Even the best trips come with moments of stress—delays or missed connections, wrong turns, or simply navigating a new culture. There is only so much preparation you can do for unforeseen stressors, so what do you do in the moment to immediately reduce stress? This article highlights stress-relief strategies every traveler can benefit from in 20 minutes or less.
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The Benefits of Travel Stress
Stress can be a powerful motivator and add that pressure to accelerate events and make things happen. By embracing butterflies and sweaty palms as excitement rather than fear you are shifting the stress into something positive.
Sometimes it may show up as fun type 2 – an experience that felt horrible or difficult at the time, but you are later proud of yourself for doing. Diving so far out of your element and comfort zone can be delightfully gratifying.
Travel stress can offer tremendous learning experiences in self-growth, resiliency, and grit.
It can invite creative out of the box thinking, boost decisiveness and even offer clarity.
Stressful travel situations can bond people together and strengthen relationships in a unique and beautiful way.
Maybe that little spook, gives you that extra little fire in your step, getting your adrenaline going.
Types of Stress
The American Psychological Association identifies three types of stress: Chronic, Acute, and Episodic Acute stress. Here I have also provided some additional types commonly observed and experienced while traveling.
Chronic Stress:
This is an unrelenting and ongoing stress in life. On a global scale there is collective stress caused by racism, racial injustice, climatic catastrophes, wars and conflict, inflation, social media… On a personal level it can be due to circumstances like an unhappy marriage, divorce, caregiving, financial pressure, or feeling burnout from work. The CDC reports that travel can also exacerbate mental health conditions and worsen symptoms without proper care. Consulting with a licensed medical professional prior to traveling is the best way to ensure a positive travel experience.
Nevertheless, travel has copious benefits that can uplift the human spirit.
It can inspire, reshape your perspective, provide escape and relaxation. The planning and anticipation for a trip has also been shown to elevate mood and reduce stress. A trip doesn’t have to be across the world or be expensive to experience the benefits. Travel curiosity can feel fulfilled by branching, trying new things, and exploring new places in your home region.
Acute Stress:
This short-term stress is attributed to specific situations.
Acute stress could be sparked from an unexpected travel experience, a traffic jam, an argument with your travel companion, losing your phone, or a mock charge by an elephant (trust me on this one).
Once the situation passes, the stress associated with the situation usually passes.
Episodic Acute Stress:
When someone frequently experiences acute stress episodes.
Travelers that are chaotically rushing from one place to the next and fall into a string of “bad luck” (think injury, theft, missed connections… one after the next). Sufferers may interpret situations as crises or in catastrophic ways. Travelers with episodic acute stress can also struggle with interpersonal relationships and emotional regulation, coming across as irritable or anxious and being in a state of urgency.
If you as a traveler notice a sequence of events that haven’t worked out the way that you hoped, take a pause. Slow down and reassess. Is there a commonality? Could it be cultural misunderstandings? Expectations? Your own behavioral patterns and your mindset, body or speech? And how can you change these to move forward?
Physical Stress:
Physical stress is when your body is under duress.
This can come from jetlag, poor sleep, overexertion from a long day of hiking or city walking, acute injuries, or even irregular eating habits. Symptoms like constipation or Delhi Belly can also put your body under physical stress and in turn affect your mood.
There are a number of developing studies showing that emotional stress is being held in various points in the body like the hips or the digestive track. Mood and aches may be correlated.
Environmental Stress:
Environmental stress is stress that comes from situations you can’t control in the surrounding areas.
Noise and light pollution, overstimulation, overcrowded spaces, poor air quality, pungent smells, or extreme heat conditions are all examples of environmental stress. It can feel like an assault of your senses.
There are awesome and popular travel destinations known to invite environmental stress into a traveler’s life such as: NYC, Ho Chi Minh, and Mumbai.
Emotional Stress:
Emotional stress comes from emotions like fear, sadness, anger or frustration.
These can pop up when travelers are out of the routines and immersed in the unfamiliar. Maybe it’s nerves about taking your first flight, being in a new environment and not knowing the language, feeling angry if your luggage gets lost, fears of being scammed or robbed, or feelings of homesickness and loneliness. There are some ways to emotionally prepare for your trip, but also acknowledge that unsuspecting things will come up as well.
Psychological Stress:
Psychological stress is directly related to our perceptions, mindset, and attitudes.
How you perceive a situation from one day to the next is largely based on your state of mind.
For example, your flight is delayed…
Do you dwell in that frenzied state, because you may lose a few hours at your destination and get angry with the woman working at the airline counter?
OR
Do you take a deep breath, knowing you have zero control of the situation, grab a snack, and settle in to read your new book and start your vacation now?
