How to Travel Stress-Free?

Many of us now are starting to travel again (hurray!) outside our own car—but travel is stressful—we’re packed into airplanes, trains, and buses as close as sardines (sometimes it seems closer) and don’t have much control of when we move or stop or even can go to the bathroom, for example.

How can you use science to travel better (and remember, for most of us creating instantaneous transfer, Star Trek like transporters is not a real option, even if science could help with that):

• Scenting the air while you travel can be a good thing (three cheers for the air fresheners that hang from the rear-view mirrors in so many cars)—but may meet with resistance from those around you as you sit cheek to jowl in too close airline seats.So, what to do?  Suck on hard candies with calming smells, such as orange, lemon, mango, and vanilla.
• Bring what you want to eat on the flight with you and eat it—being hungry is very stressful—but be kind.Try to eat things that are fundamentally scent free and are neat to eat (nothing that sends crumbs three rows ahead and behind in a stardust like haze).  You are sharing your chariot with others who may not be fans of intense spices or garlic or stinky cheese, for example.  Remember that sweet tastes will be weaker when you fly and umami ones enhanced.
• Bring personal stereos and listen to music with 50-70 beats per minute played by lower pitched instruments/sung by lower pitched voices, or better yet, listen to good-weather nature sounds (burbling brooks, gently rustling leaves and grasses, peacefully singing birds), also available easily online.If you don’t like listening to music or nature, bring earplugs.  There are all sorts of troubling noises during flights, motors that seem to turn on or (gulp) off with little reason, something rattling, a screech that gets louder and softer, and not hearing them is the only realistic way to tolerate them.
• Bring things to look at as you travel that you know will relax you, such as a feel-good film packed with nature panoramas.If that won’t work, try photos of favourite nature spots on your phone.  Look out the windows at the clouds floating by if you’re flying.  Clouds are fractal shapes that we find relaxing to view.  Also, related to vision, wear your glasses/contacts so you can tell what’s happening around you, not knowing is stressful.
• Keep the window shade open to let in natural light—it’s a great de-stressing mood booster.If there’s lots of glare, you may need to bring a shade down/over some but do whatever you can to let daylight flow into the plane, train, or bus.
• Look into the distance every so often if you can to prevent eye strain/stress.
• Wear relaxing colours (not very saturated, light ones, as discussed in this article LINK).People in warmer colours seem friendlier than those in cooler colours so they can be good options but no red, it can signal “danger” to viewers.
• Don’t wear things that are tight, itch, scratch, etc.No need to wear stressors.
• Take control of your experience to the extent that is possible.Dress in layers—it inevitably seems too hot during some parts of trips and too cold during other segments of the same voyage. Bring your own water so you don’t need to depend on flight attendants (being dehydrated is itself stressful, just as losing control of when you can drink is).  The same goes for your own mini pillow that you can inflate if you want.  Bring clear cut, meaning totally unambiguous signalling devices if you plan to sleep during the flight, and by this, I mean a black eye mask.  Try to get an aisle seat so you can venture from your seat without having to wake and “motivate” others.
• Don’t try to accomplish anything that requires much brain power during your flight.The air-pressure inside most planes corresponds to on-Earth altitudes at which cognitive performance degrades.  Don’t stress yourself by trying to do things that you just can’t do well.
• Try to be tolerant of others.It is not the fault of the guy sitting next to you that he is violating culturally appropriate personal space zones, thank the airline or train or bus company for that.  He would no doubt sit further away from you if he possibly could because just as he’s intruding on your space, you’re way into his comfort zone.  When we travel we’re all in the “out of our control” feel bad zone together.  Go into the bathroom if you feel you need privacy but don’t camp out there indefinitely.
• Try not to make any unnecessary eye contact with fellow travellers.Be polite, but remember, cultures differ on what sort of eye contact is appropriate and too little is unlikely to be as offensive as too much.  Locking your eyes onto someone else’s for what is viewed as too long a time signals aggression on your part.