Mindless or Mindful Travel?
You Tell Me
I am a seasoned traveler, but things have changed in the landscape of travel lately. Not just for me, but for the world around us. I had a 5:30 a.m flight get canceled on my way home from Newark where I had overnighted. I was pretty relaxed doing yoga in my hotel room at 3 am, and setting off to catch a short flight home at 3:30 a.m.
It was Sunday after all. I didn’t check my flight on my phone, and just got up and went straight to my gate. My flight was to go to Chicago, and when I arrived the gate agent told me the Chicago flight was canceled. This was unexpected. The first dart, in Buddhism. The pierce of the unexpected change catapulted through my body. Next a thought occurred “ I could have slept in.”
As I observed my thought, I saw the possibility, new thought “let it go and move.. on I am resilient.”
I rebooked my flight direct to Burlington, and was grateful I didn’t have to fly to Chicago after all. The agent handed me a boarding pass and 20 dollars worth of vouchers to use with airport vendors, for my inconvenience. Me feeling was.. surprised and grateful. Next I took action, I hunted down the airport United Lounge, as I had a United Day Pass included with my credit card. I read online that Newark had the nicest lounge in the country just newly built in May.
It turned out to be beautiful. The views, the design, the free food, and even free drinks. I am not a big drinker, but it felt decadent. I set out to work like an executive for the day, and was re-vitalized, and. maybe a bit too relaxed. 90 minutes before my flight, I headed to the gate, and sat down again listening to music, feeling in my groove for my Sunday, unattached to what had happened.
It got to be 40 minutes before my flight and it occurred to me that I could have had a gate change. Have you ever had that happen? The last minute gate change in Kennedy seemed to always be a thing. Quickly alert kicked in when I realized there was no sign of BTV boarding. Catapulting into high gear and high tailed it to another terminal. I could feel the adrenaline, and remembered having the doors shut on me during my stand by travel years plenty of times.
Sure enough, after a heart pounding rush through the yards of halls and bus transfers, I missed my flight. Observing my thoughts “my husband is going to kill me, he is planning on me getting home today, picking me up, etc.” Choosing a Re-frame, “he will understand.” I re-book my flight again now to 9 p.m. Calculated time in Newark airport, now 10 hours, looking at 6 more.
I return to my oasis at the Newark lounge happy to have a refuge, and my day pass at the United Lounge. Honestly, this was such a lesson in non attachment and humility. I made mistakes by not being on high alert, I enjoyed myself and the situation despite all the delays.
Travel is unexpected, the sooner we adapt an make it part of our present moment dance, the sooner we can back to living. I fully enjoyed my two work days in one on a Sunday. Meditated, wrote, returned tons of phone calls, and caught up on life.
Here are some resiliency tactics boiled down on stress free travel:
1. Expect travel to change as it will and it will change again. Go for the adventure, and re-adapt quickly to what is exciting and new about the moment you are in. Enjoy the dance
2. Change your thoughts. Recognize the thought you are having in the panic “I should have checked this flight before leaving the hotel” New thought, “It happened that my flight changed, accept it and move forward, what can I do now.”
3. Enjoy what is new and different about where you are, find something that has been on your mind to do, and take care of it and use the time wisely.
4. Catch up with an old friend, instead of ruminating on what is wrong with the situation.
5. Re-acclimate to where you are, take time to slow your breathing down, listen to audio meditation or soft music while you spend some time re-engaging in the present moment and your breath.
6. Capture the possibility of making lemons out of lemonade
Enjoy your travel and drop me a line if you have a travel story you would like to share here
Jennifer Degen
September 14, 2022
Interested in being more resilient? Let’s have a chat
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