7 Helpful Practices for First Time Solo Travel
The key to a good solo travel experience is being your own best friend. You must learn how to deal with your own bad moods and whatever has gone wrong, often concurrently.
These are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years to alleviate anxiety and calm my mind and body.
Take deeeeep breaths
Set a five minute timer on your phone, close your eyes, and breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. This calms your nervous system. After reaching the top of an inhale or the bottom of an exhale, push yourself to do a little bit more to release any extra tension.
Repeat a comforting phrase
For example, “I’m okay, everything’s okay.” Do this 100 times or until you feel it in your body. I usually combine this with the next recommendation.
Massage
This is an amazing tool if you’ve been triggered into feeling unsafe. Tap your skin, squeeze your hands or limbs, and massage tender points (for me it’s ankles and jaw). They take the focus off your mind which might be running wild and onto your body.
Stretch/Move
The key is to relax into a stretch NOT force yourself to go deeper. You want to make sure you’re focusing on physical sensations, not your thoughts.
Change your environment
Literally get up and GO. If you’re indoors alone and the energy in the room is stagnant, you might need light and motion. Alternatively, if you’re hyper stimulated, you might need to go somewhere with peace and quiet.
Write to yourself
Say thank you. Compliment yourself. Focus on everything that went right not just what went wrong. Send yourself an email or text that you may read later on. This seems silly at first, but it’s super effective. Not only are you writing kind words to someone, but are also receiving kind words. That exchange of positive energy is unmatched.
Play music you love
This one is tricky because we often love sad and moody music. You want to be comforted not go down a rabbit hole. I have a playlist of all female rappers to remind myself that I am the baddest.
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