12 Honest Tips to Overcome Travel Anxiety (from a travel photographer)
Travel is not only an integral part of my photography by also my life.
Over the past few years I’ve been to plenty of places, from smaller camping trips and festivals, to larger trips to different countries like Japan and Cambodia.
It may seem strange then, when I say: I get travel anxiety.
It creeps up here and there, before and during trips, and sometimes even results in anxiety or panic attacks.
And over the years I’ve learned many things about anxiety and myself that have allowed me to still have these trips and experiences, without losing myself.
Today, I’d like to share a few of the things that have helped me with my anxiety, and hopefully they help you.
Please keep in mind that I’m no psychiatrist or doctor, this is just me sharing my experiences and what’s worked for me.
Let’s get started.
My (short) Story
In the past, I never used to have problems traveling.
Or maybe I did, I just never recognized or took notice of it.
But as time passed, anxiety manifested itself in different ways.
One of the pivotal moments was a trip I took to Europe back in 2021.
We had an early 2AM flight and I did all the wrong things.
One the drive to the airport, I was having stomach problems so I took a Pepto Bismol, which made me unable to go to the bathroom later.
The early flight also messed up my sleep schedule, as I stayed up to watch a movie or two.
And to top things off, I drank during my layover in an attempt and “chill out”.
All of which compounded and made things worse.
Moments before boarding, I had an anxiety or panic attack and could not bring myself to board.
Heavy breathing, tension everywhere, crazy running thoughts, and anxiety about boarding, not being able to go to the bathroom, and worrying that I might need to go as we took off.
Thankfully I had a friend with me who was able help me calm down and get on the plane.
I still freaked out a bit as we took off, but I doubt I would’ve been able to even get on if I was alone.
The rest of the trip, especially our first stop in Barcelona, I was plagued by stomach problems, anxiety about my stomach problems, and all the such.
You know the drill: I was inexperienced and I suffered for it.
For many different trips after that I struggled with similar problems, and anxieties about it happening again.
And even now, years later, I still have moments of anxiety and panic - they’re just not as foreign to me and I handle them much better.
Currently it’s at the point where I can still travel, still overcome these hurdles, and do the things I want to do to live the life I want to live.
The biggest motivating factor for me was I could not let my life be dictated or controlled by this emotion.
I would rather die from anxiety than let anxiety prevent me from living how I want to.
And that resolution has helped me take the steps to make the changes to overcome the fear.
So that’s my little sob story - let’s keep moving.
You’re Not Weird
Because I’ve never had big problems with anxiety in the past, having a panic attack made me feel a little crazy.
I was confused: what’s happening to me?, this never happens?, what if it’s like this forever?
Even as a kid I used to think it was a little strange for people to need things like stress balls to calm down.
But I guess as time passes, you grow up, you get more responsibilities, the world gets bigger, and you have more stuff to stress about.
So a big realization for me was: you’re not weird.
You’re not strange for having anxiety and everyone feels the same things as you, just maybe at different magnitudes.
And no matter how bad your anxiety may seem, other people could have easily spiraled to the same level if given the same circumstances.
So don’t put yourself down or berate yourself for having anxiety and panic attacks.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
It’s a part of life and they were created for a reason.
Some people may not understand or look at you funny, but that’s fine.
Plus, there are plenty of people who do understand and have gone through the same stuff.
Winston Churchill was known for having having high anxiety and panic attacks, especially in places like railway platforms.
He still learned to cope and did tons of big and important things in his life.
Abraham Lincoln was also known to have high anxiety and depression.
That didn’t stop him from doing what he needed to do.
So you’re not weird, you’re normal.
Other people feel the same way you do, and have learned to live regardless.
And you can too.
Recognize Thought Loops
The first step to managing our anxiety is to learn to recognize when and how it happens.
Often, anxiety is a thought loop of the mind.
We are concerned about the future, begin to think about what may and may not happen, and then our brain begins to obsess over it.
These thoughts, although many are irrational, our brain interprets as logical, and our mind spirals.
“What about this? What if this happens? What will I do then?”
