Take time for yourself in travel, you deserve it!

Often in travel, everything is fast paced – running from site to site to see as much you can in such a little amount of time, but in reality we need to take time for ourselves and just sit back, relax, and take it all in. Slowing your pulse, immersing yourself into the sights, smells, and sounds will allow you to experience more, and not less, in your travels.

The ‘see and do everything attitude’ we often have when we travel is understandable. I mean, how often do you get to see La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain? This is where my last blog post about keeping an open-mind becomes so important. Not only do we need be accepting of new experiences that can enrich our lives, but we need to do it for ourselves and not for others. What I mean is – don’t do things just for the sake of doing it or being able to post a picture of it on social media for friends and family, rather, do things for yourself and your own enjoyment.

Take time for your own growth and experience, make you the priority.

Amazing architecture at La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain

I know this can be hard in travel because let’s face it, we all have that bucket list we want to complete, I’m guilty of it too, but don’t go from site to site, rather take time to sit back, relax, take time to yourself! You’ll gain a better experience and get a more authentic travel experience, but also not feel exhausted afterwards.

This is important in real life as well! You’re no Superman or Wonder women (as much as your parents might tell you otherwise) in everyday life it’s important not to get bogged down by all of our commitments like work, friends and family, extracurricular experiences, and take time for yourself, relax, and recharge. By doing so, you can find you have a lot more energy and in fact can be more productive and complete all of your commitments with time to do the things you love.

If you haven’t guessed it yet from my many posts about my experiences in Milan, Italy – I lived here for some time. Every weekend I would travel from place to place as it was such a central location and hub for travel. For example, Venice and Florence were only a 2 hour train ride away on Italy’s well connected trains.

For the first couple months, literally every weekend my boyfriend and I were jet setting all around Europe from Copenhagen, Budapest, London England, Barcelona, and across Italy! It was great for a while because we got to see so many different places in such a short amount of time, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Okay well they didn’t really come to an end, we just both got very tired, sick, and weren’t really experiencing the place we were living, Milan.

After a while, we decided to cool off on the traveling and take some time for ourselves and enjoy our surroundings and new living environment (I should mention, I’ve lived in Canada all my life – Cambridge and now London, Ontario). Honestly, this was the best decision we made throughout our time living abroad. Don’t get me wrong, I loved travelling to different unique cities every weekend, being able to share photos with my friends and family and tell them all the new and cool things we are experience, but something that I neglected, was myself, not to mention our new found home. I wasn’t taking time for myself to sit back and smell the roses or in my case, smell the aromas of freshly baked bread from our local bakery.

So, tap into all of your senses when you are on your next big adventure! No matter how big or small, just be present in all aspects around you because you never know when you will be able to have that experience again.

Don’t just ‘be there’ but feel the uneven cobblestones under your feet, smell the invigorating scents from the market (both good and bad), see the intricate details on the buildings high above you and ponder how architects like Antoni Gaudí created such masterpieces like La Sagrada Familia. Instead of drinking that espresso quickly before heading off onto your next stop, why not breath in the coffee aroma, order a biscotti to dip, savour your sips, and watch the scene outside the café?

Enjoying some cappuccinos & fresh orange juice at a local café in Spain.

Take time for yourself in travel, you deserve it! When we fail to give ourselves downtime to actually experience the world around us, it’s not matter of if we will burn out, it’s a matter of when.

You be the tour guide of your life and put yourself on the priority list, rather than just on the bucket list. It’s far better to come home from your trip having vivid, memorable experiences rather than returning home exhausted and the whole experience being too much of a whirlwind to appreciate!

Do you have an experience where you just took time for yourself or do you have a travel experience you would like to share? Don’t forget to like, comment, and share if you found this post helpful – I post a new blog post every Sunday!

Ciao for now,

Karen