How Travel Affirmations Can Transform Your Trip + How to Write Them

Travel affirmations are one of the most powerful tools you can use to boost your confidence before you travel. Travel anxiety – or pre-trip nerves, as some may call it – is incredibly common.

After all, travel continuously pushes us out of our comfort zone. That’s a huge part of why travel results in such meaningful experiences. Without nerves and anticipation of change, we wouldn’t get to experience the journey of understanding and learning that comes with travel.

No matter how often you travel, it’s likely that you will continue to experience nerves, excitement, or anticipation before a trip – or indeed, all three at once. This is where practising affirmations for travel comes in handy.

It’s common to get thoughts like, ‘What if I miss my flight?’. You might think things like, ‘I might get homesick’, or ‘What if I get sick abroad?’ Affirmations for safe travel can help to stop anxious thoughts and negative thought spirals, making your trip more enjoyable, meaningful, and productive.

Travel affirmations (or vacation affirmations for any US-based explorers) essentially consist of short, positive and realistic statements that reinforce positive thoughts and intentions about travel.

The idea is that travel affirmations will boost your confidence, banish pre-trip nerves, and manifest a safe and enjoyable trip, no matter whether you’re travelling for fun, for work, or full-time like me. In fact, a 2015 study found that affirmations significantly alleviated threat and defensiveness, meaning any travellers should feel more relaxed and social when they practise affirmations.

What are travel affirmations?

Affirmations are short statements that reinforce positive, self-empowering messages. Travel affirmations relate specifically to travel, whether it’s a commute, a holiday, or a work trip.

In essence, travel affirmations are short, powerful messages that can help someone to manifest a positive travel experience.

How do travel affirmations work?

Affirmations for travel are more than just wishful thinking. They are powerful tools in combating negative or self-sabotaging beliefs, especially worries about being incompetent, lonely, or stressed, or attracting misfortune when you travel.

Travel affirmations are positive and realistic. They reinforce positive visions of the future.

Some people practise affirmations as part of their spiritual practice. Others may use them to foster a positive mindset and challenge self-sabotaging thoughts. In turn, they can help you to realise your wildest hopes and ambitions in your travel itinerary.

Affirmations for travel are usually spoken out loud. Failing that, they are written down. The more you practise affirmations about travel, the more you should begin to believe and act out your visions.

Seven reasons to practice travel affirmations

There are many reasons why you should make practising travel affirmations part of your regular pre-trip and travel routine.

1. Travel affirmations challenge self-sabotaging thoughts.

If you’re prone to jumping to the worst-case scenario, travel affirmations are a powerful way to challenge this thought mechanism.

For example, if you’re convinced that you’ll attract some sort of trouble or get yourself lost in the downtown of a new city, a travel affirmation such as ‘I trust myself to navigate a new destination confidently’ can set the tone for a more positive experience.

Self-sabotaging thoughts aren’t anything to be embarrassed about. Everyone experiences them. What is important, however, is that you’re able to identify and challenge the self-sabotaging thoughts when they arise.

Using affirmations for travel challenges black and white thinking and helps to foster a more rational, positive mindset.

2. Affirmations boost your confidence.

Negative thoughts breed anxiety and unease. Positive affirmations, on the other hand, programme your brain to think of the positive outcome.

As a result, you should feel more confident and capable before and during your trip.

3. They produce positive travel experiences.

Have you ever catastrophised something so much that in the moment, you completely balled it?

Perhaps you were so tense before a job interview or so nervous about asking out your long-time crush that you couldn’t get your words out correctly, or you forgot your script.

In many of these cases, the anxious, negative thoughts preceding the event are what produced the negative outcome. When you predict a positive outcome, you’re more likely to succeed.

The law of attraction also applies here. When you give off good, positive vibes, you’re more likely to attract good, positive people.

As a result, you’re more likely to have an overall positive travel experience even when something small goes wrong because you’re surrounded by likeminded, upbeat people.

