Five Things You Can Do To Help Deal With The Stress of Long Haul Trips

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

Long Haul Trips on aircraft, trains or buses can really challenge a person's ability to cope and deal with travel stress. Have you noticed the number of irate people who travel these days? There are five things you can try to help you cope with traveling on long haul trips so that you are not another statistic of being an irate passenger.

#1. Do Not Drink Alcohol

The number one cause for people getting stressed during long haul trips is alcohol, in particular with air travel. Look I like a good drink like the next person, but alcohol has a tendency to change a perfectly sane and calm person into a raving lunatic. Just look at the number of airline shows that you see on television with people behaving badly.

If you are taking a long haul trip on an aircraft, I recommend that you limit your alcohol as when flying at height the affects of alcohol are in fact multiplied. Personally, I discourage all of my staff from drinking whilst flying to avoid travel rage.

#2. Make Sure That You Drink Lots Of Water

Have you ever had a headache come on? Often this can be because you have not drunk enough water especially when you are working in air-conditioning. Just because you are working or traveling in air-conditioning you can still dehydrate which can cause aches and pains and in particular headaches. By ensuring that you drink lots of water during your trip, it will ensure the aches and pains will not exacerbate your travel stress.

When going on long haul flights I always ensure that I carry a 1 litre bottle of water and a small 300 ml bottle of water with me, so that I can stay hydrated especially if the airline charges for water like some of the discount ones. I carry the 300 ml bottle of water so that you can fill your 1 litre bottle in the bathroom because quite often it will not fit under the tap in the sink in the toilet.

#3. Make Sure You Walk Around the Cabin Once An Hour

Nobody likes to be cooped up especially in a confined space and your body does not like it. There are studies throughout the globe, showing that people who sit in the one position on a long haul flight may have the risk of contracting Deep Vein Thrombosis. Having seen my grandmother go through this disease because she did not do the right thing whilst traveling on a train for 24 hours, I strongly encourage everyone to make sure that each hour you get up and walk the cabin.

Walking does two things, one it allows you to stretch your legs and get the blood flowing through your veins and secondly the exercise helps you to produce alpha waves or calmness waves in your head which will in turn help you to beat the travel blues.

#4. Listen To Relaxation Music

Listening to music is a fantastic way to reduce stress and with IPODs and cheap CD players it has never been easier. However, a word of warning, you need to choose music that is not going to stimulate stress. Some music is not really suitable for stressful situations as it can in fact amplify the feeling of stress.

One type of music, which research has shown to help reduce stress is Baroque music. This music is written so that there are only 60 beats per minute and funnily enough that is what our heart rate should be. The baroque music has been found to increase the alpha waves in the left and right sides of your brain and this helps improve learning ability, creativity and calmness.

#5. Meditate

Okay, I can hear it now, "Oh Yeah Hippy, Want Us to Meditate do ya?" Absolutely! Look whilst meditation has certainly been a thing of fringe groups in western society or associated with eastern religions many researchers are now coming to the distinct conclusion that meditation can make a huge difference to our day-to-day lives and help us to overcome stress, especially while traveling. Look, why not try out meditation for just 20 minutes a day. It is a fantastic tool and when you become proficient in the art you will find that moving to a start of calm is really easy.

There are many different techniques to help you meditate and I certainly recommend meditating using Baroque music as we have found that it helps the person meditating get to that point of peace a lot quicker than other types of meditation music.

The bottom line is this. I have traveled many hundreds of thousands of kilometers across the globe and many people ask me why I travel so well and the simple secret to it is, I follow the five things I outlined before. Apart from that, when dealing with airline staff, if you are not absolutely calm and extremely polite and gracious they could send your baggage to Timbuktu and make you wait a day or two in the airport lounge before they will help you get to where you want to go. Maintaining your composure whilst traveling will also help your health and help you to enjoy your trip. I love traveling because I get to see the world and see the wonderful things it has to offer. Why be stressed when you are there?

To finish off this article let me reiterate the five things you can try to reduce your stress when traveling on long haul flights:

#1. Do Not Drink Alcohol
#2. Make Sure That You Drink Lots Of Water
#3. Make Sure You Walk Around the Cabin Once An Hour
#4. Listen To Relaxation Music
#5. Meditate