The cabin attendant’s cheery voice breaks the whirring quiet: “please fasten your seatbelts in preparation for landing”. You can see the veins of your city below, the home you haven’t seen for weeks, months, or years.
The problem is, you’re not feeling all cheery, serene or enriched from your travel experience anymore. You’ve missed your family and friends, but that unshakeable feeling of post-travel blues is sinking in.
You know the symptoms, so here are some tried and tested remedies from our well-trodden travel community.
1. Start planning your next trip
“But you’ve only just got home. Don’t you like it here any more?”
If the answer is no, give yourself time for our other cures to kick in; but even if it’s yes, giving yourself something to look forward to will help keep you on a happy level. Get all gooey eyed over leafing through National Geographic, and poring over Brazil travel blogs. Let yourself get excited about the pre-pre-planning stage and this will inspire you to save up and do it all over again.
2. Learn to accept change, or lack of it
OK, so this isn’t a quick fix, or easy to come to terms with. You may have to accept that your true home now is being surrounded by the unknown. Typically, if you’ve just returned from a big trip, you’ll feel like you’ve moved in a circle right back to where you started, and after a series of mind-blowing adventures, this isn’t ideal. Your old bedroom, familiar routines and peoples’ annoying habits are magnified – but trust us, you’re not alone, and you can still make room for the familiar and comfortable until your next big overseas challenge.
3. Talk to people
This leads us onto the next biggie – talk to your home friends, talk to your travel buddies, and talk to strangers on travel forums who probably feel just like you. It’s easy to think you’ll alienate people by telling them about your experiences, or feel alienated by how different your life has become, but these stories can bring you closer to the people you know and love. If you can strike the right balance between sharing, and re-connecting with what your friends have been up to (even if it involves a pay rise rather than living with a community in rural India), this will help you to find your roots again without anchoring yourself too firmly!
4. Create montages and murals for your memories
When you’re all talked out with travel energy still left to channel, go forth and make art. Print out a bunch of your favourite photos and make a collage, collect together meaningful tickets, receipts, boarding passes and letters from your time on the road, and finally throw together that playlist which will make up the soundtrack to your trip.
5. Re-discover your home town
Whilst travelling, you hone a whole new skillset, developing your curiosity about the world around you and independent thinking. Use your new outlook and freshened senses to re-discover where you live, or find new cool events, things to do and local hangouts. Take travel photos like you’ll only visit once, and surprise yourself and others with spontaneity. Not only will this help sate your sense of adventure, but it will also add new elements into your familiar routine, and your friends will love you for it.
Feeling bluesy or got a tip or two for those who are? Why not share your remedies in the comments below, or through #SayHItoHappy
