Description: It almost feels like we're back in 2019, with the hustle and bustle of cities and airports seeming to get back to normal. This week, Dr. Boogren is inspired by Samantha Brown's travel rituals.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 50 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This week's invitation is about creating a travel ritual. Now, the reason this comes up is, I am recording this in a hotel room. I am on my first work trip since March of 2020, and the sound might not be fantastic. And, I'm just going to beg for forgiveness there. I don't have my fancy microphone. There's a very large and loud air conditioning unit right here. In fact, I didn't sleep well last night. I can hear it in my throat. It's all the joy of getting back on the road. So, thank you for being patient with me.
That actually inspires this week's invitation. So, this is about creating a travel, which, well, we've talked about rituals before. Having them at home ... I think kind of each season kind of deserves its own ritual. And, this idea of a travel specific one comes from Samantha Brown. So, Samantha Brown, she's a TV host. I just adore her. She used to have all these great shows on the Travel Channel. Everyone once in a while a special will pop up again. I follow her on Instagram, and she started recently posting these kinds of travel tips. And I love them. I just eat them up, because my world is back to travel. I've got quite a bit of, of work travel and some, some vacation travel over the next few months coming up.
And so, getting kind of my travel legs back under me has been a mission of mine. And, one of the brilliant ideas that she had. Was talking about this idea of a travel, and now she was talking about vacations, and most of you are probably doing vacations--here's hoping this summer--more than probably work travel, but it goes for both. But, the idea being that, say you are gone for a week, stick to something that you do every single day. Make a ritual out of it. So, she talks specifically about finding a great coffee shop and going to the same coffee shop every morning. And, it dawned on me, oh my gosh, that's what my husband and I do on vacation. And, I didn't realize how comforting it is to me. We'll get hooked on kind of this same restaurant, usually for breakfast. We like to mix it up oftentimes for dinner and lunch, but oftentimes breakfast is the same place or the coffee shop. Or, I kind of have a ritual on vacation, I get up and I go for a walk or a run while my husband kind of takes a little bit more time getting up in the morning. It's my alone time. That's a really sacred ritual on work trips.
I've been trying to think of, gosh, what is my ritual now? Work trips are hard, because I'm not usually at the same place, but I've got a couple of different things. So, one of my rituals is for me personally, rather than going out to eat, I take myself to the grocery store, every town, even the teeniest, tiny town has a grocery store, and I love to go check out the grocery store. And, for me, that just works better and easier for my own personal kind of health goals. So, while I'm at the grocery store, a couple of things that I do that I think I would put under the ritual category ...
I oftentimes buy myself a small candle. If I can find one, I love having a candle in my hotel room. It's just a nice ritual. My husband and I, I think I've talked about this before, burn a lot of candles at home. Candles are kind of my thing. I don't know. It's kind of a touch of home. I tried traveling with a candle once and while they let me through TSA, it forced me to get out of line so they could check things. So, I don't bring them in my bag anymore. Although I feel like you can, instead I just buy it, and I buy a little one. And, then I just leave it in the hotel room with my tip and a little note, keeping that hopefully someone else can enjoy it when I'm done. 'Cause I usually don't burn through it in just my couple of days.
Another ritual that I have is I bring my own coffee mug. I always have my own water bottle too, but I've started bringing my own coffee mug, which kind of feels like a little bit of home coming with me, as well.
So that's what I want you to think about this week. Can you create a travel ritual? So, think about any trips that you have coming up this summer and decide maybe as a family or maybe it's something that you do for yourself. There's something to be said on vacation for creating a ritual that's just yours and see, see what, what ritual you can put into place when you're not at home. And, if you're not traveling anywhere, maybe you want a summer ritual. Maybe you do want to try a new coffee shop. Maybe you want to change up your ritual that you have in the morning or in the evening. But, I really want you to think specifically about travel. If you can, if you've got any trips coming up and I'd love, love, love as always to hear your ideas, because in fact, I'm looking to steal some ideas. Looking for some easy things that I can implement to just have kind of this sacred time and routine that I do on my work trips ... That just feels like something to look forward to ... So I'd love, love, love if you could share any ideas over on the Facebook page
That's it. Oh my gosh. I also want to hear about all your trips and where you're going. Here's what I know. The airport was full. I feel like boom, that switch was flipped and kind of feels like we're back to 2019 in some ways. So, I'm trying to focus on the good I'm trying to oh, create some new routines and rituals. Let go of some old patterns go, and it's exciting. It's really exciting. It feels good to be back on the road again. And, in more ways than I thought. I actually wasn't sure how this was going to feel, because I really enjoyed being home. But, this feels pretty good, too. In fact, I can't wait. I've not even been in front of participants yet. So, today is the day I get myself back in person, in front. Today, I get to work with new teachers or first year teachers who survived this crazy year. So, I can't wait.
As always a thank you, huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you so much Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do back out in the world and to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. I'm so grateful for you. I hope you've got travel on the books, and I cannot wait to hear what your ritual is.