Alright, vagabond laptop warriors, listen up. While the lifestyle of working from anywhere in the world sounds like it’s totally about sitting in Zen gardens all day sipping organic free-range green tea, it’s actually only like that 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, your Guide goes to the beach. But I don’t work from the beach. That would be silly. However, as much as that freedom may sound appealing, it can take a toll on your mental health if you’re not proactive about caring for that squishy urge blob in your skull. So let’s explore five tips for digital nomad mental health to prevent burnout and keep you feeling fresh and fabulous.
If you’re new here and wondering why you’d listen to me talk about mental health: I’m the author of “YOU ARE NOT A ROCK“, a popular book on mental health that’s been translated in over 10 languages. I’ve worked in the mental health sector in a variety of executive and peer support roles for more than a decade. I support a global online community focused on maintaining great mental health and fitness. And I previously struggled with a bunch of mental illnesses, don’t anymore, and I now travel full-time. Taking care of my brain and helping other people do the same, while navigating our wonderful planet, is what I do.
1. Slow down.
Just reading the packed itineraries some of you post and how you’re jumping between freelance gigs gives me heartburn and headaches.
Traveling slowly as a digital nomad can be just as rewarding, if not more so, than constantly hopping from one destination to the next. You don’t need to see everything. Let the FOMO go.
Take your time to explore a location. Get to know the local culture and language, learn which vegetable stall in the market is the best, visit a favorite restaurant enough times that they ask you if you’ve overstayed your visa.
Constantly moving makes all of the other tips in this list difficult. And all of the other tips are here because they touch on factors known to exacerbate and fuel mental health challenges. Slow travel is key if you don’t want your brain trying to jump out of your head.
I spent two months in Cusco and still felt like I barely scratched the surface. There is so much to learn and celebrate and eat and explore. If you’re going to Machu Picchu, don’t treat Cusco as a quick stop.
2. Manage your Uncertainty Budget.
When traveling, uncertainty is inevitable. You can try your best to pack everything you need and plan every detail of your itinerary, but unexpected issues will arise. Mistakes on your visa, work disasters, Airbnbs that catfished you, climate change-driven weather events, a forgotten vaccination, delayed trains and cancelled flights, being illiterate, etc. Even if you find that all exciting, it’s using up your Uncertainty Budget. What is your Uncertainty Budget? Well…
It’s like your financial budget but you spend from your Uncertainty Budget each time you add an extra uncertainty to your life. A new place? Waiting on a job? Not sure about a visa? Family member sick back home? Trying to date while traveling? Don’t know where the vegan options are? Next month’s destination just descended into civil war? UNCERTAINTY.
If you max out that Uncertainty Budget, you won’t have capacity or emotional resources to handle difficult challenges. That’s a common trigger for relapsing into old mental health challenges.
Be aware of how much uncertainty you’re experiencing and reduce it where possible. What I suggest is that Uncertainty Budgeting becomes part of your travel planning. Be aware of how much you’re taking on. Add in extra space to reduce uncertainty. For instance, every time I go to a new place, I clear appointments from the first day so I can just get to know my neighborhood and establish where all of my supports are.
Visiting a place like Japan, where trying to decipher a hand-written menu will make your Google Translate app explode, can be a challenge if you don’t speak Japanese. You’ll understand what it’s like to be totally illiterate. But it’s worth learning how to navigate that.
- Coffee after a delicious meal of locally-sourced vegetable and seafood dishes at Mmm Que Rico, near Nakatsu Station, Osaka. The owners speak English and will be happy to explain the menu for you.
3. Always join an anchor.
As a digital nomad, staying in a new location can be exciting but also quite daunting. You are in a new environment with unfamiliar faces and surroundings, probably an unfamiliar language and culture, too. That is why having an ‘anchor’ is crucial when staying in a new place.
An ‘anchor’ is a location or activity that you can repeatedly visit or participate in to give yourself some consistency and support, like a Crossfit gym or a language school.
Not only will it give you a sense of familiarity and routine, but it will also provide a way to meet locals and fellow travelers. By consistently participating in an activity, you create a sense of community and belonging, which can go a long way in improving your experience as a digital nomad.
Try to setup the anchor before you arrive in your next destination.
Group activities and hikes can be a way to meet people, but I find they’re usually full of short-term tourists heading on to the next place when the activity is over. For an anchor, I look for something that has a fixed location I’ll visit repeatedly over a few months.
4. Practice the One Friend Rule.
As a digital nomad, it can be tempting to try making a ton of new friends in every new city you visit. That’s a lot of pressure, though. Making friends is difficult for adults even when they stay in one place.
Instead, it helps me to set a simple goal of meeting just one person in each new place that I’ll stay in-touch with when I leave. This person doesn’t have to become my new best friend. But I’m committing to putting effort into staying in-touch with them.
That may seem small. And I absolutely have visited places where I met several people I’ve stayed in-touch with. But if you move a few times each year, picking up one good friend in each place really starts to add up. There’s also a sense of building a support network around the world that can make it feel less like wandering aimlessly.
Speaking of not wandering aimlessly…
5. Use a compass.
A real compass can be super useful! But what I’m referring to here is more of an internal compass, a compass made of values. Pick some directions you want to go. What do you want to give to the world?
There are a few reasons for this:
1) It’ll help simplify you’re decision-making process as you’re slowmading around, which reduces the impact on your Uncertainty Budget.
2) A set of values is a big support for navigating challenges, internal and external. When I encounter a disruption to my travel schedule, I know to pick whatever solution helps me maintain support for my mental health community and clients because that’s what I set as the top value.
3) Choosing some directions to explore gives you a way to measure success by actions instead of expecting your destinations to give you some sort of special feeling or fulfillment. That won’t come from outside of you. Fulfillment on your journey will come from what you give, to yourself and others.
Enjoy!
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