5 Tips to Reduce the Stress of Holiday Travel

Brain Health, Calm and Relaxation, Family, Healthy Lifestyle, Mood

5 Tips to Reduce the Stress of Holiday Travel

As the song says, “There’s no place like home for the holidays.”

Although visiting family and friends can be a joyful, memorable experience, the process of traveling can often be a hassle. Since you’ve worked hard all year to take a vacation, don’t let it be ruined from the start by common traveling complications.

Here are 5 tips for avoiding the stresses of holiday travel:

Be Flexible

Resist the urge to plan every minute of your vacation—maintain realistic expectations about your trip. Your flight could be delayed. It might rain or snow when you planned on doing something outside. Mishaps and meltdowns happen, but they don’t have to ruin your trip. Sometimes the best memories are the ones we didn’t plan. Try to remember that the point of a vacation is to relax and have fun. Remaining flexible will allow you to quickly respond to surprises and enjoy whatever curveball gets thrown your way.

Vacation Preparation

There’s nothing more stressful than realizing the day before you go on vacation that you still haven’t gotten an oil change, gone to the bank or purchased extra socks. There are many trip checklists available online depending on your type of trip—download one at least one week in advance and check off the items to reduce the stress of preparing for your vacation.

Leave on Time

Set multiple alarms to ensure that you get up on time. Keep your family or friends on track by telling them that you’re leaving 30 minutes before your actual departure time. Accounting for the inevitable last-minute scramble to get out the door can minimize stress, anxiety, and arguments. Plus, you’ll stay cool and calm when that last-minute delay pops up, actually putting you right on time.

Adjust Your Schedule

A long-established travel strategy is that if you are traveling east, move your bedtime earlier by 30 minutes per day for a few days prior to your trip and do the opposite if you are traveling west. New research has demonstrated that changing your meals to match the time zone of your destination prior to your trip can help synchronize your internal body clock to help beat jet lag.

Get Quality Sleep

Rushing to get everything done before your vacation can leave you worn out. Avoid sleep stealers and get plenty of rest the night before your vacation so that you don’t travel tired. Navigating unfamiliar roads or airports will be much more difficult and stressful when you’re sleep-deprived. You may find it helpful to use a supplement containing melatonin when your body is adjusting to an unfamiliar sleep environment or different time zone. BrainMD’s Restful Sleep combines melatonin with four other ingredients to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

If all these tips still aren’t enough to help you fight the stress of holiday travel, there are effective supplements that help you feel calm and support your body’s natural response to stress. Everyday Stress Relief promotes calmness without drowsiness and helps you maintain a positive mood with mental focus, so you don’t let stress ruin your holiday vacation.

BrainMD supplements have a 100% money-back guarantee. You have nothing to lose except for hours of counting sheep. For a complete list of Dr. Amen’s brain healthy supplements, visit the online store at BrainMD.

Author
Recent Posts

Keith Rowe

Keith has been a member of the BrainMD team for several years, providing his research and writing talents. Keith is grateful to have the opportunity to write about supplements since many of them have made a dramatic difference in his life. He is often heard around the office saying, “We have supplements for that.”

5 Tips to Reduce the Stress of Holiday Travel