For many people, travel can be an anxiety-inducing experience. More than 55% of travelers said air travel was more stressful than going to work before the coronavirus pandemic, which put a halt on all international flights last year. And then, the entire tourism industry came to a standstill, with most nations being forced into quarantine due to fears over contagious disease. Some have been too scared or anxious about traveling for well over 12 months now as they’ve never left home since that time!
I was one of them. One of those anxious people with a fear of flying, especially in the post-covid world. I knew I would have to work on my anxiety if I was ever going to get out there and see the world, but how could I do it while still being at home?
Traveling is a time for rejuvenation and to get out of the daily routine. The very best way to be able to recharge your batteries, take some risks without fear, indulge in new experiences while escaping from old habits can happen only when you are on vacation with family or friends. Isn’t it?
Yet if we talk about the best ways to overcome travel anxiety, there are many which do not have a clear solution or remedy. So, I decided to try and find out what works for me personally. There were no magical solutions and techniques that could be applied in every single case. I have grown to understand that travel anxiety is not something easy to cure or resolve in a single shot. It takes time, practice, and determination. And you must be ready to open up your mind to new ways of looking at things and perhaps even overcome ingrained phobias that you may never have realized were affecting your life before now.
The GetYourGuide app seemed to be an excellent tool for reducing travel anxiety before we left home. As it takes people out of their homes through exciting guided tours, it offers them a new way of seeing familiar places as if they were visiting them for the first time, thereby offering tourists the opportunity to take on new experiences without fear of failure.
It helped me overcome my fear of flying and left home with my family on our first trip overseas together since the outbreak last year. It proved to be a great resource in helping us choose what we wanted to do when we got there. All our tours were planned to the last detail, and there was absolutely no need for me to worry about taking a wrong turn or making a bad decision. All we had to do was relax and enjoy our vacation while at the same time working on my anxiety issues with their guided tour services.
I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to try out any of those ‘alternative’ tours if I had not known in advance exactly what they involved. But as it turns out, some of them turned out to be my favorite memories from the entire trip! Just walking through London’s streets, talking with locals, and learning something new about their way of life gave us all the chance to see the place in a completely different light.
I was being able to walk along the streets and do something different than visiting museums and monuments made for a much richer experience, which we’ll remember forever. It’s really hard to describe that feeling; you just have to experience it for yourself. My anxiety levels were still pretty high at the beginning of the trip, but by the time we were in London itself, I did feel much more confident.
It didn’t cure me, but it certainly helped me get back on track after our vacation overseas gave me an opportunity to realize just how bad my post-covid anxiety was. I still feel fear before every trip, but it’s never as bad as it used to be. And now that I know what the best techniques are for dealing with my issues, I can implement them when needed and use guided tours to help me transform my life for the better!
There are few things in life that can provide the same sense of delight and wonder as travel does for me today. It is something we should all be doing regularly in our free time, as it helps us look at things in a completely new light. You will be surprised how much you can learn by exposing yourself to your fears and taking them on with dignity!