The Road She Traveled
Beauty and Self-Care while Traveling
Beauty, Self-Care ,and Travel
Self-care isn’t just about taking a bubble bath and getting a massage, although maybe in your travels that’s exactly what you end up doing! Self-care is looking after ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Self-care is about making intentional choices to address our well-being, which helps us be present, healthy, and enjoy our lives.
Through my work with clients, I’ve grown to feel very strongly about practicing self-care. I often see people neglecting to take care of themselves or putting everyone else first and finding they have no energy leftover for themselves. However, truly engaging in proper self-care is transformative. We have more energy, more confidence and self-esteem, and better well-being overall.
Self-care is often misinterpreted as selfish, and some people erroneously believe that they need to put other people first. I hope you can shift from the harmful perspective that self-care is overly indulgent and unnecessary, and reframe self-care as simply attending to our essential needs so that we can be healthy and happy.
Self-care looks pretty varied. From a physical standpoint it might be going for a walk, choosing a nutritious meal, and getting enough sleep. Taking that bubble bath, getting a massage, and using a face mask also comes under physical self-care, although it might also help you mentally as well. Emotional self-care might be engaging in a mindfulness exercise, practicing patience and kindness with yourself when you can’t figure out the public transportation system somewhere new, and practicing gratitude for what you’re able to do.
Some people might consider travel itself, especially solo travel, as a form of self-care. I know I do. Solo travel gives us more of an opportunity to prioritize our own needs, to choose our own activities, to disconnect from everyday life and break out of mind numbing routines, and grow, learn, and self-reflect.
Our efforts to look after ourselves shouldn’t stop when we’re traveling. In fact, it might be even more important. As exciting as traveling can be, there are times where it can be stressful: our diets change, our sleep cycle is disrupted, it can be stressful if we’re somewhere and don’t speak the local language, and we’re expending a lot more energy as we move around.
When I first started traveling I didn’t consider the need for extra self-care while traveling, and I didn’t have a plan for how to incorporate self-care strategies into my travel plans. I also didn’t own any travel-sized beauty products I could bring with me to help with self-care while traveling. While I enjoyed my trip, there was always part of me suffering because my skin was dry, I wasn’t sleeping well, I was stressed, and I generally hadn’t looked after myself. Now, I’m better at taking travel-sized products with me to look after my physical and emotional health and I also take more time during the trip for down time and self-care.
Here you’ll find some of the best beauty products for travel, all travel-size of course, and resources for self-care in your travels as well as in day-to-day life.
“It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and to make your happiness a priority. It’s necessary.”
– Mandy Hale
