You’ve just returned from an exotic locale sporting a wealth of photos and souvenirs as well as a great tan. Let’s face it; you’ve aroused substantial envy among your friends. You’ve just enjoyed a magnificent journey in every detail, so you ought to be downright effervescent, right? Yet, you find yourself feeling unaccountably petulant. Though your comrades may be incredulous, you just can’t deny it: You’re suffering from the post-travel blues. Fortunately, you’re not alone. Many an avid adventurer has endured this affliction, and this article offers suggestions for revitalizing your downtrodden spirit, whether you focus on the past, the future, or the present.
Revisiting the Past
Reliving your travel memories by commemorating them through creative endeavours can improve your mood tremendously. For example, you can paint scenes from your favourite trip snapshots or create a framed photo montage for your living-room wall. If you love to write, you can combine your journal entries into a travel memoir. For avid cooks, why not recreate the delicious dishes you enjoyed on your journey? It’s easy nowadays to shop for beautiful regional cookbooks online that feature full-colour photos of both the local food and environment.
Dreaming for the Future
Besides reliving past journeys, upon returning home, hardcore travel addicts can also allay their post-travel blues by immediately taking constructive action toward manifesting their next trip. If your latest exploits have left you disconcertingly short of funds, you can always begin collecting spare change, which adds up surprisingly quickly. Each time you hear that satisfying clink as you drop a coin into your savings jar, you’ll rest easily knowing you’re one step closer to your goal. Nowadays, with the entire world at your fingertips, you can also research and plan every detail of your next adventure online. Furthermore, you can join virtual communities to enthuse about your next destination with fellow travel aficionados.
Finding Peace in the Present
As an enthusiastic life coach might recommend, if you want to change your feelings about a situation, change the story you’re telling yourself about it. To overcome your post-trip poutiness, you can choose to reframe your perceived predicament in a new, more positive light. Why not embrace the philosophy that we on planet Earth are all perpetual travelers, meant to revel in the present moment wherever we find ourselves? In this worldview, instead of a ho-hum hallmark of your humdrum between-trips existence, your primary residence now becomes another unique destination on your ongoing travel circuit, albeit one you tend to visit more frequently for longer durations than the others.
To this end, it helps, when navigating your own region, to shift your perspective and view your surroundings anew through the eyes of a fascinated traveller. Research and maintain an ongoing list of local restaurants and attractions to visit. Plan interesting day and weekend itineraries in advance for times when you yearn to break up your day-to-day routine. With this attitude shift, you can experience your entire life as one big travel adventure.
