While work travel can be fun at times, it can also be very stressful. Not only will this stress be felt by you as you try to make your way through unfamiliar places and with unfamiliar people, but it can also be stressful on the loved ones you leave back home. This can stress can really do a number on your personal relationships if you’re not careful. So to help ensure that the travel you do doesn’t negatively impact the rest of your life, whether you’re spending months on an oil rig or just leaving your city for a few days, here are three tips for maintaining your relationships when you travel a lot for work.
Be Open And Honest About Your Feelings
Whether you’re the person in the relationship who’s doing the traveling or the one who’s left at home, it’s important that you’re open and honest about your feelings. According to Lisa Kayne Lieberman, a contributor to MindBodyGreen, by being transparent about how you’re feeling about all your time spent apart will allow you to see the situation from all sides and come up with some solutions together. While you might not have a problem within your relationship each time travel comes up, you do want to address issues as soon as they arise so you don’t have tension built up in your relationship once you and your significant other are back together. Before having these conversations, you need to be in a positive mindset so you can openly talk about how you feel. This can be pretty stressful so you may want to look into some calming practices such as meditation, CBD, using live rosin, and so on. You don’t want to shut yourself off, you need to be open, and that can be helped with the right support.
Keep In Touch Regularly
Regardless of where you’re traveling to or how long you’ll be gone, keeping in touch with your family and friends back home is vital. According to Frankie Rendon, a contributor to the Huffington Post, maintaining communication will help you keep your relationship in the forefront of both of your minds. Depending on where you are, it might be easier for you to call, text, or video chat. But as long as you’re both making an effort to keep in touch and stay in contact, you’ll be able to work through anything that comes up.
Try To Create Routines
Traveling can be hard on everyone involved. One way you can make this a bit easier for each party is to try to create some healthy routines. According to Francesca Street, a contributor to CNN, creating routines, both together and on your own, will help make the transitions between being on your own and reuniting with your loved ones more effortless. Some of the routines you might want to try to incorporate into your life could include writing letters to each other, getting post cards or other trinkets to share when you get back together, putting up photos of each other wherever you go, and having set times where you speak together.
If you spend a lot of time away from your loved ones due to work commitments, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you make these times easier to handle.
