How holidays alone in your 30s and 40s can massively improve your mindset

Feeling a bit blue?

We’ve all been there. You’ve been working hard for years. Friends are getting married and having kids. Your days follow the same, self-perpetuating routine: get up, work, sleep. It’s getting colder and colder, and when your fried brain finally gets a spare moment you find yourself dreaming of far-flung beaches. Snow-capped mountains. Crystal clear waters on a nameless island. There’s a handy phrase we at The Flash Pack have for this scenario: my friend, you have itchy feet.

How else do you know if you’ve got itchy feet? Well, feeling negative and bored are the main symptoms. You’re probably tired and frustrated all the time because you can’t find the motivation for your job that you used to have.

This makes you a bit worried and anxious that life is passing you by. A hefty dose of restless sleep adds to the condition. Stalking travel bloggers on Instagram and pinning countless pictures of beaches on Pinterest are also commonly reported side effects.

You’re desperate for some fun. You long for those days where nothing really mattered, when you were deliciously carefree, when you had the world at your feet. Your soul is asking to be wild again. A new daydream finds its way into your mind: the one where you waltz into the office on Monday morning and tell your boss where to stick it…

WHOA THERE SAILOR! Before you make any drastic decisions, there’s a less permanent cure for the itchy feet syndrome to try beforehand. How does an epic two week adventure sound?

“But… I’ve got no one to go with!” we hear you cry. Our response: so what?!

This is your chance to do something totally wild – for yourself. An adventure. Think of the people you admire – would they chicken out because they had to do something alone with no handholding? No.

We’re not talking about 2 weeks on the beach in St Lucia. We are talking a proper trip. A nail-biting, pulse-racing, endorphin-soaked, clammy-palmed “what the hell am I doing” adventure. A holiday with a difference: one where once in a lifetime decisions are combined with more comfortable transport and accommodation (you’ve been working your arse off too hard to settle for a cockroach-infested hostel). We’re talking Flashpacking.

Kiss goodbye to those sleepless nights, those gnawing feels of FOMO and anxiety. A two week measure of adventure and excitement might be all you need to scratch those metaphorical feet once and for all.

Not convinced a 2-week break can shake you out of that rut? Too scared to make that leap? Believe that you’re an anomaly, just because you’re considering a holiday alone in your 30s and 40s? Let us change your mind.

You’re not alone in your wanderlust. A recent survey found that 81% consider travel important to their happiness, and that 71% believe travel to be more important to them than retirement, having a baby and purchasing a home. 50% also spend at least an hour a day daydreaming about travel at work! While 35% want to travel with friends, 25% would choose to travel alone.

It’s also proven that holidays alone in your 30s and 40s can massively improve your mind-set. When asked if travel made him happy, Stefan Klein, author of The Science of Happiness, responded “the pleasures of discovery, the joy of meeting people from other backgrounds and finally the thrill of tasting food I would not get at home far exceed the strains of travelling”.

These new experiences and changes of perspective change the chemistry of the brain, just like meditation or exercise does, with profound effect. Here’s just a few more ways holidays alone in your 30s and 40s can improve your outlook on life:

You’ll have had a change of perspective. They say that when you’ve seen the sun set on the other side of the world, you’re never the same.
Space to think without Sue from accounts jabbering on about her parakeets.
Alone time to reconnect with who you are, and what you like doing, without life getting in the way
Good old vitamin D!
Problems you face on the road are likely to need quick and logical solutions. My flight’s delayed – what do I do? I left my passport on that bus – how do I get it back? There’s no time or space for faffing or wallowing. As a result you’ll become solution focussed rather than problem focussed
New people bring you out of yourself and put everything into perspective. You might even make some friends for life.

Is it time to cure yourself of itchy feet syndrome? Check out some of our small group tours for some inspiration…

Paddle boarding in Slovenia – Surfing & yoga in Morocco – Vietnam & Cambodia – Sri Lanka

Images: Flash Pack, Shutterstock

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