3 Tips to Take Your Habits Traveling
These are three tips focused on prioritizing habits when things are in flux, when traveling, staying at a friend’s house, on the road, in transition. It’s what I learned by flying to Mexico without a plan, not knowing if I would be living in one place or moving around, have a kitchen for myself or not, be by the ocean or inland.
- Do what is easy: What habits are naturally supported by your current situation?
For example, when traveling in a foreign country, it is often recommended not to be out after dark alone. So when I travel alone, it is really natural for me to eat early and go to bed early because it is not the best time for me to be out exploring. This also sets me up to rise early and start the day right, which I LOVE in general, but especially in a celebratory/party culture like Mexico and in a hot country. To be up early seeing the city as a totally different place, see who is out working at this time, enjoy the cool air – it is when I realized that running would totally be a great thing for me here and there is a huge community of people that are running and walking on the beach in the morning. What’s the ‘low hanging fruit’ for you when you are traveling?
- Do what is necessary: Which habits do you really miss when you don’t have them, likely the ones that set your trajectory away from how you want to feel.
I realized after a day or two how necessary it was for me to have some hot water to drink in the morning to help clear the channels. I didn’t know how to source this, but it came up as very important for me to have the best day. I thought of buying a thermos but instead moved into a place with a kitchen, which solves the challenge for now! Recognizing that some habits that are so easy to have happen at home are still very much worth the payoff of the extra effort and perhaps extra expense. Maybe there are certain foods, types of movements, quiet spaces, or little luxury items that are worth carrying around. I brought a light sleeping bag, which seems silly in a hot beach town but it was so nice for the a/c on the plane here and will be for other bus rides!
- Leverage the opportunity to learn and uplevel from the challenge: These experiences give us the opportunity to adapt, to grow, and to learn in a new context that we don’t get when we dial in a system and only use that system. This is true in many aspects and maybe one of the reasons you are away from home in the first place. Leverage it with your habits and your own personal evolution.
For me, here and now, it is giving me the opportunity to experiment with food. I had it dialed in that I like oatmeal with some toppings, I can feel it when it is time to switch them up, and I like a black or spicy chai with it. I hate paying for oatmeal at restaurants so it is giving me the opportunity to try something else. Longer fasting times, fruit in the morning, two meals a day rather than three. I was so patterned into my craving for oatmeal in the mornings at home. It was really challenging to get out of that. It’s easy here, easier than eating it most days! Having habits that support us is an adventure in refinement and evolution. We can get focused on the perfection of it or the attachment to what has worked for some time and accepting the challenge of wanting to be on the road and feel good is a wonderful way to embrace the adventure, and it has the potential for huge payoffs! Happy adventuring!
