Traveling Mindfully

Be Mindful & Enjoy the Journey

What is mindful traveling?

Traveling more mindfully means you are allowing yourself to be present in the moment. It means truly experiencing your surroundings by noticing the little things such as the rustle of the leaves in the trees or how the sunlight illuminates your child’s face as they enjoy an ice cream cone. Mindfulness can be present while taking a walk, hearing a distant waterfall or the sound of waves caressing the shoreline of a sandy beach, all of which can create a moment of tranquility. By being mindful and letting go of our worries and day-to-day stresses, we will never miss the little things in life that create a memorable trip. These are the truly defining moments that we will remember long past that trip to the cabin. When we reflect, it is the mindful moments that surface at first and the rest is an afterthought. This article will discuss 7 Great Tips on how to Travel more Mindfully.

Traveling more mindfully has a lot of added benefits to the travel experience. Families and loved ones alike need and deserve your undivided attention. Human beings will always adapt to their surroundings and follow group behavior. If you are a parent, mindfulness starts with you and will be a learned behavior that your child will adapt to. So, with that being said here are a few tips on how to have a more mindful travel experience.

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7 Great tips on how to be more mindful when traveling

1. Bring a Book

Bringing a book encourages you to set aside some quiet time to read up on a subject or a story of interest. This permits the body to relax and create a more calming mindset. At this day and age, social media is monopolizing our attention, which is causing conversations to be centered around politics, the economy, or relevant pop culture, most if not all of this will be perceived as negative by someone if not everyone in the group or family. A book can eliminate this as it redirects your attention to a more pleasant subject or story. This will calm your mood and relax your mind, which will be optimal for achieving a mindful moment that awards you a better connection with loved ones.

Some of our favorite books for reading while traveling are:

Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, by Dr. Wayne Dyer

The Tao of Pooh & the Te of Piglet, by Benjamin Hoff

Atomic Habits, by James Clear

When traveling or on vacation with family and loved ones, we want to keep the mood light and enjoyable. Conversations should be inclusive and relevant to what is happening at the present moment. This will help keep your children engaged, feel valued and appreciated. Discussing subject matter that is not here or now, will only alienate children, family members or other group members. Subsequently, this will create distance and a loss of connection. Therefore, bringing a book will help you stay grounded and relaxed.

2. Journaling

Journaling is a great way to get the details down while in the moment. We may have our pictures but by writing our experiences down it allows us to genuinely be present in the moment as we are capturing the memories with all of our senses and not just our eyes. This is also a great way to really describe what is going on, and what led up to the memory. A journal can be a story, a thought or a descriptive moment that can be shared and reflected upon for years to come.

A great journal that I use is WERTIOO

Enjoying Nature Creates Mindfulness

3. Taking a Walk

Going on a nature walk through a park, or a calm and peaceful neighborhood or just walking down a quiet downtown street while getting a morning coffee or bagel can create opportunities for mindful moments. Walks are great as they improve your cardiovascular health, relax the mind and are a great way to calm your spirit. The length of the walk depends on you. For best results just go outside and travel a bit, you never know what you might discover.

Walks are also best when enjoyed with family and loved ones as they contribute to a more meaningful experience. Walks also bring about larger connections as you are in natural surroundings and can share these moments with each other as they unfold. Many of our best photos came from walks in nature or on the sidewalk of a downtown.

4. Watching Sunsets

We love a good sunset, and we are sure you do too. We find that it really is important to make time to see one of nature’s gifts to us. Plus, it is really the only time you can look directly into the sun and not get blinded. This is also a great time to take some incredible family photos and enjoy a walk together after dinner. Sunsets are a great way to get everyone together and they can add significant enjoyment to your trip as it is an experience that everyone can enjoy together either after dinner or while earning that ice cream cone.

