How to Travel Happier: 10 Tips
Since you’re planning to visit our fair city we know you’re someone who loves to travel – no matter where you live: north, south, east or west in the United States and beyond. For this reason I was delighted to come across an ENTIRE ISSUE of AFAR magazine, 10/19 that celebrated their 10th anniversary and explored the subject of happier traveling.
All this happy artwork is courtesy of AFAR magazine, October 2019
The owners and editor named it “The Happiness Issue” which is really a creative breakthrough because in my entire life I’ve never seen a publication devote a whole issue to this topic. They give 10 very useful ideas that, I believe, will be of interest. The first five on the list have been put together by Lyndsey Matthews who’s done an excellent job.
1. Go to a new place every year: “Travel is about being brought out of your routine,” says Meik Wiking, an author and the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, a think tank based in Copenhagen. “It is about experiencing new things, a new culture, new food and new people. It’s a quick route to having new memories and novel experiences.
2. Leave your comfort zone: The right kind of stress can help us remember certain details. As Wiking explains, “People remember emotions. When they do something that frightens them a bit, it gets their adrenaline pumping.”
3. Engage all your senses: Experiences that stimulate several senses have a better chance of making a memorable moment according to Wiking. “Smelling, tasting and listening are all crucial memory triggers. (He’s right. I still remember the first time I heard all the crickets chirping at night on Block Island.)
4. Go ahead, buy that souvenir: Objects that remind us of a time and place relieve our brains from having to remember everything. Buying a souvenir is a way to do this. “And,” says Wiking, “I don’t mean a tacky Eiffel Tower. It can be a really nice vase you bought in Paris.”
5. End your trip on a high note: Psychologist Daniel Kahneman has developed the Peak-End Theory, which says that we remember experiences by their most intense moment and how they ended. “So you might want to finish a trip on a high. For some this may mean eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant – for others it might be skydiving.” (This is much more humble, but for our last night we returned to a restaurant in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and had, for the third time, the best chilled cucumber soup either of us had ever tasted.)
Now, we’re on to the second half of this piece which is headlined, “Plan Your Best Trip” and has been edited by Aislyn Greene who begins with, “In 2018, Yale professor Laurie Santos launched ‘Psychology and the Good Life,’ a course meant to help stressed-out students live happier, more satisfying lives.
6. How do you put what you teach into practice on the road? We’re faced with new places and experiences, so it’s often easier to be mindful and notice things. I try to savor the moment when I travel because it’s easy to stay present in a new restaurant or place. I also like to savor the free, unscheduled time when I get on trains and planes. There’s nothing I have to get through on a plane the way I do in normal life.
7. Why is unscheduled free time so important to our wellbeing? There are studies that show that those who have unscheduled time tend to be happier overall than those who don’t. When you’re running from meeting to meeting, you don’t take time to talk to the barista at the coffee shop – those simple social interactions bring wellbeing. I try to talk to new people during my travels.
8. How would you describe the American attitude towards free time? As a country, we developed along the Protestant work ethic – which emphasizes industry and discipline. Benjamin Franklin saw idleness almost as a sin. But the psychological data shows that’s an incorrect notion. Going abroad can make one realize how it is valued in other countries. When you’re traveling, linger a little longer in a restaurant or take a siesta break.
9. When you observe other travelers, what do you think? Well, I’ve seen people at a beautiful white-sand beach with a gorgeous sunset and they’re on their phone checking their email. I want to say – you’re missing a great sight!
10. Why do Americans tend to “over schedule” their itineraries? We think we’re going to miss something. We forget that serendipity is what we’re really missing – there are things that are not on our itinerary that are important. “For example,” says Santos, “my husband’s uncle was in town and he’d recently visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He said it’s hard to get close to the tower or even see it, because hundreds are around it – shooting for their Instagram posts.” When you’re doing that, you may be missing the unusual accents around you or other things. Photos can enhance our memories of an experience, but we miss out on all the things we’re NOT taking photos of – things that can be some of the most powerful parts of the experience.
Shaun Nelson-Henrick