Phuket, Thailand
Circling the globe largely feels fun and freeing.
Most love the feeling of being on vacation.
But travel-related anxiety often scares people away from enjoying experiences gained while circling the globe.
The thrill of seeing wild toucans in Panama….
The peace of laying on a secluded beach in Thailand…
The jaw-dropping beauty of a city like Prague….
Conquering your fears helps you to have a blast in these places, to be fascinated, to feel fulfilled or just to soak up some much-needed R and R on a tropical beach somewhere. Or, to race yachts in the Anadman Sea off the coast of Phuket, as I did per the featured image above.
I admit to being a fairly anxious traveler during my first trip from USA to Bali in 2011.
I was so green that I feared not being able to communicate with folks in places like Thailand. Did they speak English there? How did you get through the airport? What was the gate order? Did they have taxis in a place like Bali? How would I buy food? Did they sell what I typically ate in New Jersey?
I worried about these things because traveling abroad was an entirely new concept to me. My friends and fam rarely if ever visited foreign lands. Few relayed much of anything to me.
Anywhere outside of US soil was basically alien land, to me at least.
Naturally, I had some typical fears about traveling to countries outside of the good old USA.
13 years later I am still circling this 3rd rock from the sun as a full time digital nomad.
Getting over my travel-related fears prevented me from running back home after my first few months in Southeast Asia (I believe that most family and friends – if not all – secretly believed I’d scramble back to my native New Jersey in a few months after hitting the road).
Follow the tips below to enjoy the world by getting over your fear of traveling.
Start Training Your Mind
Travel-related fears sit inside of your mind even though most project their fears and blame ’em on the world.
Facing your fear of going to prison in a developing nation or being the victim of international terrorism is the only way to see how these incredibly rare events are utter outliers that only affect the tiniest percentage of tens of millions of travelers.
Start mind training.
This is the most important step because if you run away from travel fears in your head the fears will become increasingly scarier and scarier, keeping you bound to your homeland. You will likely surround yourself with other folks who fear traveling; they will tell ya that traveling is:
- dangerous
- risky
- expensive
- for lucky people
- for rich people
all based on their extensive, rich experience of never traveling.
Basically guys, facing fears in your mind alerts you to the horseshit that other scared minds try to shovel into your mind. They try to convince you to stay afraid – and home – so they don’t have to face their fears by hitting the road. Genius trick, really, but you will laugh at it when you face, feel and look past your travel anxieties, in your head.
For example, I recall folks telling me – home bodies all – to be very careful about potential terrorism before I began circling the globe. Hitting the road and facing, feeling and forgiving this fear led me to the statistic:
- more people are killed by being crushed by their furniture than die from terrorism
Do these couch potatoes sit in front of their TVs in a perpetual cold sweat about the potential risk of death taken when they need to actually move the couch?
No; they do not.
Which is why their fear of dying from international terrorism while traveling abroad is just as silly and even more unlikely.
Mind training is where it’s at.
Consider:
- meditating
- following A Course in MiraclesÂ
as two potential options.
Training your mind reveals that anxiety is fear in your mind. Seeing the fear as being in your mind allows you to take baby steps to work with it, by edging into it, feeling it then looking past it.
Take Baby Steps
Admittedly, my first flight – 23 hours in total from JFK to Bali – did not qualify as a baby step.
But I did take many baby steps by following guidance from a seasoned world traveler as I hit the road abroad for the first time.
My wife Kelli had already visited:
- Japan for 1 year
- Central America for months
- South America for months
- Europe for months
She handled all logistics – and still does – and slowly taught me the in’s and out’s of traveling to quell my anxieties.
Travel near if you feel scared to go far. Ditch the Thailand trip and spend 2 weeks in Mexico as a US citizen.
Cut your traveling teeth by easing into it slowly.
Resist any urge to take a quantum leap. If you fear experiencing culture shock it may be a poor idea to travel from the largely progressive Western world to a country like Qatar or Oman. Being used to seeing and showing a whole lotta skin may make you feel awkward when you trade your tank tops for long sleeved shirts, pants and a shawl to cover your hair and sternum, especially when surrounded by locals who all cover up per their Muslim faith.
Easy does it.
Baby step it.
Research
Doing research on flying gradually allowed me to conquer anxieties about being 36,000 feet in the air up there.
For example, suffering through rare but uncomfortable roller-coaster style dips triggered deep anxieties in my mind. But researching revealed that these dips are typically only 5-10 feet. Since I have never been scared of a 5 foot roller coaster drop I began to take the sudden “stomach in the throat” dips in stride after my due diligence.
Learn about your destination. Research your way around town. Save Google Maps offline. Speak to fellow travelers on Twitter and Facebook. Read travel blogs.
Build confidence and lessen anxiety by doing your homework.
Knowing what to largely expect starves many travel-related anxieties.
But……
….Flow with the Unexpected By Gaining Invaluable Travel Experience
When you are new to traveling and the unexpected arises (and it will) you will almost certainly experience some:
- fear
- panic
- anxiety
- worry
until you get well-beyond popping your travel cherry.
When you gain globe-trotting experience and peel open your mind:
- the unexpected arises from time to time because you are outside of your comfort zone
- your vast travel experience and open mind creates a sense of calm, peace and even amusement at the unexpected
For example, when I flew from London to Saigon the first leg from Luton to Abu Dhabi provided me with:
- unexpected bumpiness in the form of persistent turbulence
- someone vomiting a few rows behind me
My travel experience and open-mindedness helped me largely embrace the bumpy and a lil’ pukey flight gracefully versus doing the close-minded, rookie traveler thing of claiming the flight to be the biggest nightmare.
Travel-themed anxieties arise and vanish with your decision to gain a ton of globe-trotting experience.
Why?
The unexpected tends to happen a lot more often as a world traveler versus when sitting in the illusory bubble and adjoining comfort zone of a routine, home body life.
The downside of the home body life is that when the unexpected arises amid your familiar comfort zone, routines and rituals, this fact of life rocks your world and creates incredible distress in your mind.
Not so for veteran travelers who know not much of familiarity, comfort zones, strict routines and set rituals.
Travel.
Dissolve anxiety.
Develop peace of mind.
Become comfortable with the unexpected.
Conclusion
The only way to travel is to get past travel anxieties in your mind.
Follow the practical tips above.
Hit the road.
Broaden your horizons.
Experience the joys of traveling the world.