Signs of Travel Stress
Our bodies show signs of stress in different ways and each person can experience stress differently at different times. If you notice several of these symptoms while traveling, consider whether the root cause could be stress of some kind or possibly travel burnout.
Physical Signs of Stress
- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- Tightness in chest
- Nausea, cramps, or digestive issues like constipation or diarrhea
- Sweating
- Fidgeting or feeling restless
- Feeling numb or brain fog
- Clenched jaw or muscles
- Headaches or dizziness
- Shaking
- Ear ringing such as Tinnitus
- Physical exhaustion
- Skin rashes, hives and breakouts
Mental and Emotional Signs of Travel Stress
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Short-tempered or irritable
- Feelings of self-consciousness or judgment by others
- Reduced awareness around you
- Difficulty concentrating
- Jumpiness or startling easily
- Sadness
- Fear
- Loneliness
- Depression
- Panic attacks
- Anxiety
The Stress Cycle
There are three phases of the stress cycle.
The first is the alarm itself. This triggers the fight or flight anxious energy triggered by the complex adrenaline and cortisol hormones released into your system when stressed. When your body feels like it is buzzing with electricity.
The second step is the expending of that energy. This is crucial for moving on.
The third state is exhaustion. Once you have released that energy, taking the time to relax and decompress will help you get back on your feet again.
20+ Quick & Effective Ways to Reduce Travel Stress
These 20-minute exercises listed below will not solve the underlying issues dealing with chronic stress, but as daily self-care exercises, they can help with reducing blood pressure and coping with situations better.
When travel complications arise, addressing them swiftly, head on is the best way to overcome them and get back to enjoying your adventure.
For Energy Release:
1. High-Intensity Cardio
This is an effective way to burn off stress with activities like running, jumping jacks, pushups, swimming, or a fast yoga flow. Concentrating on how you move your body can also provide a great distraction from the problems at hand. Here are 31 ways to get your body moving while traveling to burn of some extra energy
2. Take a Run, Brisk Walk, or Hike
Put some power into your stride and reset your mood and clear your mind. As you expend energy, you increase lovely endorphins by getting oxygen and blood flowing through your body.
3. Dance
Play a great upbeat song and dance it out. Have fun and move your body, how it feels good to you.
4. Listen to Your Shift Music
What’s your go-to song or artist for turning your mood around? Create a playlist to shift your energy. Having a few different playlists for different types of energy is a great way to set yourself up for when you need that flip.
5. Cold Water Therapy
Run cold water over your wrists for 30 seconds, plunge into a fresh lake, OR take a quick cold shower to shock your system and reduce stress.
6. Find a Green or Blue Space and Sunshine
When there is a lot of environmental stress, finding a haven in nature—whether it’s a park, garden, or near water—will reduce stress naturally.
7. Call Someone You Trust
Reach out to a friend, family member, travel coach, or therapist. Sometimes talking it out is all you need to recenter, regain perspective or have confirmation of your feelings like “damn, that really sucks.”
8. Expressive Writing
Vent your feelings on paper. Get it all out. All the frustration or anger whether it is furiously typing away or digging a pencil into paper. This writing is just for you.
This is not meant to be sent as an email, WhatsApp message, or a nasty review on TripAdvisor. This is for you to process all your emotions, get them out, and then rationally solve them later.
9. Three Good Things
Gratitude practice helps refocus on positivity.
In times of stress, this can feel difficult to harness, but by running through three (or more) good things that happened today, this week, in your life, or on this trip, it will help you rewire your mindset and remind you that bad things may happen, but there is good in your world too.
10. Eat Something Fresh and Crunchy
Grab an apple, carrot, or celery. The act of chewing helps release tension, while fiber-filled snacks keep you satisfied and are healthier preferences than easy grabbing convenience foods, ice cream, chips, and greasy takeaways. If you are looking for something salty, throw some nuts into the mix as well.
11. Eat Chocolate
The darker the better. Chocolate promotes happiness and feel-good endorphins. Rather than blindly shoveling handfuls of M&M’s from that 1kg duty free shop bag, splurge a little for that special treat, slow down and savor it to get the full satisfaction and pleasure from it.
12. Have a Cathartic Cry
Tears are an incredible release. Don’t let them build up pressure in the backs of your eyes. Let them flow. It is known to be self-soothing and to restore emotional balance.
Two uplifting go-to youtube videos under 4 minutes that get the tears flowing every time are: Christian the Lion and the Porcupine Christmas Commercial.
13. Have a Liberating Laugh
Laughter is the best medicine. Try to find the humor in the situation, chat with a friend who turns your moods around, watch something online that makes you giggle, and if that doesn’t work you can try simulated laughter like laugh yoga.
14. Yell into a Pillow
Scream out your frustration without judgment. Better to yell into a pillow than at your travel companion or at an unsuspecting employee just doing their job.
