Returning from a long-term travel experience can come with a lot of ups and downs. On the one hand, you’re so excited to be home with family, and on the other, you’re dealing with post trip depression.
To keep from going off the rails, think of things to get excited about:
- Reuniting with family and friends
- Hitting up your favorite hometown hotspots
- Re-entering a world where high-speed internet
- Peanut butter & jelly
- Indoor plumbing
But after the exhilaration of being on the road and going wherever you please, it can also be tough to adjust to certain facets of the workaday world:
- Fitting back into a workplace hierarchy
- Sticking to a fixed routine
- Living in a place where you pretty much know what’s around every corner
So how can a high-flying Go! Girl gracefully put her feet back on familiar ground?
Tips to Beat Post Trip Depression
1. Save a Chunk of Change
Part of your travel fund should include money to help pad your re-entry to home.
Whether you save enough for a month’s rent or a few tanks of gas, reserving some savings for when you return preserves your freedom and independence – and helps ward off post trip depression, but if you suffer of depression once you come back exist very good depression therapy and treatment that can help to feel good.
Plus, making a few simple, strategic purchases can really reinforce the pleasures of having a home base.
Stock up on your favorite snacks that you couldn’t get while you were traveling. Splurge on a massage for those sore backpacking shoulders and well-wandered feet. Or just buy a new book or magazine to enjoy on your very own couch.
Of course money can’t buy happiness, but it can provide a needed cushion when you’re coming in for a landing.
And savings can buy one thing that’s crucial to roadie recovery: time.
2. Take Some Down Time
You might be tempted to ask, “Are you really recommending more time for yourself after taking loads of time off to travel?” Absolutely!
Far from frivolous, allowing yourself a period to just be at home and take a breather is a key component to any well-planned trip. After all, the joys and excitement of travel use up a lot of energy.
Being on the road is tiring physically and mentally. Give yourself the chance to recover and have some down time.
Eat well, get plenty of sleep, and simply relax for a bit before rushing frantically back into the fray of the workaday world, you can try CBD oil to reduce anxiety and depression, take a look to full review and the benefits of it.
3. Return & Reflect
Even though you’ve come back to the same city, town or country where you started, the experiences you’ve had traveling will definitely put you in a new place in your life.
You may be returning to a set situation or a totally blank slate, but there are always questions to consider:
- Are you itching to get on the road again, or are you looking forward to settling in for a while?
- Do you want to pick up the same job or field you had before you left, or are you ready to make a change professionally?
- Are you psyched to be back in your hometown, or is your travel transition a perfect opportunity to start life in a new city?
It may take a few days, weeks, or even months to figure out how travel has changed you and your priorities.
It’s not about making the correct decision, because there isn’t one! Don’t stress. Just give yourself a chance to mull over your experiences, your options, and the possibilities that sound best to you and enjoy the process of pursuing them step-by-step.
4. Connect Yourself
Ok, you’ve paused for reflection and pampered yourself a bit.
Now it’s time to get back into the routine of work, school or whatever regularities are part of your life at home.
This might mean trading in your backpack for a briefcase and your hiking boots for heels. But as you put your professional face back on, don’t think that discarding the trappings of travel make you any less of an adventurer.
Remember, once a Go! Girl, always a Go! Girl!
Your travel-self and your home-self might seem like two totally different people, but it’s only the circumstances that have changed.
It may be that the girl currently answering the office phone is the same girl who trekked through the Thai jungle. Or maybe the lady currently hanging out in Bio Lab is the same chick who went hang-gliding over Rio.
Respect your inner Go! Girl by remembering that all the instincts for adventure, independence and a desire to explore your world will always be a part of your make-up.
When you’re back at home, don’t sweep those parts of yourself under the rug!
Continue to draw inspiration at home from your memories of travels past and your dreams of trips yet to come.
While taking the broad and appreciative perspective on yourself and your travels is an internal process, there are plenty of tangible ways to help strengthen those connections!
5. Frame some of your favorite travel photos
Weave ’em in with your other albums or the snapshots already on your shelves at home. Print out a few different Mixtiles and put them all over your wall as a constant reminder of where you’ve been and where you want to go.
6. Keep a Journal
Did you keep a travel journal? Keep a post-travel journal to record all the insights that travel has given you into daily life.
7. Get in Touch with Your Travel Friends
But be careful about this. It can be even harder to disconnect if you never really hang up the phone. I’ve made the mistake of having nightly Skype calls with my friends in New Zealand after I returned home, but all it did was keep me stuck in the past instead of moving forward.
Some days the things you gained and lessons you learned while traveling are going to seem amazingly obvious and incredibly abundant.
Other days it might be tough to recall just how you accomplished particular adventures or had the nerve to go away in the first place. Post trip depression is real and nothing to be ashamed of.
Just remember that the time you take to explore the world and broaden your perspective is a personal resource you can always call on.
When you delve into those new aspects of yourself, I think you’ll find that life is richer, days are fresher and your self-assurance stronger no matter where you are and what you’re up to.
So here’s to home: not the final, but a fantastic, frontier. Enjoy this next adventure.