This plagues us and if left unchecked can compound into an “anxiety attack”.
To prevent this, we must recognize when our brain is doing it as early as possible and break the loop every time it comes.
This takes a lot of practice but can be really useful on a day to day basis and even for long term reframing of how you think about the world.
Start by paying attention to your thoughts and what kind of thoughts you have when it comes to anxiety.
Then, question those thoughts:
“Is that true?”
“And if it is true, it is as life threatening as I make it out to be?”
“And if so, do I even need to worry about it right now?”
And then, use indifference and distractions to break the thought loop.
Tell yourself things like:
“Yeah that may happen, but I don’t really care.”
“Sure that’s a possibility but it’s not important.”
“Maybe it’ll happen, but it also might not.”
“Yeah, but what if it doesn’t happen and things go really really well?”
Address it, but don’t give the thought more attention than it deserves, and move on.
Distract yourself from these thoughts with something more important - whatever you’re doing right now in this present moment.
That’s how you can recognize thought loops, break them before they compound (by not treating them as more important than they are), and move on with your day.
Practicing this will help you recognize how crazy your brain is, how often you have wild thoughts, and allow you to address them in a healthier manner.
As opposed to entertaining every single little worry like it’s the end of the world.
And remember: these are just thoughts and you are not your thoughts.
Exposure Therapy
Perhaps the single greatest thing that’s helped me improve my relationship with anxiety is exposure therapy.
Exposure therapy is a common psychological or psychiatric thing (again, I’m not a doctor) that has helped people overcome their fears.
By exposing ourselves to the things we’re afraid of and surviving, we can overcome them, by realizing they’re not as bad as we thought and the fear exists mainly in our mind.
The unfortunate part is that it’s very uncomfortable.
It requires you to do the very thing you’re afraid of, pushing you to your limits with every challenge.
But it’s either that or run from anxiety and slowly allow it to take over your life.
You see, anxiety doesn’t just stay as one thing.
It might start as fear of social situations and then slowly grow and spread to a generalized fear of going outside.
And unless you want it to take over your life, you have to confront it, starting with the smallest ways possible.
We do this through exposure.
Do something small that scares you.
Survive it, realize it’s not as terrible as you thought, and then do it again.
And maybe it was that terrible but you survived so that makes you stronger.
Every time we survive we build a little more confidence until we have enough to try something bigger.
This is how we slowly but surely counter the negative compounding effects of anxiety with a positive compounding strength of confidence.
It might take a long time, and you’ll surely have to push yourself to overcome these things.
But you have to be serious.
Tell yourself, “I’m gonna do this or I’m gonna die trying”.
“Because I’d rather try and fail than not try - and even if I failed, at least I didn’t back down.”
And in that aspect, even failure is a win.
Seriously, committing to this might change your life.
You see, after my rough trip to Europe, I didn’t just hop back into international travel again.
I built myself back up with little things I could handle.
Tough at first, but small hangouts with friends, then small camping trips, then bigger ones, until I eventually got to where I am now.
It was very very hard and took many years but I’m glad I did it because the alternative of losing the life you want to this thing is not worth it.
Expose yourself and conquer your anxiety - the only way out is through.
Layers of Defense
Now that we understand what must be done, you might be thinking, how?
How do I actually overcome the anxiety once I’ve resolved myself to challenge it?
Well often times, resolve is half the battle.
The rest comes down to layers of defense (different strategies that we’ll cover in this article).
Layers of defense are things that work to help you deal with the emotions and symptoms.
One of these layers was recognizing thought loops.
This is one of our first layer of defense as it’s simply recognizing and addressing.
The next layer comes into play if for whatever reason the first layer doesn’t work and your thoughts spiral.
Then we activate the next layer in our mind.
These layers and the order they come in are up to you based on what’s worked for you.
Which means trying stuff to see what works and what doesn’t work.
An example of another layer of defense I like to use is physiological.
Often times people will tell you to take deep breaths and try to relax.
This is because symptoms of anxiety are not only mental, but physiological/physical.
Our bodies tense up, our chest tightens, blood rushes to our head, we start to breath heavy.
