If you ask me for my best travel tip, I won’t tell you how to roll up your underwear so it takes less space in your luggage, choose a no-fee credit card, or find the best flight deals.
Instead, I’ll remind you to choose happiness.
I know, I know. It sounds incredibly sappy. As a little girl, whenever I expressed my discontent over something, be it an early bedtime or having to share my Thundercats with my brother, my mother would always counsel me that I should “choose to be happy.” At the time, I found this advice insufferably out of touch. Some things in life just weren’t fair – like sharing my Tygra action figure – I could not simply “choose to be happy” in the face of such adversity.
Years later, I’ve realized my mother was onto something.
Recent travels found me in the world’s worst hotel. It was little more than a concrete warren of rooms above a dusty African town, and there was no running water. The town itself didn’t have much to offer, and we ate a dinner cobbled together from the grocery store across the street (the highlight of which was plain lettuce out of a bag) while seated on the sagging beds and listening to the blaring television in the room next door. It was miserable.
To lift my spirits, I tucked myself into bed with a pair of earplugs and my copy of Gabrielle Bernstein’s Miracles Now: 108 Life-Changing Tools for Less Stress, More Flow, and Finding Your True Purpose. Immediately, I was reminded of the lesson to choose happiness.
I committed to using Gabrielle Bernstein’s recommended mantra – happiness is a choice I make – and noticed an instant difference. The next day, while I was sitting on an overcrowded minibus sandwiched between a kid with a runny nose and two boxes of live chickens, I reminded myself to choose happiness. By framing the experience as a delightful opportunity to interact with local people rather than a travel inconvenience, I saved myself from a lot of useless negativity.
Travel often doesn’t go the way that you want it to go: the airport security line can be too long, the hotel’s pillows might feel like they are stuffed with bricks, or the museum might be overpriced and so full of people that you can’t see the art. All of that is beyond your control.
But you know what is in your control? How you choose to respond to the situation. Do yourself a favor: choose happiness.
Image credit: honey-bee