5. Say Hello to Strangers

Saying Hello to strangers can be a great opportunity to connect with someone and learn something new about the area you are visiting, unless you are a child, which is a big no no. Additionally, this will help build confidence while publicly engaging people. What is the worst that can happen? They could ignore you. Oh well, then back to the nature walk.

Saying hello does not only lighten the mood but it also comes with a benefit. Usually, locals have the details on the best places to eat, attractions to see, and activities to do. This will also give the inside details of the place you are visiting and sometimes even some background information that could enhance your experience. Knowing the facts about an area can be useful when visiting a particular town or city.

A few ice breaker lines I have used that work:

“Good morning, great weather we are having”

“Give someone a compliment”

“Always ask someone how they are doing”

“Smile and eye contact”

6. Gratitude

Remind yourself to count your blessings and how lucky you are to be where you are. This will also allow you to focus on the moment and truly enjoy it. Traveling is a privilege and should be enjoyed as just that. Being grateful will serve as a reminder of how fortunate you are to be able to experience the trip you are on. Count your blessings while you can. Time is precious and so are the people we share it with. Sometimes a great way to remind yourself of how grateful you should be is to journal it down and then reread it later on. This will help inspire you and remind you of how far you have come along.

The above Gratitude Book is available for purchase at Barnes & Noble by clicking on the link below.

7. Mealtime

You can make your mealtimes memorable while you are on your trip by finding a great place to share a meal with a nice view and allowing yourself to be submerged in the area’s culture by enjoying their food. Try to be mindful of how they present the food and even how they create the ambience around you. Sharing a meal can be one of the best parts of a trip. This is another opportunity for a family or group engagement that can enhance your travel experience through laughter, good food and a beautiful ambience. Picking a place to eat is important as it can provide the perfect setting for a great meal and create a wonderful atmosphere for an enjoyable time.

Some of the things we look for when choosing a restaurant to eat at is the following:

1. Ambience: What kind of lighting or mood is this restaurant going to create?
   
2. Food: Make sure there is enough food options for everybody’s palette.
   
3. Convenience: Will this restaurant meet the needs of what you are looking for? Will there be enough space for the group to sit together? What kind of wait time will they impose on you?
   
4. Comfort: Will the restaurant have air conditioning if the weather is hot? Does the restaurant create a comfortable environment while enjoying your meal?
   
5. Curb Appeal: This is one that can mean a lot. If a restaurant does not care what it looks like on the outside, then there is probably a good chance, they may not care about other things.
   

A restaurant should take pride in their food, appearance and training of their staff to be accommodating and understanding. This will go a long way, creating lasting memories and customers for life. We all have that favorite place we frequent and look forward to seeing again. That place was not an accident. It was love and passion from the owners of that restaurant that helped create those memories.

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This would be a great example of a place to eat with a nice view. This dining room offers the mindful traveler boats, water, umbrellas, and a whole lot of sunshine.

So, there you have it 7 great tips on how to travel more mindfully. We hope this guide helps give you some insights that you can apply or reapply to your upcoming trips. An addition to the tips, we also recommend taking your time and never rushing through any experience. Relax and allow yourself to just let things unravel and be. You will get to where you are going eventually. Therefore, you might as well do it with a calm and relaxed mind. Remember, you are on vacation and good things take time, so smile and relax. You do not have to do or be anywhere at a certain time or carry around any expectation of such. Be Mindful and enjoy the Journey.

Here are a couple travel quotes from one of our favorite bears.

“Sometimes if I am going Somewhere and I wait, Somewhere comes to me.”

Winnie the Pooh (Rubiano, B., 2018, pg.20)

“The Best Path is not always the most obvious one.”

Winnie the Pooh (Rubiano, B., 2018, pg.23)

“Doing nothing often leads to the very best of Something.”

Winnie the Pooh (Rubiano, B., 2018, pg.28)

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References:

Rubiano, B. and Wall, M. (2018) Christopher Robin The Little Book of Pooh-isms, Disney Enterprise, Inc.