Solo Travel Meditation: Why So Many Long-Term Travelers Pick It Up

A number of the long-term solo travelers I have met have started practicing some form of meditation while traveling. I think the reasons for this are fairly obvious: Time, Solitude, Novelty. As mentioned before, long-term travelers have a lot of time on their hands while traveling. When back home, it is rare to have 30 minutes of unstructured time, as there are always things to be done, such as to respond to e-mails, complete other work tasks, or attend to family responsibilities. Once on the road, many travelers find that their mind is much more focused and ‘on’ than usual. This, in itself, is not sufficient to start meditating, but it is a good base from which to begin. The solitude of solo travel is a big plus, as there are few distractions that would cause a traveler to stop meditating. Unlike back home, there is no one to chat with in a break between sessions of meditation, and thus, there is little to cause a traveler to give up practicing.

Why travel makes meditation easier to start

You have more time available to practice than you would at home. Yes, the 30 minutes of sitting can be squeezed into your schedule but the greater factor is that your mind is already in a more open state than it would be at home. On a trip you can expect to be more ‘present’ than you would at home and this is just one of the aspects of your mind that you can build on by practicing meditation. The other factor that can work in your favor is that you are alone and therefore are not distracted by others as you would be at home.

Methods that work for beginners

When looking for some traveling meditations there are a few methods that have been of great help to many. A lot of traveling meditators use guided meditations found in traveling meditation apps like Calm, Headspace or Waking Up. These are great because they give clear instructions for practice, which can be very beneficial for new meditators. Next, simple breathing meditation can be really easy to practice when traveling and can consist of just 10 minutes of focusing attention on the breath, not needing any special equipment or prior experience with meditation. Finally, walking meditation is also great for many traveling meditators, mainly because if you are traveling a lot then you are probably walking a lot, and applying some meditative attention to your walking can be a very easy way to incorporate more traveling meditation into your daily life of traveling.

What changes when you practice

As for the benefits of a meditation practice on a trip, the effects on a traveler of lower reactivity to the various “friction” points of a trip (i.e. reactivity to delays, lost or stolen items, terrible food, etc) can be very subtle yet immense in terms of your overall enjoyment of a trip. That is, while the various “sufferings” of travel can still occur for the meditator, the trip will feel less of a struggle to get through, and more enjoyable in terms of your ability to treat the various annoyances of traveling with ease and even indifference. As for increased awareness, a meditation practice increases your ability to be fully present and attentive in all situations, which results in increased awareness of everything around you, whether it is people, environments, or even yourself. Lastly, in terms of the physical effects of traveling, (poor sleep in hostels, traveling at high altitudes, loud airports, etc.) the breathing and focusing techniques learned in meditation can be of immense help in preparing your body for such rigors and helping to calm yourself down when your body is under duress. This is the trade off for establishing a practice while traveling, and as with any practice, you get out what you put in. If the various techniques don’t feel to have positive effects after a month or so, then the practice most likely is not for you.

I have lost count of how many times I have changed my perspective on meditation over the years and the current view is just best for now.

Common beginner mistakes

There are several things that can make meditating on the road a frustration for many a traveler. For new meditators it can be really difficult to clear their minds in order to bring themselves to a point of meditation and for many this leads to becoming increasingly frustrated with what they see as failure to reach the state of ‘no thoughts’. Most travelers on the road are hoping to reach some sort of meditative state pretty quickly and are disappointed to find that this does not happen. For many the consistent practice over time of only a few minutes each day is enough to start to see positive effects but giving up after missing a few days is a pattern that I have seen over and over again.

Should I be meditating while traveling or not?

Meditation can be quite aversive for some people even though it is aversive to very few. If you practice for a month or so and find that you do not enjoy it, then the worst thing you can do is to stop for a few days or a week here and there. Rather, you should find an alternative method and practice that for a month or so. The main point is that if you do find a method that has a very positive affect on your travels then it is worth making a daily time commitment to it, because the time spent each day will have a big cumulative effect in the long run. Many people go on to practice all their lives after their first long solo trip. Others only practice on the road.

What I would tell a first-time solo traveler

Stay longer in a couple of places once you have your bearings. The best parts of solo travel come in the second week of a city or town, when you have started to form real connections with locals and to get into a regular routine. Don’t take too many photos to show to friends and family when you get back – write lots of journal pages instead. Solo travel is best to really get to grips with when you reflect on your experiences as you go along. Choose a country to go solo to that is very easy to get around, such as Japan, Portugal, Spain, Mexico or Vietnam for your first solo travel trip. That way, the difficulties of solo travel are not added to by the challenges of a difficult country.

Closing perspective from years on the road

This is a guide to what for many travelers will be the standard approach, based on my own experience of many trips and the experiences of other travelers that I have met on the road. As with all things, there will be some details that are particular to your own trip and your own approach, but hopefully this will give you a solid foundation to get started from. I have written this in the hope that it will be of use, and that you will read widely, talk to other travelers and then go and do it all for yourself. The doing is where you will get the most out of long-term travel, and the reading, done before you go, will simply shorten the time between you making a mistake and realizing it. Remember, the only trips that you will remember years later are the ones that changed something for you.

Reviewed by Owen Park. Tested on my own trips.