9 Mental Health Tips When Traveling for Work

Hey there. My name is Beth and I am with the Boutique Hub. We may have not met before. I'm probably a familiar face. If you listen to our podcast or if you're active in our Facebook groups, or if you've even watched some of our YouTube videos, you probably haven't seen me before. Again, I'm Beth. I am our director of operations and events. So if you do head to one of our events, you will definitely see me. And so the reason why I am doing this video is because I do travel for events and I do travel for work. So I wanted to share some of my tips for maintaining your mental health and sanity when you're traveling for work. So this is specifically when you are traveling for work because obviously when you're traveling for personal things are a little bit more fun. But some of these tips definitely will work for when you travel on vacation, you know, with your family or for personal reasons. So travel and I have a love hate relationship. I live in the middle of Wisconsin. I've lived here, you know, my entire life. But I have gotten the chance to travel, which I enjoy getting out of Wisconsin, I've been to, I don't want to, four continents, I don't know how many countries. So I have gotten a chance to travel, travel. And I really love traveling for work. Getting to see the big city because I get to put on together events, I get to see my fellow co workers because we are all around the country. I get to meet new members and I get to see other members that I haven't seen in a while. So it's, it's my circle of friends and it's just really exciting. Plus we get to see new fashions and, and just kind of see all the things of new cities that I haven't visited before. However, I have found that I do develop some anxiety when I'm traveling to a new city, meeting new people, being overstimulated and just having time away from home again. I love traveling, but I do need to take some things into consideration, otherwise I will fall into a depressive state or have a panic attack, both of which I've had while traveling. This is just the hand I've been dealt. You might have been dealt this hand as well. And you know, the sun shines brighter after a dark storm. So let's start with tip number one. One of the things I'd like to add is humor and dance. So. So if you see me do any random things, you might not think they're very funny, but I think they're kind of funny. So makes me laugh, makes me happy. Sorry that I don't really have anything on my walls. I am not a decorator. Those are some empty boxes on that side. I don't know how to do this because it's backwards. Nope, don't have anything on my wall. This confuses me there. But anyways, let's start with tip number one. This is one I've just started kind of developing over the last year or so is to mentally prep for the trip. So it's something again that's overlooked. But I always try to take some extra self care time before I'm heading out on a trip. I know it's hard because you feel like you have to meal prep for the kids and your spouse or you have to get everything ready and packed and make sure that the store is taken care of. But even, even if it's simple things. So for me it's making sure I take a walk with my dog. No phone, just me and my dog. Read a few chapters of a book or just making sure I get enough sleep. Then once I actually start traveling, I like to take the last 30 minutes of the flight to journal. Of course I'm not taking the whole time because I never see movies. The only time I ever see movies is, is on an airplane. So I'm going to take that first part to watch the movie. Then the last 30 minutes I set that time aside to journal. And what I do is I journal the type of energy I want to have and my intentions for this trip. Again, this is not something I've done a lot, but the last couple of times I've done it, it's really helped me to mentally prep for the trip. So usually as a boutique hub employee, the type of energy my intentions is to listen. I want to listen to other members and just soak everything up. I am a talker and I not very good at listening. So it's something that I, if I write it down and I set it as an intention, it really helps me to come back to that. During the trip I also want to make sure I introduce myself and meet new people, meet new members, which is something that's difficult for me. But if I set that intention, it's easier to know that I'm going to do it. I'm gonna mentally prepping and I'm also gonna slow down. I go bam, bam, bam all over the place. If I'm organizing events, I got a clipboard, I'm ready to go. I'm like, okay, okay, we go, here we go. Checklist, Checklist. And I just need to slow down and just take everything in, absorb everything and just be ready and go with the flow for my energy. I try to concentrate on being positive, grateful, and open to everything on the trip. It's easy to get discouraged or not be open to everything, especially if you are a control freak like me. So I try to just be open and grateful because not everyone has a job that they love and I have the best job in the world and I get to travel