How to Meditate While Travelling Over the Holidays
For most people, their spiritual practice is not some epic journey like those we see in action or adventure movies where they study with a master and suddenly achieve true enlightenment. The truth is, developing a spiritual practice is about building consistent habits that change your thinking, your reactions, and slowly, your goals and perceptions.
The reason I’m writing this article is because, to this day, travelling still challenges the habits I’ve developed over the last decade that help me feel connected to that place of peace within me. In writing this, my hope is to share with you some of the ways I’ve found to stay calm and meditative even when I’m surrounded by people who aren’t.
First of all, I want to say that it doesn’t have to be hard! If you’re thinking that meditating while travelling isn’t possible, completely throw that idea out the window.Oh yes, it’s possible my friends! Meditation allows us a quiet space to retreat, recharge, and remind ourselves what’s really important about the holidays.
Here are my no B.S. tips on how to meditate in all the strange, silly, and stressful situations we find ourselves in during the holidays.
7 Ways to Meditate On-the-Go During the Holiday Season
1. Meditate in the Bathroom
It sounds silly, I know! But even if you are sharing a bedroom (or a bed) while travelling, you’re alone in the bathroom at some point! Either let yourself meditate in the shower or just take a moment and check in with your body while you take deep breaths for one minute. This can help you clear negative emotions and gives you a moment to separate from the energy of everyone else. Ask yourself what your body needs whether it’s exercise, water, rest or a more lengthy meditation session to handle an emotional situation. I do this while visiting people who don’t sit and meditate to keep my sanity and clear my energy.
2. Listen to Spiritual Music
If you’re driving in the car, you can always put on spiritual music, even if you play it from your cell phone. The music will help you feel peaceful and help your mind find a meditative state. It’s a simple way to remind yourself that everything around you is only secondary to your inner life where you direct your thoughts and create the emotions you choose to focus on. YouTube has great spiritual songs for free or you could download some in advance to your phone in case you don’t have wifi. I love Desert Dwellers, White Sun and other kundalini yoga mantras by Gurunam Singh or Nirinjan Kaur. Mantras are designed to raise your vibration.
You can also get free meditation music when you sign up for Daily Life’s mailing list!
3. Do 7-7-7 Breathing at the Airport
If you’re waiting in line or need to calm down for any reason, breathe in for seven seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds and breathe out for 7 seconds. This will help your nerves relax and put you into a more meditative state. It also helps clear negativity when you breathe deeply because you bring more prana (life force) into your aura. If you feel negative while travelling, you can always breathe deeply to feel better. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing or explain yourself to anyone - everyone does weird things at airports!
4. Sit With a Journal & a Coffee in the Morning
One of my favourite things to do while travelling is to get up before everyone else and sit with a journal and a cup of coffee. This allows me to use that half-awake half-asleep state to set my intention, ask questions to my higher consciousness and also perceive things from a relaxed meditative state. I like to ask my higher self what I need to know and write it down.
I also use this time to visualize what I’ve been manifesting and write down it down so that I continue to stay focused on what my soul is urging me to do and not get too caught up in other people’s lives. I prepare myself to set healthy boundaries and stay positive, loving and supportive in the day to come. I also like to sit with a journal in the evening for a few minutes before bed and rewrite my manifesting list and reflect on the day. This doesn’t interrupt anyone and you can do it privately.
5. Pull a Tarot Card From Your Purse (Or Use a Tarot App)
I love to travel with a deck of cards because they help me connect to my intuition right away. I’m used to looking at them and that relationship helps me tune in even when it’s not the ideal time or place. I’ll think of a question I need guidance on like ‘how do I have patience with so-and-so’ or ‘would this be a good use of time to do.’ I let the impressions I get when I pull a card come into my peripheral vision and heart to give me guidance. You can also carry angel cards or any type of card deck that resonates you.
If you’re on a tight budget over the holidays, there are tons of free Tarot apps that you can download and use, as well as lots of free Tarot services online. You can check out our favourite one-stop Tarot shop right here!
6. Go for a Walk
If you need to clear your head, take a walk. Even if it’s 10 or 20 minutes, just say you need some exercise or fresh air and do a walking meditation. This is a great way to clear your head and find a better state of mind. Plan on going for a walk daily and you’ll find your whole day goes better because you do. Walking allows us to go into a trance-like state while we breathe and it can help us relax if we are anxious or triggered by family members.
7. Do Gentle Stretching
Restorative yoga poses held for a few minutes (3-10) can help you meditate while travelling. Simple seated forward fold, down dog, wide straddle reaching forward, child’s pose or savasana are all great poses to breathe slowly and deeply in to meditate. This is something you can do three times a day to reset yourself or just when you get a chance. This can help reduce the tension in your body from travelling and allow your mind to stop racing.
Check out our Daily Yoga Pose and all our other yoga resources by clicking right here.
Concluding Thoughts…
You can also come up with your own little techniques to meditate. Scents from essential oils can help you stay in a relaxed and meditative state and the little jars are certainly travel sized. You can wear crystals, rings, or other jewelry to help you keep your vibes up and remind you of your spiritual practice. As silly as it sounds, I find dressing in loose, comfy, soft clothing that I can move in helps me feel more grounded in my body instead of feeling self-conscious.
Finally, learn to be okay with excusing yourself to meditate!
If someone isn’t accepting of your self-care/meditation practice, let’s face it, their opinion doesn’t really matter all that much anyway, does it? It can be a little intimidating to meditate around people you’ve known your whole life or new friends, especially if they don’t buy into meditation. Look at it as an opportunity to stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone to do what you need to grow your confidence. When you’re calm, you’ll be leading a great example for those around you - they may even be inspired to meditate with you!
Related Article: Winter Holidays To Renew Your Soul
