To get straight to the point, the habit that’s making your trips less enjoyable is a lack of mindfulness.

Now, you may be wondering — how does a lack of mindfulness impact my trips? Heck, what does it even mean?! It’s not a habit!

And that’s entirely true — it’s not a habit, but a lack thereof. However, we can attribute behavioral patterns to habits, and resorting to the behavior of omitting mindfulness is definitely a habitual action that you might be stuck in when on vacation.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is usually defined as living in the present moment.

The ‘present moment’ can be tough to understand because we live in a world revolving around our lives, not necessarily our actions. But to put it into perspective, a mindful thought would be acknowledging what is happening around you: stuff you can see, feel, touch, hear, and so on.

The difficulty in drawing the line between mindful and not mindful is usually seen in digital storytelling. We can be mindful when watching a movie, but it’s not what you think it looks like.

Mindfulness when watching a movie is acknowledging the fact that there’s a movie playing. It’s not about how engaged you are in the storyline; that’s non-mindful activity.

If you’re sitting on the couch and thinking, “I’m watching a movie right now, the movie’s making me sad, and I feel tears coming,” you’re mindful!

If you’re thinking, “she’s making a lot of bad decisions; Freddy’s gonna catch her if she doesn’t leave the basement,” you’re not mindful.

See the difference? One focuses on tangible facts like how you’re feeling, what’s causing it, and the physical symptom of tears about to pour out of your eyes. The other makes you think about this arbitrary storyline that is nowhere near you or even exists.

Movies are a make-believe simulation of events in your mind; they’re designed to make you feel things that aren’t real.

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How does this apply to my vacation?

When you’re in a brand new destination but still doing your at-home behaviors, you’re following the movie's storyline playing back at home. You want to embrace being far away and in a completely different culture.

Whether you’re traveling internationally or domestically, something will always be different.

Instead of seeking comfort and trying to bring your at-home life to your vacation, embrace the cultural differences and explore how they make you feel.

Using Mindfulness to Enjoy Travel

When abroad, be involved. Learn to love identifying the little things that make your destination different from home. The things you find beautiful, the things you find strange, and the things that shock you. Enjoy these little details while they last because you’ll miss them once you go home.

Learning about and practicing mindfulness when traveling and in your day-to-day life can be an amazing way to enjoy each and every moment. It allows you to tell your own story by recognizing the emotions, feelings, and sensations a certain environment gives you.

One of my favorite moments in travel was my visit to the snowy wonderland of Quebec City. Two activities from that trip stuck out to me: one I still cherish and long for to this day and one I regret.

The experience I cherish and adore was my morning sunrise hike through Quebec's snowy, trailless forests. It was the morning after a heavy snowfall, so the soft snow piled up to my knees. Although my legs felt heavy walking through that snow, the beautiful glistening orange sunrays beaming from between the trees created a calm morning atmosphere.

I’ll remember our secluded wooden cabin peeking between the trees forever. Although I was close to a cozy fireplace in the cabin, I still remember how isolated I felt from society on that mountainside.

The downside of that trip was the nights spent watching movies. I didn’t feel much of the coziness in those moments — I felt the same feeling I would watching the movie at home. I was too invested in the story to actually acknowledge that I was in a cabin far away from any grocery store, cafe, or bakery. I zoned out of my travel destination to be in the director’s world of Parasite.

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The Takeaway

When you’re planning a vacation, plan to enjoy every detail of it. Even if you have to set some time aside to research and discover things to do, it will be well worth your time, and you won’t regret any bit of it.

I encourage travel a lot, but I encourage mindful travel much more. Please be a part of this world as much as you can — as yourself, not as the stuff you consume. That means leaving no trace, embracing the change, and practicing mindfulness.

Happy travels!