How to Stay Balanced While Travelling
Ayurvedic Wellness Tips for Travel
Yesterday I was India, today I am in Italy.
Wild… and how crazy. It still amazes me how much life has changed from a couple hundred years ago.
My ancestors would never have been able to do this on horseback (I’m a magyar), and until teleporting is invented I think travelling will always be discombobulating… or maybe we will arrive without a head and forget about it. Problem solved.
Last night I woke up in the middle of night confused as to where I was… in my delirious, semi conscious state I thought I was still in India, but the bed was softer, no dogs were barking and someone was sleeping beside me… yikes! Oh ya, my husband picked me up from the airport and I am now in the country of gelato.
It takes time for our mind and body to catch up. Travel is stressful and it’s hard on our bodies. Excess movement and stimulation, lack of sleep, late nights all increase vata. When vata goes up we can feel ungrounded, get dry skin/eyes and wrinkles, feel anxious, have sleep issues and suffer with weak digestion. We may have left feeling like a globe trotting superstar but we arrive feeling like we just emerged from a crypt.
Travel is rough, especially these days when the power hungry security guard stares you down like you are a child who has stolen candy in their bag or their shoe or their belt or their watch or their cellphone. And if you got through that you have to sit on a plane in a seat made for miniature elves. They make you feel like travel is so glamorous when you walk through the duty free, but what they don’t talk about is when you have to sit beside a person (for 8+ hours) who believed all the ads and bathed in Gucci Cologne just to prove how fancy they are. Wheewwwy.
So how can we show up less haggard?
Travel Tips
A week before:
First we need to get the packing out of the way.
I make a list of everything I need and then I pack a week ahead of time. I put everything in my suitcase and then just let my mind reflect on it in the backdrop of the week to see if there is anything I need to add or take away. It keeps stress down, packing pressure less and this way I never forget anything.
I choose items that have multiple uses and can be used in more than one situation; this reduces the amount of items I need.
If it’s not comfortable don’t bring it.
Avoid bringing anything you would be totally upset with if you lost. I dont travel with anything expensive because who wants to worry about protecting it.
As long as you have your passport, your wallet, your phone you’re golden, relax; the rest you can get if you really need to.
Now your bags are packed, you’re getting ready to go.
Before the flight:
For flight prep I do a warm oil massage, whole body, including the head and feet. I massage with downward strokes and then let it soak in for about 15 minutes. I have a warm shower and dry my hair. I will put rasnadi powder on my crown chakra point to prevent stagnation or a head cold.
During travel/on the flight:
While I am travelling I follow certain protocol the best I can (without stress or major inconvenience):
I choose only warm, light, cooked foods. I do not eat anything raw, dried, crunchy or very heavy. Our digestive fire gets weak when we travel and if we eat too much or too heavy than we can suffer from constipation, food poisonings or ama (toxin) accumulation because our digestion could not digest what we ate. I also don’t eat too light, I make sure I am satisfied from my meal so that I am grounded and have stable energy.
I drink only warm to hot water, and I drink quite a bit to prevent dehydration (flying is very drying because of the vata). I avoid caffeine as it’s stimulating and drying and increases vata further. I love a good mint, ginger or chamomile tea and usually the airlines have it or I bring my own.
I get up every hour to stretch or do stretches while seated to keep circulation going and to prevent stiffness and feet swelling. If your feet swell a lot, compression socks are helpful.
Arrival:
After I have arrived to the new destination. I will try and find a tree and a patch of grass and take my shoes off and ground back to the sweet Mamma. Let the negative ions soothe you and reconnect with the Earth.
I do not sleep until it’s time to sleep at night there. I will not nap and I will wait till evening. When I arrive and have access to a shower. I will do another full body warm oil massage. I again dry my hair and put rasnadi. Then I’ll eat a light dinner if I am hungry, something soupy or stewy with easy to digest protein. If there is a major time change I take melatonin to help reset my sleep reschedule and to prevent waking up in the middle of the night.
The next morning I will wake with the sun. I have two glasses of warm water and relax in the sun to let my body know it’s morning. I’ll follow with my regular morning Ayurvedic practice which is full body oil massage. I do stretches or light yoga and some alternate nostril breathing. At the end I do a grounding meditation where I visualize roots coming out of my feet growing down into the middle of the Earth. This helps to ground but also let me reconnect with the Earth and the land where I am.
Simplified:
This time my baggage was lost and I didn’t have all my Ayurvedic oils/powders with me and I also arrived into a busy city so I made due with a simplified practice.
Luckily in Italy and most places you can find olive oil or some type of oil in the kitchen. I enjoy being practical and embrace the challenge of being creative with what I have.
This is what I did this morning/ simple version:
I woke up at sunrise.
I boiled water and had two glasses of warm water on rising (this helps to rehydrate the body and clear the bowels and open up the detoxification pathways- great to do every morning). With the remaining boiled water I made a strong mint tea (stimulating but won’t aggregate vata like coffee will).
I warmed up olive oil by doing a double broiler method - put boiling water in a bowl and then place a cup with oil in the bowl. I did a full body massage and some light stretches when it was soaking in.
I then sat in the morning sun and did a grounding breath work practice of alternate nostril breathing and deep belly breaths.
Breakfast was light and warm and I was ready to face the day.
Benefits and what’s the point?
By rising with the sun and going to bed with the moon we help to reset and keep our circadian rhythm in sync. Sleeping mid day, or sleeping in late will knock off the rythmn.
By eating light and easily to digest food when we travel we dont get digestive issues and we keep our system flowing well, keeping our immune system strong so that it can protect us.
The warm oil body massage helps to ground us, protect us, ease the nervous system, prevent stiffness and sore joints and it improves lymphatic drainage, digestive power and detoxification.
The breath work brings vital energy deep into the cells and calms the nervous system.
All in all, all of these practices work on balancing vata which is the main dosha disturbed by travel.
Hope this makes sense, if you have any questions in regard to this post please ask in the comments.
Many blessings to you :)
Thalita
Feel free to share this publication and subscribe if you have not already done so. There is a paid option which you can upgrade to support my work.
Love this and that statue at the end is so stunning :)