Traveling Blues

Six Ways to Beat the Traveling Blues

By Matt Uchimaru, Freelance Writer

August 2007

It was almost 3 years ago that I returned to Japan for what would be my second stint exploring one of the countries of my ancestry. Like many before me I had taken to teaching English to finance my adventures. I was young, optimistic, gainfully employed and as carefree as a globally aware person can be these days. It was surprisingly sudden when I found myself unable or even desiring to leave my tiny bachelor apartment.

I had caught a wicked case of the traveling blues.

It was somewhere near the four-month mark of my year long adventure living and exploring abroad and I had been struck down by a serious and crippling bout of traveler’s depression, or what I’ve termed the “traveling blues.” It was and is by no means an unfamiliar phenomenon to those living overseas away from their family, friends and familiar cultural accoutrements. Loneliness, lethargy and garden variety homesickness have stricken down many a friend afar and innumerable others out there for whom I have considerable sympathy. It’s not altogether unlike missing mom and dad while away at summer camp. Resolving it, however, usually requires a little more than a call home on the pay phone down the road.

Finding oneself amidst a spell of depression while traveling abroad is not a terminal condition. It isn’t something you have to simply swallow and stoically accept. Don’t pack up the bags and start fishing around for the other half of that return ticket just yet. There are plenty of different ways solo adventurers abroad can take action against those traveling blues.

1. A health and diet makeover

If you’re down in the dumps one thing to look at is your diet and lifestyle. When was the last time you had something that wasn’t deep fried, cooked on a stick, or smothered in some heavenly sauce that is so rich it can only be laced with heavy metals? Or gone for a walk for that matter?

Making a small commitment to eat healthy and exercise even moderately can do wonders for improving how you feel both physically and mentally. After a day of teaching I came to realize that going for a half-hour run instead of drinking a couple beers and eating something I bought at the convenience store made all the difference in the world to how I was feeling about my work day and my time abroad.

2. Pursuing pastimes

There’s a reason why you can’t shake that alienated, stranger in a strange land feeling. A reason why it seems so arduous finding common ground to share with those in your temporarily adopted homeland. Have you taken up any new interests since your airplane hit the tarmac?

Trawling the depths of a mild depression in Japan I eventually realized that if I was to start feeling differently about my whole travel experience I was going to have to embrace some new strategies. One of these was to get a new pastime. By taking up the odd, then regular, game of Frisbee golf I found myself getting out of doors more, meeting new people and having something new to learn and focus my energies on.

3. Learning to talk the talk

It goes with out saying that if you’re living in a country where they speak a different language from your own that you won’t get very far in your travel experience if you don’t learn at least a few words of the local tongue. Around the same time I took up Frisbee golf I started attending language classes at the local community centre. Doing so improved my ability to converse with questionable strangers at local drinking establishments. It also gave me a tremendous feeling of empowerment and accomplishment. Dusting off the language workbook can help safeguard against more than just getting lost.

4. Blogging away the blues

Unless you’ve been in some inaccessible mountain hideaway for the last few years you’ve probably heard of blogging. A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Your blog can contain text, pictures and even sound. Visitors to your blog can often write comments in response to each journal entry.

A blog is a way to share what you’re seeing, feeling and experiencing (except perhaps, for that one particular evening last month) with friends and loved ones back home. I started keeping one in the last half of my year abroad. Keeping a journal not only gives you an outlet for your thoughts it also helps to provide a degree of detachment from depressive feelings. A small case of the blues viewed against the backdrop of your overall experience can really aid your perspective.

5. Try a little technology

Even though you’re thousands of miles from home you’re no doubt within a stone’s throw of a computer and the Internet. Internet radio, VoIP (voice over IP a.k.a. Internet telephone) and online videos sites like YouTube are just a few of the different modes at your disposal to reconnect with places, people and spaces you might be missing. I used to tune in to my national radio on the Internet and keep it on while I was cooking dinner in the evening. I’d occasionally chat with friends over chat software and doing so every once and a while definitely helped to soothe my homesick pangs.

6. Seeking professional help dot com

If all else fails you can always seek professional therapy and counsel for how you’re feeling. There are numerous therapists that can be accessed online. These online therapists are able to correspond with you by phone, live chat over the Internet, or by email. This is probably a last resort for most but something to consider before you cash in your chips and call it quits.

The traveling blues is something that can often strike without warning while you’re abroad. Recognizing both its roots and how you can take steps to alleviate it can mean the difference between an amazing travel experience and a year that you’d rather not remember.

One last parting bit of advice that I stumbled across. In the words of some wise, unknown soul:

“Ten rules for getting rid of the blues: Go out and do something for someone else – repeat it nine times.”