Chances are, you’ve experienced some pretty big changes in your life over the past few weeks. Whether you’re in forced isolation or if it’s self-imposed, we all need to keep ourselves happy and sane (and hopefully feel productive while we’re at it). While some of us are still busy as ever working from home, quite a few of us are feeling a bit lost.
There’s only so many times you can deep-clean the fridge or watch Parks & Rec on Netflix before you start getting restless and anxious. From practical advice to simple tips on how to keep yourself entertained, here are all my best tips on how to fill your day productively, to keep you (and those around you) feeling good!
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If you’ve traveled anywhere outside of your “sphere,” you’ve probably experienced culture shock. It can happen anywhere you travel, not just abroad; the culture shock I experience returning to visit Grandma in the boonies down South is sometimes greater than traveling to cities in China, where I don't even speak the language.
Culture shock doesn't have to be a bad thing (I love the south, y'all), and in fact, I generally see it as a positive! Culture shock is just another way of saying you’re being pushed outside of your cultural comfort zone, and if you stay open-minded to what you’re experiencing, it can teach you some pretty incredible things. For me, culture shock is an opportunity to show me different ways of living which are equally valid to my own. I’ve found that there are four common culture shock triggers, or situations which might provoke a sense of culture shock: food, language, fashion and politics/religion. Real talk: I care a lot about what other people think.
I try really, really hard not to--but it’s difficult for me to let go of my inner desire to be liked. So I worry: I like this outfit, but is it “too much?” If I talk about climate change or the negative effects of certain tourist industries on my blog, will I open myself up to bullying from others? What if people only want to hear the fluffy travel stories and will leave if I start talking about serious topics? Let me start off by saying: I am not a backpacker. Sure, I like camping, but the idea of staying in a hostel makes me nervous, and I have very little interest in eating ramen noodles every day for a week (any backpackers who stumble across this blog are probably shaking their heads at my tragic lack of knowledge about backpacking, but there it is.) On the other hand, I’m also not about to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a weeklong vacation!
My second disclaimer: I didn’t use any rewards. So many of these cheap travel posts I find online require the use of points stacked up from credit cards, which, while it may be worth looking into, doesn’t help me plan a cheap trip now. So how did I do this? Okay, real talk: how many of you have thought about going on vacation only to find ticket prices are somehow twice as much as what you were expecting? (Maybe that’s just a “me problem”).
The average plane ticket can double the price of your trip, but there are ways you can find good flights that won’t break the bank. It’s taken me some time, but I’ve figured out a method that has helped me score tickets one-third of what they normally cost: Although I had managed to get a ticket to London for a steal, there were some obvious drawbacks. At $60 for my first checked bag, I knew that I had to find a way to pack everything I needed into my carry-on. Not only did I manage to do that, but I had tons of leftover space for souvenirs.
Solo travel is incredibly exciting, but it can also be really daunting. It’s important to know where to start when planning for your first solo trip, as the reality of solo travel is often completely different from what people may imagine. Although I’m pretty new to solo travel myself, these five tips have allowed my travels to be a more empowering, wonderful experience:
I’ve talked before about trips not going exactly as I hoped they would (and how, frankly, I don’t believe it’s possible for a trip to go exactly according to plan). We’ve all been there--you plan everything out perfectly, you know exactly what you’re going to do and where and when… and then you hit a road block. Or someone gets sick. Or any other number of things go wrong. And it sucks.
But you can make it back from this! Things not going according to plan is part of life, and we just have to roll with it. I’ve had something go wrong in literally every trip I’ve ever taken--from big to small. These are all of the things I’ve found that always help me bounce back from the missteps and put my trip back on the right track: having fun! Starting a new project, be it a blog or a hobby, is always exciting. You have so many ideas, and you want to just dive right in! But after that shiny new excitement starts to wear off, and you start to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty stuff, and overwhelmed by the thousands upon thousands of articles/books/courses telling you what you should and shouldn’t be doing, you might start to think about calling it quits.
Over the course of my life, I’ve tried my hand at pretty much every type of travel there is, from luxury resorts with family, to city-hopping group tours, all the way to sleeping in the back of my car while solo traveling.
I also get really, really anxious. |
Hi, there! Call me Kris. I’m a world traveler, author and artist working to showcase the world's beauty and inspire you to find your confidence to see the world!
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