Dealing with downtime in normal life is hard enough. But when you’re traveling, it feels like even more of an imposition. After all, you want to get on with stuff.

That’s where this post can help. It looks at some of the techniques and methods you can use on your travels, and when you should consider employing them. Here’s everything you need to know:

Journal Your Journey

One option is to start journaling on your journey. Reflecting on where you’ve been and what you want to do next is a powerful method for narrating your time overseas and what it fundamentally means to you.

Journaling is a way to remember the experience and your state of mind. Many people travel and then look back at it with rose-tinted glasses, without really understanding how they felt at the time. Journaling changes all this, giving your future self a better perspective.

Journaling is also a powerful tool for taking your mind off any problems you have (including pause-related angst) and diverting it into writing. Putting ideas down on paper can be a highly effective strategy for wholeness and well-being.

Organize Your Photos

In a similar vein, you can organize your photos. Arranging these helps you to make sense of everything you’ve done so far, and what you still need to do to complete the experience.

Photo organization starts with putting everything into albums and adding captions. Then you could curate it for social media posts and use it to tell a story via your Reels and Stories.

Learn Something New

If you have more downtime than you thought you would have, you can also use the time to learn something new. Downloading language apps onto your computer is one option, allowing you to pick up more of the lingo or simply learn basic speech in the next country on your travel list.

When you learn something new, it also takes your mind off the present. You start to see past current limitations and enjoy more possibilities in your life.

It’s also helpful to actually have spare time on your hands that allows you to explore topics more deeply. You can really get into them, instead of having to deal with them in a superficial way, which is such a common occurrence among people who work all the time.

Practice Mindfulness

It’s also a good idea to practice mindfulness, something that’s often forgotten in the hustle and bustle of travel. Focusing on something beyond yourself is a powerful way to feel centered and more at peace, regardless of what might be happening in your life.

Furthermore, being meditative allows you to enjoy travel-related moments more. You can stop, pause, and smell the proverbial roses without thinking about the next flight you have to catch and picking flowers with tour guides.

Practicing mindfulness is something you can do any time when you have a break in your itinerary. It’s something you can do to connect with yourself.

Play A Game

You could also try playing a game to keep yourself entertained. If you’ve stopped darting from one place to another temporarily, spending some time away from that can be helpful.

For example, you could play a word game and then look up the Waffle answer today to see if you got it right. This way, you can hone your skills while also doing things that pass the time quickly.

You could also do a crossword or similar challenge with your fellow travelers if you are with family or a group. This way, you can create new kinds of memories that you don’t get if you stay at home.

Connect With Loved Ones

During downtime, you could also connect with loved ones. Talking to them about how they are getting on back home and sharing updates is an excellent way to spend the time before you move on to your next location.

Connecting with loved ones involves sending postcards or hopping online for a video chat. Obviously, the nature of your communication will depend on the type of travel you’re engaged in. If you want to go out into the middle of nowhere, then access to the internet may be more challenging.

Indulge In Self-Care

Finally, you might want to use downtime while traveling to indulge in self-care. The more you can look after yourself, the better you’ll feel.

Indulging in self-care doesn’t have to be anything complex. It could be as simple as just pampering yourself or going to bed early ready for your next adventure.

How To Deal With Downtime While Traveling