The moment I notice this, I immediately address the physical.
I’ll loosen my posture.
I’ll relax any tense muscles, shoulders especially.
And I’ll take deep slow long breaths until any symptoms fade.
Once the body relaxes, it’ll be easier for the mind to relax.
Try that one out, I think it might help.
Let’s move onto some other layers of defense.
The Inner Citadel
One of the things that has helped me greatly, especially with travel anxiety is the inner citadel.
The inner citadel is a concept taken from stoic philosophy.
It basically references that no matter where we are, we always have an inner citadel in our mind that we can retreat to.
Sort of a safe space that we can rest when the outside world gets too noisy.
This helps because often times the environments or situations we’re in can stimulate our thought loops and anxiety, and pulling ourselves away from that can help.
So for me, standing in lines before boarding, imagining the airport process, etc has given me anxiety in the past.
Even though these are normal situations that I’ve done before, for whatever reason my mind wants to run from some imaginary danger.
So the inner citadel helps with this because I can remind myself that no matter where I’m at, I always have a safe space in my mind.
If I’m panicking in line, or the flight is about to take off, or I’m in bed the day before the flight stressing out, I can always go to my safe space.
I’d encourage you to build an inner citadel of your own.
A place of good thoughts, good vibes, etc that blocks off negative thought loops.
It’s imaginary so you can build and shape it however you want.
If you want to practice building this, meditation can help.
Close your eyes, slow your breathing, and imagine yourself exploring and building your inner citadel.
Again the details, the shapes, the feelings you’ll have to create for yourself - it’s personal.
But working with anxiety is understanding that wherever you are, no matter what situation you’re in, you’ll be fine.
You don’t have to keep thinking, “what about this or what about that?”
You have one answer that works for it all, another line of defense that works, your inner citadel.
It Can Only Last So Long
No matter how much we prepare, some things don’t work out.
That’s the truth of life and that’s the truth of anxiety.
And one of the hallmarks of anxiety is the desire to prepare.
The fear of what may happen in the future, and the temptation to cover all bases in preparation for that.
But we can’t prepare for everything and we can’t predict everything that might happen.
So preparing more than is necessary is futile, will drive us crazy, and is often times the problem in the first place.
Prepare as we might, sometimes things go opposite, and we’ll still have an anxiety or panic attack.
So what do we do in those cases?
Aside from the other lines of defense we’ve talked about, like calming down, breathing, and dealing with the physiological, I like to remind myself of one little phrase:
It can only last so long.
This is a line I picked up from a podcast about exercise but I’ve found it to be very effective for anxiety attacks.
It can only last so long.
Whatever you’re feeling right now may feel like death, may feel endless, but in truth wont last forever.
You know this because you’ve been through it before and it didn’t last forever.
So telling this to myself has gotten me through many moments of panic.
“It can only last so long, it can only last so long, it can only last so long.”
These reminders allow me to ride it out, determined to outlast the momentary feelings of anxiety.
Because the actual way we manage anxiety attacks is not by trying to prevent them.
It’s by accepting that they may or may not happen.
And knowing what to do and how we can survive if they do.
That will give us confidence and ironically lower our anxiety and overall chances of panicking.
Lower the Capital
When we think of anxiety, we often think of it as all uppercase: “ANXIETY”.
This is because of our past experiences with the word: sometimes even hearing or thinking anxiety will give us anxiety.
Even me, I’ve had periods where I don’t want to think of the word or say the word anxiety because it’ll tense me up.
But instead of thinking of anxiety as some big scary thing, we must lower the uppercases.
It’s not ANXIETY.
It’s Anxiety.
Or even better yet, anxiety.
Notice how each word reads differently.
Being able to think of anxiety as full lowercase will make the word and emotion less scary.
Because that’s all it is. A simple word and emotion.
And there’s nothing about it to be afraid of.
So however you can, do what you can to lower your personal impression of the emotion.
How you react when you hear the word is a clear indication of how you feel about it.
And if you think of anxiety in all uppercases, we gotta change that.
Because the smaller we make the word, the less anxiety we’ll have about anxiety, and the easier time we’ll have managing it.