4. Affirmations for travel increase your self-esteem.

Repeating positive affirmations about your personality, your appearance, or your character will also boost your self-esteem. If you spend your trip constantly comparing your communication style and interests to others’, you will feel insecure.

On the flip side, if you spend your trip repeating positive affirmations about your individuality and specific attractive qualities you possess, your self-esteem should increase tenfold.

5. They can increase productivity and channel your focus.

While being productive at home may mean ticking off items on your to-do list, productivity on the go is just as beneficial to help you maximise your time exploring or relaxing.

Writing affirmations will help you to realise exactly what you want to get out of your trip: new connections, a novel experience, a new skill, or a mental transformation, for example?

6. Affirmations remove your reliance on unhealthy coping mechanisms.

If you’re prone to relying on unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drinking alcohol or withdrawing from social company, repeating affirmations about travel can steer you towards healthier coping strategies.

When you start practising affirmations and inviting positivity into your future, you might feel naturally drawn towards other healthy activities such as yoga, meditation, sports, hiking, and travel journaling.

7. Affirmations can improve the quality of your sleep.

It’s a no-brainer that anxiety can interfere with the quality of your sleep. When your mind is on overdrive, relaxing isn’t easy.

By using travel affirmations to rewire your brain to expect a positive outcome from your trip, you should be able to fall asleep quicker and boost the overall quality of your sleep.

How to practice travel affirmations

When it comes to practising travel affirmations, there are several ways to put them into motion.

1. Repeat your travel affirmations out loud.

Remember how your school teachers would encourage you to revise by reading out loud? That’s because speaking words out loud makes it easier to remember and recall information.

Likewise, repeating travel affirmations out loud is the most powerful way of manifesting a safe and positive trip. Speaking things out loud brings your thoughts into the tangible reality.

2. Write down your affirmations.

Writing down your affirmations for travel is particularly useful if you’re in a public setting where you don’t feel comfortable speaking out loud or if you’re travelling with a companion you don’t want to disturb.

It’s also handy if you want to refer back to a set of travel affirmations when you’re on the go without having to rely entirely on your memory.

The more travel affirmations you have, the more you’ll need to write them down to remember them. Using a pen and paper to rewrite your affirmations is handy too, as it will help to commit the statements to memory.

3. Set reminders on your phone.

When you’re travelling or preparing to travel, you may be so busy that you find you don’t have much time to dedicate to writing or speaking your affirmations.

Instead, you may want to set an alarm to remind yourself to practise your affirmations at a certain time of day (when you’re brushing your teeth or getting ready for the day, for example). Otherwise, set a reminder with a specific travel affirmation so that you can get the affirmation straight to your phone.

How to write your own travel affirmations

Affirmations about travel should be personal to your goals and the intentions you have for your trip. They may also change depending upon which destinations you visit. Therefore, you may want to come up with a set of affirmations of your own, rather than stealing the affirmations above.

Writing affirmations for travel a very straightforward process.

1. Narrow down your goals for your trip.

The first thing you need to do is to set your goals for this specific trip. What are you trying to get out of your travel experience?

Once you have identified your goals for the trip, you can tailor your affirmations towards that vision.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you taking a workcation or having a break from your routine and daily stressors?
• Are you looking to strengthen a relationship or friendship?
• Do you want to gain an understanding of a new destination or culture?
• Do you want to challenge yourself with new activities?
• Do you want to improve your fitness levels?
• Do you want to let your hair down and party?
• Do you want to meet many different people from around the world?

Use a pen and paper (or the notes app on your mobile phone) to write down your visions. Then, move onto the next step.

2. Identify any self-sabotaging thoughts.

If you’ve already started experiencing negative or self-sabotaging thoughts before writing your travel affirmations, it may help to identify the theme or themes. That way, you can tailor your travel affirmations so that they challenge the intrusive thoughts.

