As the the experts remind us, it's not what happens to us, it's how we respond to what happens to us that determines whether we live each day in peace and joy or end up anxious, tense, and joyless, enraged and disengaged.

Die-hard frequent travelers may not admit to feeling the effects of stress, but all of us do. It just manifests differently depending on our personality, physical condition, and individual stressors.
 
Whether it's the obvious quick-to-anger response or shallow breathing, aching body parts (think creaky necks and stiff backs), relentless anxiety, pent-up energy, poor eating habits, or non-stop lighting up (and counting the moments till the next cigarette), or over-indulging in food or liquor even when we really don't want either, we're in its grip.
 
This page will bring together expert advice from different areas of healthcare, behavior modification, and wellness and highlight strategies on how to live with, minimize, transform, and channel stress.

Managing Travel-Related Stress

These articles tend to eschew many of the same points (plan ahead, make time to relax, get sleep, eat right, etc.). That's because these suggestions are the foundation of sane-and stress-free travel. If you are still stressed-out and you feel like you've heard it all, maybe it's time to revisit what you think you already know. Now may be exactly when you're ready to hear—and embrace—what you need to do to initiate change in your life.

Travel-Stress Articles (Click here to jump to General Stress-Reduction Articles)

►You can eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress when traveling these days by becoming a more savvy packer and traveler. Two articles to help you negotiate the minefield of airport security are Joe Brancatelli's always on-target insights (See "Surviving Security Now") and "A Primer for the Frazzled Traveler,"  Gael Fashingbauer Cooper's take at MSNBC.com on staying calm despite the waits and hassles that come with airport sojurns these days.

►Bill Tulin, coauthor of Travel Fitness: Feel Better, Perform Better on the Road, acknowledges that "Business travel is inherently stressful..." but he's got some good ideas on how you can reduce your stress by, among other things, "...adopting a healthful attitude toward delays and missed meetings...." (Memo to self: Share idea with clients and employers.)

►Researchers Irwin Sarason and Jonathan Bricker (who have conducted studies of business travelers) have observed the linkage between air travel and stress as part of their professional work. They emphasize the importance of "adaptive behavior" in dealing with the anxiety of business travel in their article,  "How to Cope With Air Travel Stress."

The research duo have identified 11 major causes of air-transit stress—on a really bad trip, you may have encountered almost all of them. Unsurprisingly, the majority are caused by travel-vendor problems we can't do anything about. If you want to learn more about the findings of their air travel stress study (Who knows, you may have been a participant.), click here.

Among the findings: "Anxious people are more likely to suffer air-travel stress. The risk climbs for men who are also anger-prone and for women who fly to unfamiliar destinations. Anxious women who fly to unfamiliar destinations are at the greatest risk due to concerns about their personal safety."  Would these descriptions fit anyone you know?

►The above-mentioned Jonathan Bricker deals with the hard questions about travel stress in the days since 9/11 in an interview with The Washington Post's David Wallis.

►The advice in Taking the Edge Off Business Travel goes beyond the usual admonitions and explores some concrete "to-dos" for on-the-road relaxation. Although it's featured on the American Woman Road & Travel site, most tips apply to everyone (OK, definitely not the suggestion about painting your toenails pink, but "eat anything you want" is definitely gender-neutral!).

►If you or someone you know is anxious about flying, check out Lisa Iannuci's thorough and well-researched "High Anxiety in the Air."  She queries experts on how to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder as well as anticipatory anxiety—as they relate to flying today. Ianucci also includes information on seeking professional help—something that could help many "in-denial" travelers.

►Dr. Paul Grundy gets to the nitty gritty of travel stress in an article for Frequent Traveller (online at AsiaTravelTips.com) with some honest revelations and real-life solutions. An advocate of diary writing and rituals, Grundy gets to the heart of what FFs experience: "People who have high stress in their lives tend to live in an environment without ritual, surrounded by mental and physical chaos. Travel removes one from a lot of the established rituals of life."

His savvy advice?  "Establishing rituals can help prevent and reduce stress by saving time. It can be a comfort factor in times of stress, when predictability and certainty reassure us that no matter how bad conditions get, some things remain constant."
 

►Fellow travelers share their stress strategies in Scott Dogget's Los Angeles Times article. Among the obvious-but-often-overlooked tips: "Tell your spouse why you are traveling" and let people know if you are lonely.

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And You Thought They Couldn't Feel Your Pain...

If you're having a high-stress day, reading the keynote address from the April, 2000, Stress, the Business Traveler and Corporate Health: An International Travel Health Symposium, will either make you laugh or have you looking for something to hit. (I hope you opt for laughing.)

The key question that the speaker, Bernhard H. Liese MD, MPH, Senior Advisor, Human Development, Africa Region, The World Bank (Former Medical Director, World Bank) posed? "Is there a chronic stress syndrome due to frequent travel?"

One can only hope that the audience (a "multitude of professional backgrounds and outlooks, occupational health specialists, managers, corporate medical directors and researchers. Last but not least journalists who are interested in the topic.") left knowing the answer—and with a better understanding of what many are putting their staffs through each day around the globe. Hopefully, the insight and information might prompt more compassion, a better understanding of the real impact of frequent travel on a flyer's physical and psychological health, and a lot more appreciation for the corporate travelers who represent the company on the road.

Liese refers to the startling-to-the researchers (but not to frequent flyers and the flight attendants who share air space with them) data from the World Bank's study of frequent travelers: "What we hadn't expected at all was the dramatic increase in psychological disorders. Psychological disorders increased linearly with the number of missions traveled. For men the ratio tripled with two or more missions. For women the same pattern was found but the increase was less. The increase in stress-related psychological disorders were similar in men and women who traveled four or more missions a year and were almost three times those of non-travelers. The disorders that we found are described as situational disorders, anxiety, acute reaction to stress, adjustments disorders."

Got a client, boss, or co-worker who doesn't get why so many frequent business travelers are among the walking wounded? Share the articles from the symposium's proceedings and hope for some enlightenment.

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►Motivational speaker and humorist Fire "Captain Bob" Smith's goal is "helping people extinguish stress so they can get more satisfaction and enjoyment out of their personal lives." He offers up his thoughtful stress-busters in "Eat Stress for Breakfast." 

In case we've forgotten, (and if you look at all our miscommunication and judging of others and the stress it brings), and it's clear we have, Bob reminds us: "Recognize, understand, and accept that we are all dramatically, dramatically different in incalculable ways. We are constantly judging each other by our own quite different standards. What may seem crystal clear to you probably is not to others."  Keeping that in mind each day could drastically reduce a lot of inter-personal friction and stress!

Note: * Access to some articles may require membership, registration, or payment. Publishers may move articles after initial posting. In some cases, you will be able to retrieve articles from archives, which may require a fee, or through a free search on the site.

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Note: * Access to some articles may require membership, registration, or payment. Publishers may move articles after initial posting. In some cases, you will be able to retrieve articles from archives, which may require a fee, or through a free search on the site.