Laugh, If You Can
One of the seemingly counter intuitive things I discovered about anxiety is the dual sided nature of it.
On one side of the coin you have the fear, the tension, the worry.
On the other side you have excitement, fun, and joy.
You see, the opposite of anxiety is not “no anxiety”.
It’s excitement.
Excitement is enthusiasm or eagerness for something in the future.
While anxiety is fear and worry.
And you can have the same exact circumstances or situation and feel either one.
Some people are excited to get on a roller coaster.
Others are terrified.
Realizing this made me understand it’s not the situation or circumstance that is giving me anxiety, but how I’m interpreting it.
And all I need to do is flip the coin - because I’m one side away from a more positive interpretation.
One thing that helps with this is to force myself to smile.
Or to laugh, if I can.
That’s because although smiling and laughter is a result of a positive emotion, it can also lead to positive emotions.
Simply by smiling, your body can release positive hormones.
And you can trick yourself into positivity through body signals within your control.
So laugh, if you can.
Find something funny, think of something funny, remember something funny.
Even laugh about yourself having anxiety in this silly situation.
It can help take the edge off.
The Anxiety Jar
Something more recent I’ve been trying out is an “anxiety jar”.
You know how as kids, parents and teachers would have this “bad word jar”?
Where if you cussed or swore, you put money into the jar?
This would disincentive us from using bad words.
Well I figured, maybe if I made an anxiety jar, it could work the same way.
And I don’t mean putting in money every time I had anxiety.
Because sometimes we can’t control how we feel.
Rather, I mean every time I find myself funneling down and thinking too hard about unnecessary things that will feed my anxiety, I’ll put money in.
Maybe 10, 20 cents depending on how much I ruminate.
This is because a big problem of anxiety is giving a silly thought more attention than it deserves.
And that is behavioral - it’s a bad habit we can change.
Maybe we can’t stop ourselves from having anxiety in the first place, but at the very least we can stop feeding into it.
So I’m currently experimenting to see if I can break that.
If I can change my habits around how I think, logically I’ll think about the future less, I’ll worry less, and I’ll have less anxiety.
It’s pending, but you can try this one along with me to see if it works.
Build Iron Man, Build
One of the many clips on the internet that have strangely helped with my anxiety is this clip of Tony Stark having a panic attack.
I forget which Iron Man it’s in but he’s having a phone call with a kid and things are going wrong and he’s freaking out.
The kid asks him, “Well you’re a mechanic aren’t you? Why don’t you just build something?”
And the light bulb turns on.
Because it’s so stupidly simple.
We talk about distracting ourselves, recognizing thought loops, etc.
And one of the easy ways to do that is to simply occupy our mind with something else.
Because if your mind is fixated on doing something, it’s not fixated on how x, y, and z can go wrong.
Better yet, if the activity is something that’s relaxing or calming for you, it’ll help you even more.
Me for example, I do photography, that’s what this channel’s about.
So if I’m hanging out in the airport I’ll walk around and take pictures.
And then I’m focused on photography, not anxiety.
Sometimes I’ll just pull up my camera or phone and snap a terrible picture just to distract myself.
Other things work as well, maybe knitting, drawing, journaling, whatever.
I’ve got a lacrosse ball here I like to bring around and use as a massage ball.
And when I’m focused on different individual muscles I’m not thinking about how I’m gonna panic and die and embarrass myself.
I also have this little Pusheen cat loaf I use as a stress ball.
It’s cute, slow rising, and is supposed to smell like bread (I don’t think it does personally).
I squeeze this when I’m tense, fidgety, or restless, and it seems to help.
So the point is, don’t just sit around and entertain your anxiety.
Do something.
What are you? What do you do?
Are you a writer? Then write.
Do you play sports? Then play around with a ball.
Are you a photographer? Then take photos.
Do something, anything and you’ll soon forget what you were worried about.
Melting
After many years, this has been the single most helpful thing for dealing with anxiety attacks.
Something I realized over time is that ultimately there’s nothing I can do to prevent anxiety attacks in the future.
