7 Ways Meditation Can Help Manage Travel Stress

Many people say they don’t have time to meditate. I get that, but it doesn’t really take that much time. A well-known meditation teacher, Sudha Carolyn Lundeen, at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass., told me that it’s better to meditate one minute a day than 60 minutes once a month. The key is to get into a regular practice, which can rewire your brain so it learns how to calm itself quickly and easily. Here are a few simple techniques that can have an immediate impact when you’re feeling stressed out — and that are easy to do in an airport waiting area or on a plane, train or bus.  

1. Take Advantage of Technology 

Use a smartphone app like Calm, Simply Being, Headspace or Happier Meditation to get into a meditative zone. (Apps are also great for easing yourself into a restful sleep while traveling.)  

2. Engage in Mindfulness Meditation 

Practice mindfulness meditation, a simple form of meditation where you focus on your breathing and what is happening right now in the present. The technique originated at the University of Massachusetts. Find short, audio-prompted mindfulness exercises on their website to help you get started. 

In general, you start a mindfulness meditation exercise by breathing slowly and deeply in and out a few times. If you can, close your eyes. Either way, open or shut, try to stay focused on your breathing. Just let your thoughts flow through your mind without stopping them or judging them. If you find yourself ruminating (and you probably will), go back to breathing deeply and trying to be in the present moment. 

For a more challenging exercise, try to scan your surroundings, recognizing individual objects without naming in your mind what they are. Focus instead on what they look, sound or smell like. This is called “Mindful Seeing,” and I find it to be a really engrossing (albeit difficult) mindfulness practice!  

3. Repeat a Poem or Mantra 

Memorize a short poem to repeat when you’re feeling stressed out. Of course, you can also follow the traditional advice to adopt a single-word mantra like “OM.” But I find that repeating a short poem can be a way of meditating, too, and does a better job of making me focus and push away distractions.  

I like to repeat this “Loving Kindness” prayer that Buddha gave to his followers to say when they were afraid, which you can say for yourself and/or for others:  

“May I be safe and protected from all danger and harm. May I be happy and peaceful of heart and mind. May I be strong and healthy of body. May I live with ease of well-being.”  

You can alter the wording in many ways to whatever suits you best. Find some alternate loving-kindness phrases here. 

4. Take in Your Surroundings 

Walk slowly and mindfully — around the airport terminal, the hotel lobby, in nature — while saying to yourself, “here” as you inhale and “now” as you exhale, over and over so you are focused on the present moment.  

5. Combine Breathing and Counting 

Count up to five as you inhale and then backwards to one as you exhale. Repeat. 

6. Try the 4-7-8 Exercise 

Do the 4-7-8 exercise, recommended by integrative physician Dr. Andrew Weil: 

• Put the tip of your tongue on the ridge behind your top front teeth and keep it there for the duration of the exercise. 
• Close your mouth and inhale through your nose to the count of 4. 
• Hold your breath for a count of 7. 
• Exhale through your mouth, making a whoosh sound, for a count of 8. 
• Repeat three more times. 

7. Try Your Hand at Art 

Try sketching or journaling (see the blog post on incorporating creativity into travel). Harvard University’s world-renowned mind/body expert, the late Dr. Herbert Benson, said that repetitive and rhythmic crafts such as knitting may even evoke what he called the relaxation response — a feeling of bodily and mental calm that’s been scientifically proven to enhance health and reduce the risk of anxiety, depression and even heart disease. “You can induce the relaxation response through any type of repetition, whether it’s repeating a word, prayer or action such as knitting or sewing,” he told me for my book Craft to Heal: Soothing Your Soul with Sewing, Painting, and Other Pastimes. “The act of doing a task over and over again breaks the train of everyday thought, and that’s what releases stress.” 

Just remember, if/when you get bored of meditating, all you have to do is start over with the practice. Don’t blame or judge yourself for not doing it right! Start over as many times as you need to until you feel a little bit calmer. 

Here’s to being less stressed while traveling!