I’m a huge fan of having a travel journal. I think it is overall a great way to keep your thoughts and experiences as a memory. For me personally, it is really helpful to journal if you don’t feel comfortable or lonely as a female solo traveler. Letting out all my thoughts and feeling in an unstructured way gives me a sense of relief and happiness which I can only recommend you to try out as well. It is scientifically proven that journaling has positive effects such as it can help us accept rather than judge our mental experiences, resulting in fewer negative emotions in response to stressors (Ford, Lam, John, & Mauss, 2018; Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005).
In this article I give you a couple of ideas for your mindful travels and what kind of journals you can use on your adventures.
Travel journal ideas:
- Sketchbook: glue in plane tickets, tickets from different activities, photos (e.g., with a polaroid cam) and so on. Start writing about your experiences or just your thoughts you had being in a specific place. Working on your sketchbook can also be a really great idea for a little solo date while traveling by yourself.
- Gratitude journal: Give yourself some time to write down every day if possible, or just whenever it feels convenient to you what you are grateful for. These can be little moments you’ve experienced that day, people you met, conversations you had. I realized that during my own solo trip I ended up being grateful for the smallest things possible which I took for granted at home (e.g, having a mirror, a flush that works…). Being grateful for the little things makes your overall experience so much better and you end up being happier because gratitude has a positive effect on psychological well-being and enhances positive emotions.
- Friendship journal: A great way to keep track of all the people you met is having a friendship journal. Let the people you meet that were strangers become your friends and let them write something about how you met and what you did together in your journal. I personally didn’t have a journal like that but I wish I did. I met a lot of fellow travelers who kept a journal like that and I loved writing in those journals.
- Bucket List Journal: Write down a list of things you want to do for each place you want to visit on your trip. You can always get ideas online or ask fellow travelers about what they have done in a certain place.
- Digital Journal such as polarsteps: I highly recommend tracking your travels through the polarsteps app. It is such a convenient way to let your friends and family follow your travels and you even get to see the route you’ve traveled so far. It’s such an amazing way to look back at your travels and since you’re doing it on your phone, you can easily make a journal entry every day before you go to sleep.
In the next post I’ll give you some journal prompts to reflect on your travels while you’re on the way or when you get back home.