There’s something about the type of travel content we so often see online that feels…..off.
Someone’s always smiling or looking like they’re having the time of their life.
It’s always sunny (or at least feels like it would be sunny). Shades of bright blues and yellows and the kind of vibes you’d put on a happiness campaign.
There have been so many times I’ve flipped through the travel photos of the people I follow and felt such jealousy.
Yes, because they’re traveling- my favorite thing to do. But also because they just seem so happy.
And I get it, travel creators (or most of them, at least) make their content with one of two goals.
- To show off their lifestyle, their adventures, their cool experiences. A well-deserved flex, which I think shows the human in all of us. No shame, I promise.
- To inspire others to want to travel too.
As someone who has quite literally wanted to travel the world and make travel-related content since about middle school, I truly understand both of these goals.
And of course, if you’re trying to achieve either of these goals, knowingly or not, you want things to LOOK good.
If you’re trying to inspire others to do the things you’re doing, you don’t want to come across as someone whose experiences are less than breathtaking.
But there’s a problem with this style of content creation, and with these goals overall-they’re not realistic.
Like I said at the beginning, I’ve spent so much time looking through creators’ travel photos and feeling nothing but jealousy and low self-esteem.
And those feelings have stayed with me into my trips. This translates to feeling like I’m doing something wrong if I’m not enjoying myself on a trip for even a minute.
Which brings me to another thing I think we need to discuss..
Mental health and travel
Both Will and I (Kailey) have and do struggle with our mental health. We’ve both had bad bouts of anxiety and depression, and we both have ADHD that affects our lives on a daily basis.
In a perfect world, travel would make these struggles cease to exist, right? Something as amazing as getting to see new places and experience new cultures should surely cheer us up!
But if you’re here reading this, I’m going to assume you’re at least a little familiar with how certain mental health conditions behave and how no matter how amazing your situation is, a bad mood or a burst of anxiety can still pop up at any moment.
The whole point of me writing any of this is because I know we aren’t the only ones who experience it, and I want it to be known that it’s okay.
You can love travel with all your heart and still occasionally feel overwhelmed by new things.
You’re allowed to care about eating local but only have the mental energy to go through the McDonald’s drive-thru one night.
You can look forward to a trip for months and still feel ‘meh’ about it when you get there.
Mental health is a messy beast that so many people struggle with, including us and maybe including you.
So if you’re feeling any sense of guilt for not being at your best while traveling, let this be the point where you let that go.
Mental health and travel is not talked about enough, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t something that needs to be talked about.
We promise to be honest
We want to use our content to genuinely help you. There are a million other travel bloggers out there showing you the same type of content as each other. But we want to be different.
We want to show you not only the good sides of travel (of which there are many) but also the real side of things.
The hard days. The lack of sleep. The nights where we have no mental energy left in us.
The days at Disney World where we have to go back to the room for a nap.
We want you to see it all, because it’s all reality. And travel is more than a highlight reel, trust me.
Tips we’ve learned for handling mental health while traveling
We haven’t figured out everything, and we likely never will. But the more we travel and the more we get to know our own needs, the better we’ve gotten at accounting for the struggles.
Here are a few of our best tips regarding mental health and travel. (we will update this as we get more!)
Figure out your pain points & plan for them. If you know when your mental health tends to take a nose dive in a trip, you can plan accordingly. I noticed after a few trips that my first night in a new location always caused me anxiety. So now on our trips, I like to make sure our first night is as casual and open as possible, in case I need to just chill in my comfort zone.
Be honest with yourself about your limits. There’s of course something beautiful that happens when we step out of our comfort zones. But there’s also a point that can come where we’re pushing ourselves into the danger zone. So if, for example, you get anxious around large crowds, make sure that your whole trip isn’t overwhelmed with large crowds all day every day.
Give yourself a cushion. By this, I mean leave some room for things to not go perfectly. Leave some time open each day in case you need to decompress. Pack yourself some comfort items you can rely on. When you intentionally make room for yourself to just be, it tells your brain that it’s okay to not be or feel perfect. And that’s BIG.
Travel is good for your mind.
While I don’t know your specific situation, I do know that travel has the power to heal.
It can teach us things about ourselves, it can give us a feeling of purpose. It can provide us with community. New experiences are so amazing for our brains.
So I wanted to end things by saying that while your mental health may not drastically improve once you leave home, don’t let that stop you from traveling.
Go out, find things that fill you with joy and passion and purpose. Meet new people and get to know yourself.
And promise me you’ll give yourself grace.
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