and meet new people. So I really try to put that in my heart about how I'm grateful for these trips. So again, this is tip number one. Mentally prep for the trip. The next thing is tip number two is to share your thoughts with your boutique bestie. So if you don't have a boutique bestie yet, there is a ton of threads and ways for you to find a boutique bestie in our community, in the boutique hub. So if you haven't found one, we will get you one comment below and I will, like, help you find a boutique bestie. Like, give it. It's kind of like your match.com profile. Like, I'm this, you know, this is what I like. I like longbocs on the beach. I like to watch funny videos. I'm a little weird. We'll help you find a boutique bestie. If not, I'll be your friend because I love everyone. You just have to deal with me. So sharing your thoughts with your boutique bestie. Thankfully, the stigma that used to be associated with mental health has really developed over the past 10 years. When I was diagnosed with chronic depression and generalized anxiety disorder in 2012, I did not feel comfortable sharing that, you know, with my illness with people. And yes, it is an illness, just like diabetes and, you know, high blood pressure, it is an illness. I just felt the need to kind of silently suffer. And it just really seemed like something I was embarrassed of and something that was my fault, which is absolutely not true. Those are lies that your mind tells you. And so fortunately now there's been so many things to help erase that stigma. We're not completely where we need to be, but there's been so many things that help people. So feel free to open up and tell your boutique bestie that, yeah, I have anxiety about being in a big city. I have a fear of flying. You know, it's possible they have the same thing and you guys can share some tips and just being able to talk about it and share it really helps you. This is really especially important for recovering addicts. Whether you struggle with alcohol or food or drugs or gambling, it's important to have at least one person that you trust so that you can be held accountable to them. Especially in big cities like Vegas, there's going to be all those temptations and to have someone that can help you be held accountable, they'll help you just be on that path to success and you'll be good. It'll be a good work trip. Yes. And again, the reason why I'm doing this is I am prepping for our event in Vegas in about a month. So I reference things to Vegas. That's why. Because I have Vegas on my mind. Again, tip number two was share your thoughts with your boutique bestie. Tip number three is, remember, this is a work trip, not a vacation. Now, I get some of you might bring family around and extend us to a vacation, but I'm talking specifically when you are going on a work trip. This is work. This is not a vacation. So you're not spending this money taking time away from your store and booking a flight, booking a hotel. Food is expensive to have fun and party and have a vacation. You are there to work. Now, does that mean, like, you can't do anything fun? No, absolutely not. But you are there to work. That's the number one reason. So if you are focused on the fact that you're there to help your business, to make it better and to help your customers, it helps alleviate some of that anxiety. If you're doing something, if you know that you're helping your business, then you can help your family. It will help you to push through that anxiety. And even if it seems like everyone's there for one big party, that's not the case. And that does not have to be your market experience. You do. You boo. You do. You. Again, work trip, not a vacation. Number four, make a schedule. This. Yes, that's me. I'm a to do list person, schedule person. I'll nail everything down. And because, again, you're there for work. So it's good to make a schedule of, you know, the times that the markets are open, any preset appointments you have, you know, which market you want to go where or what floor you want to go at what times. If there's any seminars you want to check out, put them on the schedule. In Vegas, we always have two events, so be sure to check those out on our website. And so having those preset schedules really helps me to relax because I know what's going on. I can, again, mentally prep. Okay, this is the time that I'm going to be around a lot of people so I can just kind of mentally prep, you know, give myself some time to just kind of to set that intention. I'm going to be open, I'm going to be aware. I'm going to talk to a lot of people. So then when that comes, I'm aware of that. Don't be afraid though, to pencil in. Find some boutique besties to have dinner with or like, look in, you know, our community, our Facebook groups and our Facebook event. See where people are going, you know, meeting up for dinner. It's okay to be spontaneous, be open to that. Again, if you're open to it, it's a lot easier to deal with and you'll find that you might that those are the best times. But again, number four, make a schedule. I love this one. And if everything