Travel is associated with all sorts of good things. Adventure. The opportunity to lounge by a pool and totally relax for a while. New sights and sounds and exposure to different cultures.

Many people around the globe travel whenever they can, in order to experience the excitement of new places, meet new people and escape from the daily grind, and the stress that so often comes with work.

Although travel can be associated with many positive things, it is not often associated with self-care.

But, after all, why not practice a bit of self care when you’re out on the road, whether that means starting your trip with some new fashionable winter raincoats, or doing some soul-searching while on the road.

Here are a few tips for bringing self care on the road.

Don’t always opt for the cheapest accommodation; know which essential make the difference for you

First, let's be clear: Many people enjoy going on "minimalist" travel trips. This often means staying in sparsely furnished accommodations, without a lot of conventional luxuries.

You can backpack, camp, or stay in hostels while you trek along a well-known route like the pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela, for example, and many people consider that part of the experience.

At the same time, though, a lot of people don’t enjoy minimalistic accommodation at all, but may opt for it to keep expenses down.

A key tip for self-care when travelling, however, is to ensure that you only choose accommodation that meets your minimum standards of comfort.

Don't let frustration and discomfort ruin your trip just so that you can minimise costs a bit.

Establish a routine for bedtime, waking, and mealtimes and stick with it on the road

Although it is easy to forget that our happiness, health and satisfaction as humans are directly affected by our daily routines and our sleep patterns, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find that having disrupted routines and poor sleep lead to reduced wellbeing.

In his book, "The Circadian Code," the researcher Satchin Panda outlines compelling evidence that an irregular sleep routine, in addition to irregular meal times - particularly when meals are eaten too close to bedtime - result in all sorts of issues throughout the body, including a diminished immune system, and an elevated stress response.

Travel can disrupt our sleep patterns and routines, as well as interrupt our mealtimes. You will experience greater well-being if you can keep these things regular during your trip.

Be open to experiencing the moment as it unfolds and keep your expectations as minimal as possible

The human mind can be quite strange, especially when it is able to distract us from the present moment and preoccupy us with our desired outcomes or expectations. Then, instead of enjoying what’s right in front of us, we can get caught up in comparing everything to some abstract expectation we had for the experience.

This tendency may be most prevalent in travel, and it has the potential to disrupt anyone’s sense of well-being and cast a shadow over otherwise wonderful trips and adventures.
Instead of going into each location and experience with a heap of expectations and assumptions, try to approach those situations in a spirit of openness.

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