There are two kinds of people when it comes to airports. Normal people who want to get to the airport at least 3 hours early and the time-deluded who insist on getting there with no time to spare, banking on absolutely zero things going wrong. You can guess by that wording which camp I’m in.
While my husband and I are pretty simpatico on most things, we are not when it comes to airports. So, what do you do if you’re the sane person in the relationship and you want to keep your sanity in the face of chaos? Here are the four things I do to help me cope:
Relinquish things you can’t control. Yes, I know, this is so much easier said than done. But I find that simply repeating to myself out loud those things that I don’t have control over (I don’t control my husband’s reactions to things; I don’t control traffic or the weather) helps me to compartmentalize them and then put them away so that I don’t fixate and ruminate on them.
Spend time doing things you can control. This anxiety I feel is absolutely about control. If there are things I can control, I can spend time doing those things. I like to pack ahead of time and make lists of those things I absolutely can’t do without (medicine, wallet, passport). Everything else can be purchased or obtained at my destination. I like to pack a spare set of clothes in my backpack carryon so that even if my checked luggage is lost or delayed, I’ll have some clothes to rely on. And I try to pack things to do when traveling (make sure I’ve downloaded games on my phone or audiobooks to listen to).
Focus on the fun things you’re traveling to. Traveling is a miniscule part of your trip. Once I’ve put away the things I’m worrying about, I can focus on the things that I’ll be having fun doing once the travel is out of the way. I love looking at Yelp photos of nice restaurants that we’re going to, and I love doing Google research of the activities we’re doing and the areas that we’ll be visiting.
Get a good night’s sleep. If I’ve done the things above ahead of time, I’ll have less on my mind to worry about. I try not to think too much about the anxiety, and I always have a few images that I play over in my head when I close my eyes, like a beautiful field of lavender. I focus on the exact smells of the lavender and the exact light and time of day. Meticulously filling out that scene is usually enough to get me to relax and fall asleep.
After that, the traveling will be over before you know it. Speaking of trips, I’m going on one myself soon, so I may be blogging a lot more sporadically than once a day. After that trip is over, I’ll be back on my regular posting schedule.
Happy travels!
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