The Tension Between Chaos and Order When Traveling
While traveling has always been a passion, the action also served as a regular source of anxiety. I've found that when things don't go according to plan, my immediate reaction is to rearrange the rest of the trip. This habit became all too apparent during my honeymoon, when we checked into a hotel that didn't quite match our expectations (as a travel advisor, there is no greater sin than this misalignment — and I did it to myself.) Instead of making the most of a slight issue, I quickly worked to alter our itinerary so we could move onto the next destination.
Even as we watched a giraffe saunter past our safari vehicle in the Ngorongoro Crater, I was on my phone, looking at flights and whispering suggestions to skip ahead to another part of the trip. This constant need to control and predict every aspect of our journey was exhausting, but I just couldn't seem to let it go. My husband graciously waited to point out this abnormal behavior until I did it on two more trips.
Despite having worked in the travel industry for over a decade, my anxiety and compulsive over-scheduling persisted. However, a life-altering event forced me to confront these issues head-on.
While traveling through Dubai, I received devastating news. A dear friend had suffered a severe stroke and was on life support. Unable to return home in time, I had to process her passing while continuing my journey through Oman and the Maldives. I stayed up late that night to call into a prayer circle that took place in her hospital room, and was blurry-eyed from lack of sleep the next day, when we arrived to the Six Senses Zighy Bay, a hotel that is as legendary as its arrival process: paragliding from a cliff high above the resort.
As I stood on the edge of a cliff, preparing to jump, I could still hear the beeping of the machines that had been keeping my best friend alive. But I could also hear her voice in my head. “Don’t be a chicken, Bird,” her words were so clear, calling me the nickname she’d bestowed upon me in college when she first taught me to dance. “You were meant to fly.”
The moment I leapt off the cliff was terrifying. The rush of wind, the vertigo-inducing view of the jagged peaks below, and the uncertainty of whether the parachute would catch the wind created a cocktail of fear and exhilaration. But as I soared through the air towards the Arabian Sea, something shifted within me.
That moment became a turning point, preparing me to approach travel, and life, with a new perspective - one that involved less anxiety and more acceptance of the unpredictable nature of our journeys.
The ladies over at the This Is My Silver Lining Podcast recently engaged me in this exact conversation to help travelers shift their mindsets to embrace the unexpected. Whether it’s a strike in the middle of our time in Paris, or simply the occurrence that the reality of travel looks different than what we’d pictured in our heads, travel inherently comes with surprises, and not everything will go according to plan.
My number one tip as you prepare to embark on your trip? Acknowledge what is and is not in your control - and instead of letting unexpected events frustrate you, see them as opportunities for adventure and new experiences.