It may happen, it may not happen.
And sometimes I’ll have wild wild thoughts or be in crazy situations that I fear and be fine.
Other times I’ll be in a perfectly normal moment and my thoughts steamroll for no reason.
Realizing this changed how I approached anxiety.
It’s no longer about not having an anxiety attack for me.
Rather it’s about: no matter where or when, if I have one, I know how to handle it and disperse it easily.
This takes time, practice, experience, and unfortunately a lot of attacks to understand yourself well.
We mentioned earlier that anxiety has physical symptoms.
For me my face and body flushes, chest gets tight, breathing gets heavy, and everything gets hot and tense.
We also mentioned earlier the inner citadel and how it can help in moments of panic.
We also learned how to recognize thought loops and when we begin to have anxiety.
Those will all be useful here.
I call this “melting”.
Whenever you feel all these things welling up and you’re on the verge of an anxiety or panic attack, melt.
Instead of trying to fight it, prevent it, or resist, melt.
Loosen your body, take a deep deep breath, and let all the symptoms brush over you.
Embrace it.
Keep breathing, empty your mind if you can, and loosen up.
And remind yourself: it can only last so long.
This acceptance and allowing yourself to melt into the anxiety is something that’s helped me tremendously.
This is because fighting and resisting can often times make it worse.
The analogy I draw for this is from surfing.
I don’t surf much anymore, but I did a little bit in the past.
And one of the things you learn from surfing is how to stay underwater.
If a big wave hits you or a big set’s rolling in, trying to surface as soon as possible is the last thing you wanna do.
Because the water is still rolling and you’re gonna expend more energy trying to get up.
So what you wanna do is relax your body, go limp, and count.
Most waves will pass in 5 seconds.
And then you swim up and the water’s much calmer.
The same applies for anxiety.
Don’t try to surface too soon, instead just ride it out.
Ride the wave out, 10, 20, 30 seconds for as long as it takes.
And remind yourself, it can only last so long.
I’ve found that most anxiety attacks last 15-30 minutes if they’re bad, but really only 5-10 minutes if I apply this technique.
And over time, I’ve strangely found myself wanting to have an attack to practice this technique.
Because once it’s over, you feel really good.
It’s not like the anxiety attacks that leave you tense for the next two days.
Those suck - I had that on the night before my trip to Japan.
But with this technique, I realized I could have an attack for a few minutes and still have a great rest of the day.
This is what I used on my plane ride back from Southeast Asia.
I was standing in line getting ready to board and I felt the rush overcome me.
So shivering, I plugged some music in, took a deep breath, loosened my body up, and rode it out.
It can only last so long, I told myself.
And by the time I got to the front of the line, I felt much better, with some lingering tension, but was able to keep going and slowly let the rest go.
Keep in mind, this was probably one of my worst fears because it was the very thing that made me cognizant of anxiety attacks back in Europe 2021.
But I got through it and the rest of the plane ride was great.
So I’d really really encourage you to learn how to “melt”.
You can’t always predict or prevent anxiety or panic attacks.
But the better you get at dealing with them, the less scared you’ll be of having them, the more you can salvage good days, and you’ll probably have less overall anxiety because of it.
Anxiety Never Goes Away.
One of the biggest truths about anxiety I learned from reading and watching Mark Manson:
He wrote, “The uncomfortable truth is that anxiety never completely disappears—we just become more adept at handling it.”
For so long I’ve tried any and everything to get rid of anxiety.
And there were brief periods of solace.
Moment of peace where I was free of anxiety.
But some time would pass and something else would stress me out, or another trip would make me anxious.
And over time I settled into the reality of it.
Anxiety never goes away, you just get better at dealing with it.
And that’s not a bad thing.
Anxiety is an emotion.
And just like anger and joy, you don’t get rid of emotions.
Rather, anxiety is here to help us.
And it wants to help us.
Because it doesn’t like to see us suffer and it wants to help prevent that.
The problem is, it can sometimes go off the rails and lead to a lot of suffering in itself.
This can make anxiety seem and feel like an enemy.
