How Traveling to Spain Helped Me Manage Stress Better

The first step in getting a handle on stress is realizing that you are stressed. I didn’t notice just how stressed I was until I spent two weeks in Spain and let the sangria wash my stress away. Stress is much like bad body odor in this way: you can get so used to your putrid state that you don’t even notice it anymore.

The second step, which is much less obvious, is rejecting the notion that stress is a necessary part of life. This is where travel absolutely comes in handy. It forces you to take a step back from your normal routine. When you’ve unplugged from your computer and phone, changed your scenery, and exposed yourself to new cultures and detached for a bit from your usual circle of friends (people who are probably just as stressed as you are) it realigns your senses so that you get to notice just how unaligned you’ve been.

But a transient journey is not enough to keep the stress at bay. It’s essential that your travels inform life back home. It’s your job once you’ve taken the time to destress on your vacation to proactively keep the stress away. So I have since used many of my wonderful experiences to keep the stress at bay. In a more detailed accounting, here are five ways traveling to Spain has helped me manage stress better.

1. Travel grants you a clean mental slate.  My 14-day trip to Spain was the longest vacation I had ever taken. And for anyone who has never been away that long, I highly recommend it. I realize now that it takes time to decompress and unwind months and perhaps even years of accumulated tight winding. When I sat back at my computer and stressful thoughts like ‘I have so much to do,’ or ‘I’m so behind’ started to creep up, I had the ability to identify them as foreign entities, much the way you’re able to feel less healthy when you reintroduce toxins into your body after a dietary cleanse. A clean mental slate helped me see that stressful thoughts weren’t a part of my normal constitution. They were more like a virus or bacteria that could infiltrate you, the more you failed to take care of your body with proper hygiene, nutrition and sleep. What has since helped build my immunity to stress are vivid images and experiences I had gained (more on that below). But first and foremost, traveling gave me the perspective to see that I had been stressed, that it wasn’t normal, and I needed to proactively keep stress at bay. Only after you’ve decluttered your mind of unhealthy thoughts can you make space for more optimistic ones.

2. Sleep first, worry later. Ah, the good ‘ole siesta. No doubt everything appears more manageable after a nap or a good night’s rest. I’m not advocating slumbering your way through life. But sleep is very very important. It is super critical that you make health a priority because if you sacrifice health at the expense of work, you will lose your work too in the end. Problems and pressures will always persist. Life will always demand. But to take it in stride and develop the habit and ability to take breaks in between bouts of obsessing, is not only a good cultural practice but one that will help pave the way to both physical and mental longevity. On a more practical level, my rested self is more efficient. But having perspective also grants me the ability to say no more frequently to things that don’t push my larger agenda forward. And your siesta can take on whatever shape you want it to. While I don’t take a daily nap, I give myself a break on Monday. Every Monday, I take a deep breath, and do something for myself like shop, read, watch a movie, go to the spa, or stare into space, all of which helps me refocus my perspective and hone in with more clarity during the rest of the week.

3. Savor life in bites. I loved how every bite was a delectable celebration in the land of tapas. You weren’t committed to a full meal, although I certainly took full advantage while I was there. But I think it’s important to relish something each day, to have a small delicious bite of life to remind you that whatever it is you’re worried about probably isn’t as serious as you’re making it out to be. Prior to traveling to Spain, yummy meals were only reserved for the weekends. I ate just to fill my stomach. Now, I try to find a craving each day and fill it. Having something to relish on a daily basis, even in bite-sized doses, I believe helps keep the stress at bay.

4. Have fun outside the lines. One of my favorite memories of Spain was a block party that our friends took us to. There’s no motley crew quite like the hodgepodge of people at a block party. There was a bachelor party of roughly 20 guys all wearing masks of who I presume was the groom-to-be, an all girls band performance, and amazing food vendors. But the foremost memory was of this older couple dancing on the sidewalk because the main street was congested. They made the space to have fun. So much of life is hard. But having fun doesn’t have to be. A little bit of fun can happen anywhere, so long as you make room for it. I’ll never forget that.

5. Learn something new each day. When you travel, you’re constantly learning. You’re learning about a new culture, tasting new foods, picking up a new language. Keeping up the practice to learn something new each day is the life bread to staying young and vibrant.

I believe stress is a silent killer because many people don’t realize just how stressed they are. And if they do, they accept it as normal. But the tremendous therapeutic powers of travel is that it not only helps you detect stress, but it also inspires you to reject it. Travel isn’t the only way to combat stress, of course. But it’s a hell of a fun way to do so.