making being home a less than happy situation?
Take some time out, sit down and evaluate your life now -what is good about it, what would you change?
Then consider that if money, job, family, other ties were not a factor - what would you do, where does your true heart lie?
You might not be able to fully meet every life dream (becoming a millionaire and George Clooney realising he needs me in his life have yet to happen for me) but perhaps there are things you could change to approach the happier life you envision.
Often a little thinking outside the box is all that is required!
7. CONNECT WITH NEW PEOPLE
For some, another factor that makes travelling a great experience is meeting new people from different backgrounds, cultures and with different stories to tell.
Granted, you might not find a genuine aboriginal elder living down the road at home to chat to and learn from.
What is to stop you though from finding ways to meet new people in your own community - a great way to keep engaged and interested in life, even at home!
Find MeetUp groups or other clubs or societies to attend and really connect with new people.
8. LEARN A LANGUAGE
Travelling often necessitates immersing ourselves in a different language, or sometimes just a different dialect, to our own. This can add to the sense of mystery and adventure from travelling.
Learning a new language in your local evening school could be a great way to keep your travel aspirations and / or memories alive.
The development of new language skills could also be preparation for your next trips (which you are planning of course, as per tip 1!).
You might combine meeting new people from the previous tip with language classes.... meet new people and develop linguistically - sounds a good evening out!
9. KEEP THE MEMORIES ALIVE
Once you are back home and into the daily rat-race, the memories of your trip away can become all too distant.
Find ways to keep those memories alive.
Talking about your travels will only be accepted by those around you for so long before you are accused of being a bore so you might need to be creative in how you hold those memories.
Keep a journal of your travels (even retrospectively) or write a blog about them.
Perhaps a scrapbook of photos, tickets, leaflets and brochures?
A collage of photos can hold impact and be great to look back on.
Have a photo that captures the trip printed on a canvas or put in a frame and put it on the wall as a daily reminder.
These memories are important to hold onto and to remind you that travels can be part of your life in future too!
10. STEP OUT THE RAT-RACE AND ACTUALLY TRAVEL!
If, despite doing all of the above you still feel unfulfilled and those feet continue to itch, it might be time to think harder about what is stopping you actually travelling now.
Perhaps you are born to be a nomad (I think some of us are!)...
What is stopping you changing your life now and following your dreams?
I made the change (see my previous posts about this) and you could too!
In a future post I will be writing about common excuses people might give for not fulfilling their heart desires and answering these.
In the meantime, really break those walls of excuses down yourself and don't automatically think them insurmountable.
Perhaps you can find a job travelling? There are many ways to earn a living and travel today.
Life changes are possible!
CONCLUSION
Post travel depression is miserable and can have a significant impact on some people after a trip away.
If you are experiencing more significant symptoms of depression or anxiety then please make sure you seek advice and support from a health professional.
The tips above are some suggestions that might make returning home after short or long travels easier to manage.
What tips do you have for people dealing with PTD?
Please share!
**To make my travels possible and affordable I do so through international house-sitting, using both Trusted Housesitters and Kiwi Housesitters**
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