For example, if you’re worried about being lonely and not being able to make friends, affirmations such as ‘I am comfortable in my own company’ or ‘I welcome new connections’ are ideal.

If your goal is to relax, try affirmations such as ‘I embrace a break from routine’ or ‘I will return home refreshed’.

Tailoring your travel affirmations should decrease your overall anxiety levels, challenge specific worries, and boost your confidence.

3. Write down your affirmations.

There is a method to writing travel affirmations. The last thing you want is have a bunch of affirmations that are impossible to remember, vague, or unrealistic.

They should be short and compelling.

A travel affirmation should be one short, compelling sentence. Avoid lengthy sentences. The affirmation should be easy to remember and roll off the tongue smoothly.

You don’t want to keep tripping up on your words, or to forget the second half of the sentence every time you speak it out loud.

They should be realistic.

Realism is key. If you don’t believe in your travel affirmation, it won’t be very effective. If the affirmation isn’t achievable, it won’t be believable.

They should be specific.

Generalised statements are less believable because they are open to interpretation. The more specific your affirmation is, the more believable it will be.

Instead of writing an affirmation such as ‘I am happy’, try the following affirmations:

• I create positive routines.
• I welcome good conversations.
• I build meaningful relationships.
• I embrace the opportunity to do things I love.

They should be tailored towards your goals.

Any affirmations you come up with should be tailored towards the goals and negative thought patterns you identified in the previous steps. If they don’t resonate with you personally, they won’t have as big of an impact.

Write your affirmations in the present tense.

Ideally, affirmations should be written in the present tense. The present tense is ideal for affirmations because it actions the affirmation even before your trip begins.

How? It sends a message to your brain that you have already received positive results from your affirmation.

Focus on the positives.

You should write positive statements, rather than negatives statements. This means avoiding negative phrases, even when they are well-intentioned.

Avoid phrases such as ‘I won’t get lost’ or ‘I won’t miss my family’. While they are well-intentioned, they still bring attention to the negative possibilities. Instead, write positive affirmations such as ‘I will find my way’ or ‘I embrace time alone’.

Travel affirmations to manifest a positive trip

1. I am open to new experiences.
2. I am ready to challenge myself.
3. I am willing to push myself out of my comfort zone.
4. I am ready to travel.
5. I’m capable of learning new skills.
6. Trying new activities is a privilege.
7. I believe in my ability to be adaptable.
8. I welcome new challenges.
9. My trip will meet all of my expectations.
10. I am open to changes in the itinerary.
11. I create my own adventure.
12. I’m open to new connections.
13. I’m looking forward to learning more about other cultures.
14. I welcome gaining a greater understanding of my destination.
15. I look forward to interacting with new people.
16. I invite meaningful conversations.
17. I deserve a break from routine.
18. I am ready for spontaneity and adventure.
19. I enjoy the process.
20. I choose to let the experiences flow.
21. Travelling will bring me relaxation and clarity.
22. Travel is an act of self-love.
23. I take all the opportunities offered to me.
24. I attract positive experiences.
25. I embrace the journey.

Safe travel affirmations

1. I am embarking on a safe journey.
2. I trust my directions.
3. I attract helpful strangers.
4. I make meaningful connections on the road.
5. My travel connections will run smoothly.
6. I can deal with any bumps in the road.
7. I trust my intuition.
8. My judgement is sound.
9. I attract positive vibes.
10. I am capable of handling inconveniences.
11. My aeroplane is well-maintained and the pilots are capable.
12. Everything will happen as it is supposed to.
13. I trust my travel agent or organiser.
14. I trust my ability to build a great itinerary.
15. I will return home relaxed and refreshed.

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If you like these kinds of travel tips, you might like to learn more about travel journaling, which couldn’t be a more ideal place to write down your travel affirmations. As a full-time digital nomad, I also post about offbeat travel destinations around the world.

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Katie Treharne

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