How to come home from a trip and not be fucking depressed
I’m sure you’ve experienced this before.
You go on this amazing trip, have the best time, make amazing memories, meet some really awesome people and are riding this high until you come home and are hit with reality again.
Now what?
You just go on about your life same as how you were before you left. And it kinda sucks actually.
Not that your life sucks, but going from such a fun, exciting, exhilarating time back to normal life… feels like it sucks right?
I used to take trips to run away from my life at home. Yes, I wanted to travel and see and do cool shit… but I also was so excited to escape my life for a little while and then would absolutely dread coming back home.
I’ve been making a conscious effort to change this.
To not be fucking depressed when I come back home.
To not just be going through the motions, living a mundane life at home.
To not always be waiting for the next escape.
So today I’m sharing how I improved my home life so that I actually look forward to coming home from a trip now instead of getting the post travel blues.
ONE
One of the reasons we get the travel blues is because we’ve had something to look forward to for so long and now we have nothing fun and exciting going on.
One simple and fairly easy way to make yourself feel a bit better about coming home is to continue to have things to look forward to. And this can be something small like a concert coming up, a comedy show or a dinner out with friends. Something that you’re going to look forward to. Keep the fun times rolling.
TWO
You can also start brainstorming and planning for your next trip, even if you don’t know when exactly that will be, it’s fun to have something to day dream about! Start a Pinterest board, save some tiktoks, save hostels you want to stay in… Remind yourself that this time in between trips is only temporary and you will get to live that travel life again. Maybe sooner than you think.
THREE
On that note, I do want to say that the way to get over post travel blues is to truly really ENJOY the normal day to day life you have at home. The same way that the in between trips is temporary, being on the actual trip is temporary too.
Everything is temporary. This is the ebb and flow of life. There will be ups and downs. It’s what we make out of both seasons that matters.
Picture this…
Let’s think about the years of our lives as pie for a moment. One year is one whole pie. Lets go with pumpkin, duh.
The time you spend travelling in the year is equivalent to the slices of pie you’ve eaten from the whole pie.
Now picture cutting the pie into 12 slices. Each slice equals one month of your year.
Now, most people don’t even get as much vacation time or time travelling as I’m talking about but this is just for example’s sake. (Cut the pie into as many slices makes sense for you)
Let’s say you travel for 2 months out of the whole year.
You eat 2 slices of pie out of 12.
You still have 10 slices left.
Those 10 slices are the time you spend at home, not travelling.
Do you think it’s wise to spend the rest of your year (10/12 slices of pie) being bored, living life on auto pilot, wishing you were doing different things, living a mundane life and just waiting for the next 2 slices to come around again? No.
Anyone would say that’s not a good use of your 10 slices.
What I’m trying to say here is, for most of us, the majority of our time is not spent travelling.
We cannot spend the majority of our life waiting for our next trip or being sad that our previous one is over.
We have a finite amount of time here on this earth. We must make the most of it. Which means we need to make those 10 slices of pie count.
We need to find joy, happiness, fulfillment, and adventure in our day to day lives too. Not just through the trips we take.
We deserve to enJOY our lives much more often than that.
So that brings me to the next point…
FOUR
Making big changes.
If you’re feeling a little wild, a little risky perhaps…
You could fuck around and make a big change. Why not right?
Only if you’re feeling called of course. BUT life is short.
Do what the fuck makes you happy. And if you’re not happy, take a risk and make a big change.
Here’s some big changes you could make:
- Your friends (a very underrated big change)
- The way you make money (your job/work/side hustles)
- How you spend your time outside of work
- Your home (location and situation)
- Your romantic life
Oooooo bitch these make me excited.
I LOVE a good plot twist.
Now, maybe you’re working a job you don’t really like and maybe you hate where you’re living or whatever the situation may be- you’re like, girl I can’t change that overnight and live happily ever after. Fine.
I hear you. Big changes (most of the time) don’t happen overnight.
Sometimes we’re not ready for big changes, sometimes we really want them to happen but other things have to fall into place first and we’re kinda waiting for those things to happen.
So let’s talk about the small ones that you could start tomorrow.
FIVE
Making small changes.
Some small changes you can make in your day to day life:
- Your morning routine (major)
- Starting a gratitude practice
- How you fuel your body
- How much you move your body and how you like to stay active
- The music you listen to, how often you listen, and dance and sing
- The media you consume
- How you spend your money
- How you process your life, emotions and experiences (going to therapy, healing, reading, journaling etc)
- Picking up a new hobby
- How much you sleep
- Your work schedule
Just reading this list, you know what will bring you a greater quality of life. You know what will create more joy, peace and fulfillment in your life.
You just have to pick something and start doing it.
I highly recommend the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear if you haven’t read it. Your daily habits and rituals make such a HUGE difference on your experience of life.
Before leaving for my last trip, I was focused on making a bunch of small changes to my day to day life to improve my overall experience of my time on this earth when I am at home, not travelling.
I was finding myself bored, uninspired, not feeling like I had any direction or even any enjoyment day to day.
Quite honestly, I was feeling those familiar feelings of just bland nothingness. The ones you feel when you’re kind of teetering on depression, you know?
They’re hard to put into words but if you know you fuckin KNOW.
I wasn’t excited about life. I wasn’t happy day to day. I started resenting my day to day life, feeling trapped, feeling a pinch of impending doom. It’s a slippery slope.
April was also just kind of a shitty ride. Some shitty stuff happened and I was just not feeling good at all. I wasn’t feeling like myself.
I knew I had this trip coming up in just over a month.
I started to feel the anticipation of being able to run away from life again.
And then I saw the cycle of what was happening.
And I decided I don’t want to live like that anymore.
Sad, bored, and tired until I go on another trip and then I’m happy for a while (2 slices) and then I come back and we’re right where we left off again for 10 slices.
No. I don’t want it anymore.
I want to enjoy my life MORE of the time. Like, MOST of the time.
I want to enjoy life ALL of the time or as close as I can possibly get.
So for now I am making small changes. Until the big changes start to fall into place. Because I want to make the absolute most out of my 12 slices of pie.
What are you going to do with your 12 slices of pie this year?
xo Bailey
*If you are struggling with your mental health or experiencing depression, please know that it is absolutely ok to seek professional help if you feel you need it. ❤*