doesn't go as planned, it's okay. Telling myself that right now. If everything doesn't go as planned, it's okay. Number five, keep your routine. Again, this is kind of coincides with your schedule. So if you have a routine at home where every morning you get up and you work out, that's easy. There's lots of gyms at hotels. Yes. If you try to have a green smoothie every day, you know, like superfoods, blueberries, spinach, all that jazz, Chia seed, chia ped, acai, all those words I'm probably mispronouncing. Yeah, I'm sure there is tons of places to get a green smoothie, especially if you are going shopping in la. That is the LA thing. Healthy, superfood smoothies, you name it. If you sleep best, you know, having a cup of tea and drinking or drinking a cup of tea or reading from your book before bed. Bring your, you know, tea packets along and most hotel rooms have a coffee maker and you can brew water there and you know, just go through that routine. Having these little things that kind of keep you grounded to your normal routine definitely helps. And by just setting that intention or putting it in your schedule or writing it down, it's more likely to actually happen. Number five, keep your routine. Number six, my favorite sleeping. This is so important to me and my boutique hub coworkers definitely know they're aware of this. I need my sleep. I am definitely a early to bed, early to rise person. So they'll be up talking and yep, best sleeping. Good thing they haven't done anything like, you know, shaving cream on my face or anything. Let's hope they don't watch this video and get any ideas I mean, we're adults here, okay? But I need my sleep and I am not ashamed of it. So. One of the items that are on almost every mental health tip list is sleep and getting the correct amount of sleep. So not oversleeping, but then having enough of it every single night. And you can't, you know, sleep two hours one night and then 10 hours the next night and expect it to even out. You need every single night. If you go to the blog post with this, there is a podcast that I love that talks about the benefits of sleep and how they have studies with this and I could go on and on, but it helps with your brain development and it helps your memory. There's just so many benefits with it along with your mental health. If I'm sleep deprived, I just cry. I don't know why. I'm not sad about anything, but I just cry. So let's keep Beth with her sleep. You know, keep. Keep that sleep for Beth. But anyone who said you can sleep in your dad, they don't realize that sleep deprivation shaves years off your life and it keeps your brain from developing. And what are those things? Brain development. You need that to keep your business, like, growing. So if you want to feel good and grow your business, sleep, that's the answer. So again, number six, sleep. I hope I didn't put you to sleep by talking about this. Let's hope not. Number seven, eat healthy and exercise. Oh, everyone's favorite. Like I referenced before, if you're a fitness junkie, you're gonna get that workout in. But if you don't really feel like running in August, heat in Vegas, that's me. No, I don't want to run in any situation. I'm not a runner. There's some other healthy habits you can do. I mean, you can go to a yoga class. Hotels have those all over the place. You can add fruits and veggies to your meal. Bananas are all over the place and they are so cheap, it's not difficult to grab a banana. Almost every Starbucks has banana and apples, so you can grab that along with grabbing your muffin and just practicing self control. I mean, you don't. Just because you're in Sin City doesn't mean you got to do shots and then order a cheeseburger at 1am and a cheesecake and other cheese products or any type of thing like that. You can practice some self control because you're gonna feel so much better. You're not gonna be bloated and feel bad that you ate that last night. And Again, this is where your boutique bestie will help and you guys can be accountable with each other and specifically also, if you struggle with addiction, this is where you know, you want to make sure to, you know, have a smoothie instead of having a drink if you struggle with alcoholism. Or just make sure you stay accountable with your boutique bestie. So again, seven. Eat healthy and exercise. Eight. Eight is great. Eight is great. Over. Avoid overstimulating yourself. So again, this one is personal for me. So I'm like a self diagnosed, highly sensitive person. And if you're not familiar with what that is, I have a link in our blog post or you can just Google highly sensitive person. Again, it's not really something. I mean, you can go in and get diagnosed with it, but they have quizzes online and I'm not just doing it just to diagnose myself. It's so I can be more aware of what things overwhelm me so I can learn how to cope with them. So being a highly sensitive person in general just means my energy is really easily drained after exposure to crowds, bright lights, or lots of noises. Honestly, I mean, I get overwhelmed and tired from going to Target. There's