Like it’s something that’s trying to rob us of our existence.
Which is understandable, I myself have felt this before.
But anxiety is our friend and it’s just trying to help.
The real enemy is our lack of understanding of this emotion, and our unwillingness to change our thought patterns and confront our fears.
Those are what’s actually preventing us from a more harmonious relationship with ourselves.
So instead of hating or shunning your anxiety, understand that it’s trying to help, and tell it,
“Thanks for the concern, but we’ll be fine”.
And then get on with your day.
Finally, a quick summary.
Here are a bunch of tips that have helped me with anxiety, that might help you:
You’re not weird
Anxiety is a normal human emotion.
Normal people like you and me have it, Abraham Lincoln had it.
So don’t trip or beat yourself up for having anxiety, it’s not weird.
Recognize thought loops
Notice when you’re thinking crazy or spiraling and cut it off as soon as possible.
Distract yourself, reframe negative thoughts, and get it before it can get you.
Exposure therapy
Instead of trying to avoid the things that give us anxiety, we must confront them.
This is the biggest thing that will long term help us succeed.
If we run, we lose.
But if we face our fears we might realize they weren’t that scary to begin with.
Call the bluff - the only way out is through.
Layers of defense
Building a few layers of defense will help you in times of need.
If this doesn’t work, the next layer steps in.
If that doesn’t work, you’ve got another.
Keep alternating, switching, trying new things for different situations, and you’ll figure out some that work for you.
The Inner Citadel
No matter where you are, you can always find comfort in the sanctuary of your mind.
Build yourself a safe space, an inner citadel, to get away from the outside world, and even your own crazy thoughts.
Having this will give you great comfort that you are safe any and everywhere.
It can only last so long
If you’re having a panic or anxiety attack, remind yourself: it can only last so long.
Nothing lasts forever.
So give yourself the patience and determination to outlast it.
You’ll feel much better afterwards.
Lower the captial
It’s “anxiety”, not “ANXIETY”.
All lowercases.
Changing how we think about anxiety itself will help us.
This way we can have less anxiety about anxiety and accept it for what it is: anxiety.
Laugh, if you can
Positive emotions can counter negative emotions.
And forcing a smile or a laugh can trigger physiological responses in your body.
So even if you’re not happy, trying smiling.
Try laughing.
And let your body work for you little by little to counter the anxiety.
The Anxiety Jar
If your problem is feeding these negative thoughts, try making an anxiety jar.
Pretend it’s a game, your brain loves games.
And try aligning incentives.
If you feed into this thought, that’s another dollar.
Try it out, you might be surprised by how much your brain hates to lose, and how much this can reshape your thought patterns long term.
Build Iron Man, build
It’s so simple it’s stupid.
Get your mind focused on something else.
Do something.
If you’re a mechanic, build.
If you’re a photographer, take photos.
If you’re a writer, write.
Occupy your mind with something else, and you’ll soon forget the anxiety.
Melting
Instead of fighting, sometimes the best thing we can do is accept.
Embrace these emotions and feelings of anxiety and allow yourself to melt.
Think of the surfing analogy, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, it can’t last forever.
Allow these feelings to overcome you, focus on breathing and relaxing, and just simmer.
Eventually the feelings will subside and you’ll be ready to go again.
Anxiety never goes away
Perhaps the cruel but liberating truth of anxiety is that it never goes away, we just get better at dealing with it.
When we accept this reality, we are then free from our quest to eliminate this emotion, because that’s impossible.
And then we can spend more time and attention on living our lives, handling anxiety if it comes, and being okay with suffering.
Because that’s how it is.
Life isn’t just rainbows and sunshine, and that’s okay.
So I hope you found something helpful in here.
I truly truly wish you the best of luck with your anxiety, because I know how hard it can be.
Be strong, you can do this.
Now, these letters are mainly about photography, that’s what we do here.
So if you wanna learn more about photography, check out Photography Essentials - it’s free.
Or if you want to help support my travels, there’s a fund on my website.
You can also help support me by grabbing a copy of “The Sinking Sun”, my first photozine.
Thanks for reading, have a great day.
