As a psychologist as well as someone who travels around the world teaching people to deal with stress, I thought I would give you my top 10 tips on “stress free," or at least "stress less" travel. 1. Make this your highest purpose. In other words, decide how you want to feel when traveling… what would you recommend to someone you love? For me, it’s “joy,” and therefore, my highest purpose when I travel is to enjoy the experience. This sets me up well for the decisions I make. 2. Start at the beginning. All trips start with planning, and therefore, I suggest you look for ways to enjoy the process of planning. The internet makes this easy in that it offers reviews, pictures, and a plethora of information for planning hotels, airfare, rental cars, etc. Part of the enjoyable aspect of this is the ability to control or influence what the experience will be like. 3. Enjoy the packing process, getting to the airport, and parking. First, I never check baggage, which means I need to know how to pack for an extended period of time with just a carry-on. There are several good YouTube videos that show you how to do this and make it fun. Plus, you want to ensure that you have a piece of luggage that is enjoyable to travel with. I choose a Travel Pro because it’s very easy to roll, and has a long handle which is an important given how much travel time will be spent pulling your luggage. Enjoy the trip to the airport… Make sure you have an audio book, music, or a particular radio station you enjoy listening to. Enjoy parking. I prefer to park in the garage adjacent to the airport so that I don’t have to wait for a ride. At Hobby Airport in Houston, this can be a pain, and therefore, I use Valet parking here. It’s only $6 more per day than regular parking, and the time and hassle saved is well worth the money. 4. Enjoy going through security. “What?!!! Surely you are joking, right?” Nope! If it is a part of the travel experience, and my highest purpose is to enjoy traveling, then I have found a way to enjoy this experience. It’s using TSA Pre-Check. This almost never takes more than 10 minutes, and not having to take things out of your bag or take off your shoes, jacket, and belt make the experience enjoyable. Especially when you look over and compare it to what others are going through :-) If you don’t already have this, I suggest you get it though NEXUS, the program that allows you to get into Canada. It only costs $50, and (as of Jan.1, 2015) you get Global Entry (the program that allows you to skip the passport lines when you come back into the United States from any country) as well as TSA Pre-Check. Nice! 5. Enjoy the airport. Airports today are becoming more and more open and user-friendly. Almost all have free wi-fi, nice places to eat, and even nice shopping opportunities. The key is to look for ways to enjoy being at the airport. Generally what we look for, we find. 6. Enjoy the airplane. I am a big fan of flying Southwest Airlines, mostly because the people seem to enjoy what they do. Plus, I like choosing my own seat, and flying on bigger planes where I don’t have to check my bag. I do always bring along something I am looking forward to enjoying working on or watching, and I bring headphones that block out noise, just in case I happen to be near a baby who isn’t enjoying the experience. 7. Enjoy the rental car. I love driving new cars, and with rentals, I get to do this whenever I travel. I always choose Hertz because I never have to wait for my car, and the cars are always clean and well-maintained. 8. Enjoy the Hotel. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to have a nice hotel experience. I stay at the chains that cater to business people (Hilton, Marriott, etc.) and ask for a "room with a view." Also, checking out the reviews from TripAdvisor.com is a great way to see what the property and the service is really like. 9. Enjoy the reason for the trip (vacation or business). What’s important about this tip is that it is number 9 on the list! Most people just focus on this aspect, and try to “get through” the rest. I suggest that you pay a lot of attention to the rest, and this one tends to take care of itself. 10. Enjoy the trip home. Again, few people look at this aspect of the trip as something to enjoy. Their purpose is just to get home as fast as possible, and often, this leaves them stressed out and exhausted. I tend to avoid traveling on the days that I present, and this has me arriving home refreshed. Plus, I have enjoyed the rental car, airplane, airport, valet parking, and ride home from the airport as this is my highest purpose. So there you have it, my top 10 tips for stress-free, or at least more enjoyable travel. If any, or many sound like something you would recommend to someone you love, I encourage you to give them a try. I mean, what do you have to lose but stress?

• published: 05 Jan 2015
• views: 1160