all these things I want to buy and all these noises and all these pretty colors and all these people and bright lights. I mean, I get overstimulated especially. I mean, introverts probably feel this as well. You know, after being around a lot of people, you're drained, you're tired. I'm kind of an introverted extroverted. Which means, I mean, when I'm extroverted, I'm talkative, as you can tell. No, this is not a sped up version. I know I talk very fast, but I need that alone time to just revamp and recharge my batteries when I know that there's going to be a time where I'm going to be around a lot of people or if I'm feeling overwhelmed. I try to keep tabs on my mental health and how I'm even feeling physically. I just, sometimes I just go, I say I have to go to the restroom and I go and hang out in the restroom or I go find a quiet spot. I know there's not all that quiet spots at Market, but find some place to sit down that's kind of away from people and just take a breather. Whether it's like listening to five minute meditation podcast or calling your family or journaling or just kind of shutting your eyes for a minute, that helps you to recharge your batteries. And again, if you're not into flashing lights and sounds, a casino. I am sure you will find someone that will want to go to the pool with you. Me, right here. Alright, high five. We will go to the pool together. Yes. That's my jam again. Avoid overstimulating yourself. Hopefully this video is not overstimulating you, but if it is, you can go sleep afterwards and take a nap. All right, My last tip, because you're probably sick of my voice, but I'm not. So I love hearing myself talk. So I'm just gonna keep talking, talk, talk, talk. Alright, Number nine, right? Nine. Nine. Recover. Okay. You're saying, Beth, how am I gonna have time to recover? I am just out of town. I have to go back to an under staffed store. I got inbox with thousands of emails. I've got inventory that I have to unpack and shoot and merchandise. Okay, all right. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow your roll, sister. Like, stop. I know there's lots of things waiting for you when you get back, but if you don't take care of yourself and you're at 10%, you're not gonna be able to get anything done. You'll get through two things and you'll just bam, snap at someone or start crying or you're just gonna be drained. So the first thing with that mini tip within this tip is try and delegate. While you're gone, give your staff a list of things to do. I mean, you might have a right hand that you trust to check your inbox while you're gone. So I mean, have them kind of delete the junk and take care of things that you don't need to deal with. Have your staff unpack inventory and steam it there. You know, there's so many things you can leave for them to do. And if you give them a list of things to do while you're out of the office, they'll stay out of trouble. Idle hands of the devil's playwork. You know, play, work, playground. So give them something to do so they stay out of trouble and then it's done when you get back. And again, if you just jump into things when you're at 10%, you're not going to get anything done. So on the flight home or the drive home, try to do something to recover. So whether that's listening to your favorite music. Avett Brothers. Anyone Google it? Spotify it? It's amazing. Avett Brothers A V E T T No, I don't get paid for this. This is just my favorite band. Get some sleep, you know. Oh, you know Someone's gonna make fun of me for my accent. Grab some sleep. Make sure you, you know, you get home, snuggle your kids. I got a dog. I'll snuggle her. Clean up your inbox in flight. I mean, wifi in flight is pretty darn cheap if you think you're gonna get through some emails. Worth it. Worth it. Then, when you get home, just remember these tips. Remember to eat healthy. Remember to get exercise. Remember to get enough water and enough sleep. Remember, you can't pour from an empty cup. You can't fill someone else's cup if yours is empty. So again, that was number nine, Recover. I'm gonna revamp all of them again. But if you need to, I have a blog post. You can go print them off or jot them down. Number one, prep. Mentally prep for the trip. Number two, share your thoughts with your boutique bestie. I don't know what this accent is, but I'm rolling with it. Number three, remember, this is a work trip, not vacation. Number four, make a schedule. Number five, keep your routine. Number six, sleep. You better not forget that one. Number seven, eat healthy and exercise. Number eight, avoid overstimulating yourself. And number nine, recover. So there you have it. My mental health tips for traveling, for work, and if you ever need anyone to talk to, you can hit me up. You can email, drop a comment below. I'll be here for you, unless it's after 9pm Because I'll be sleeping. So thank you for watching, all two of you. Mom, myself, I'll probably watch it again. All right, Tata, if you want any other videos from me, let me know so I don't get fired for making this video. All right, thanks. Bye, guys. Bye. Bye.