15. Positive Self Talk
We all need reminders of our strengths and capabilities, of how far we’ve come especially on hard days. Let go of the negative self-talk creeping in and build yourself back up. You wouldn’t trash a best friend like that, would you? Of course not, so don’t do it to yourself.
16. Stop and Breathe
Focus on your breathing, and re-center. Box or Square breathing is an easy and helpful practice to remember. And the best part is that it can be done anywhere at any time.
Breathe in 4 seconds
Hold 4 seconds
Exhale 4 seconds
Relax 4 seconds
And repeat.
You can also close your eyes and rest one on your chest and one of your belly to feel more connected to your breathing.
17. A Simple Act of Kindness
By doing something kind for someone else, your brain releases oxytocin, a feel-good chemical. This act can divert your attention away from your own troubles and promote more social connectivity (good if you are lonely or homesick) and a positivity loop. So, if you are feeling the effects of travel stress look around you for someone who is also struggling and offer them help or comfort, uplifting both yourself and the receiver.
Once you have released that travel stress from your body, here are some methods to help your mind and body recover and ease into a calmer state.
For Relaxation: Soothing Stress Relief Techniques
The following exercises are good once that excess stress energy has been released and these can be incorporated in the exhaustion and recovery stage of the stress cycle.
18. Hot Shower
Unlike the cold water plunge, warm water soothes your tensed muscles and relaxes your mind.
19. Yoga & Gentle Movements
Practice a few gentle yoga poses or stretches, no yoga mat necessary. Do them in bed, on the beach, in the grass. These poses are beneficial for releasing stress and relaxing: Child’s pose, cat, cow, spinal twist, standing forward bend, down dog, and shavasana or corpse pose.
20. Sensory Relaxation
21. Massage (Self or with a Massage Therapist)
Apply pressure to your temples, neck, or shoulders to release muscle tension.
Rub the space where your brows furrow up and outward along your brow line.
Relax your jaw and move your fingers from the edges of your mouth up and out toward your temples.
The soles of your feet also hold a lot of tension, so give your tootsies some love. After walking all day, they will be happy.
22. Breathing (again).
This pranayama breathing technique is helpful for both reducing stress and falling asleep.
Inhale for 4 counts.
Hold for 7 counts.
Exhale for 8 counts
Repeat.
23. Meditation
Whether you are using an app with guided meditation, mindful movement and breathing, or sitting in a quiet space and allowing your thoughts to pause for the moment, whichever method you choose, taking the time to meditate to lower your heart rate.
24. Take a Nap
Poor sleep is a common cause of travel stress. Sleep patterns can easily get thrown off with jetlag, a springy mattress, or a snoring dorm mate. Take a 30-90 minute cat nap and awake more relaxed and recharged.
25. Progressive Relaxation
Tighten and release different muscle groups, working from your head to your toes. When you are stressed, your muscles constrict, this conscious contraction brings awareness to where you are holding your stress and discomfort.
26. Imagery
Picture the best thing you’ve experienced on your trip so far or what you are looking forward to. Find something that warms your heart and makes you smile. What does it look like? What do you hear, smell, or feel? Hold onto that sensory memory.
27. Reflective Journaling
Unlike the ranting journal entry from earlier, this is a good practice to settle in and reflect on how you would handle the situation differently as well as highlight the good things that came from the day, no matter how small. By focusing on the learning aspects and shifting into the positive mindset, it will help give this day closure and set you up well for the next.
This downloadable Travel Journal is a quick and easy way to track events, moods and mindset while traveling also to find any patterns that are causing travel stress.
Was there a specific event that caused this?
Do I have any control over it?
What can I learn from this?
How can I let this go?
Behavioral Symptoms & Negative Stress Coping Mechanisms to Try to Avoid
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Smoking and chain smoking
- Drug abuse
- Comfort eating or binge eating
- Biting lips or nails
- Driving fast and aggressively
- Reckless behavior
- Frivolous spending
- Isolating yourself
- Avoidance sleeping
- Escaping into social media, gaming, Netflix…
- Anger outbursts
- Panicking
- Being argumentative
- Negative self-talk
- Suppressing your feelings
As a travel and mindset coach, I understand that every trip comes with its share of stressors. I get it, I’ve been there. By equipping yourself with these positive coping mechanisms, becoming aware of your negative crutches, understanding the types, signs, and cycles of stress, you’ll not only navigate travel challenges more smoothly but also embrace the adventure with a resilient mindset.
Allow yourself to be open to new experiences, people, and places with a sense of calm and readiness. And when unexpected travel stress arrives, welcome it as a motivator. Embrace the challenges, because you might just find that these moments lead to some of your best travel memories. With the right mindset, even stress can transform into an opportunity for growth, friendship, and adventure.
