So you’re at your desk, few days before your supposedly planned trip, pondering about things. You’re wondering, what if it isn’t going to be as enjoyable as expected? What if the printed train tickets aren’t accepted? Was every necessities packed? These thoughts leads to, maybe I should just call it off, cancel the trip, no harm done eh?
The feeling of excitement is still in there, but it is easily overshadowed by all the irrational anxieties.
Even experienced travelers feel worried before a trip, it is after all putting oneself into an unfamiliar land and that can be pretty stressful. However, once the anxieties have been overcome, what’s to follow is nothing but pure satisfaction and fulfillment.
So here are some ways to help yourself and defeat anxiety before it takes control of you.
1. IMAGINATION IS YOUR FOUNDATION FOR YOUR VACATION
It basically means, desensitize yourself. The problem you’re facing now is fear. You’re afraid that things could go wrong, you can’t accept it when things go wrong, because by then it’s all headaches and there’s the possibility that you lose control over the situation.
Imagine hard, imagine yourself being in the situation, think of every worst case scenario out there, and imagine yourself solving it. If it can’t be solved, imagine yourself being okay with it. Being okay with your holiday not being perfect, being okay with not having control. At the end of the day, you’ll probably feel braver and under the circumstances where things DO go wrong, you’re prepared.
2. DO YOUR RESEARCH
Now this I don’t have to tell you.
Not knowing things can be a big contributor to anxious thoughts. Making detailed research prior to your trip can let you get a glimpse of what to expect and also cut down time fumbling around maps and figuring out things when you’re already at the destination, so you could enjoy more of the place.
Also, make sure that your information are from multiple sources instead of one, sometimes information from a source could be misleading or outdated, so be sure you keep a look out for that. There’s this one time where I walked for about 40 minutes to a destination to find that I can’t find it, so I wasted more time trying to find it only to realize it actually closed down.
So yea, updated resources, very important.
3. LIST DOWN YOUR FEARS
In a situation like this, you are basically fighting with your anxieties, your anxiety have become your enemy, and what better way to defeat your enemy than to understand them?
So take a pen and paper, think hard about what you are afraid of, what’s triggering all those fears? Why is it bothering you? Is it the fear of getting lost? The fear of talking to strangers? Fear of flying???
When an understanding of your anxieties has taken shape, the only thing that follows are the solutions.
4. HAVE A SUPPORT
Having someone trusty to contact and take updates about your whereabouts and activities is a great mind ease-r, you can always rely on them during an event where things go wrong. You know that you’re not alone and someone will have your back and that can bring some sense of relief.
So there’s that. These are the ways that I use myself whenever I feel anxious before a trip. I would just sit down and imagine(STEP 1), go on the web and look stuff up about my trip(STEP 2), if I still feel pretty nervous I’ll try to figure out what on Earth am I afraid of (STEP 3), and then I’ll tell someone, just casually inform someone where I will be during my trip(STEP 4), just in case I get abducted at least the police would have a lead on where to look for me first (Scoffs).
Now I know having anxiety can be quite difficult when it comes to travelling, every single instinct in you is telling you danger is coming if you set foot out of your comfort zone, it’ll tell you to bail out, it’s not worth it and so on. But trust me; take effort to overcome it, because by the end of the day, it’ll be worth it.
I hope this helps.
Alas, have a nice life :).
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