The Starters Guide to Travelling Consciously
The quest to being the best version of yourself you can be is an endless one. There is always more you can do and so to prevent myself from going crazy, when starting on the journey I had to repeatedly tell myself that there is no end point to self-improvement. As the old somewhat cliche saying goes “it’s all in the journey, not the destination”.
With this in mind, my method of conscious living is “one step at a time”.
I’d define conscious living simply as mindful living – being aware of the impact of as many of your actions and decisions as is possible, and for me this extends to asking myself if my actions and decisions are kind: kind to myself, kind to the beings around me and kind to the planet.
With this mindset, I recently went on a trip to Thailand with my Mom to celebrate her 60th birthday and before going I decided that I wanted this trip to be as conscious as possible. I wanted to be present in every moment, to savour the time with my wonderful mother and I wanted to leave as small a footprint as I could on the land I walked on.
I succeeded and I struggled and learnt a lot along the way. So based on my personal experience, in case you want to give conscious travelling a go, here’s my guide on how to travel with awareness.
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Step 1: What to Take
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A big part of travelling consciously is choosing what you want to take with you. I find that packing for a trip really helps to put you into the mindset of your trip, and so if you want to travel mindfully…pack mindfully too.
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BAGS
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The first thing to consider for your conscious travel is the type of bag(s) you will use. I personally prefer to pack light and to choose bags that are super easy to carry and walk with. On this trip I also chose to consider what my bag was made of – was it biodegradable? Was it cruelty free? Questions like this may seem strange to ask, but if you start to ask them at every point in your life you slowly begin to realise that the things you own aren’t kind at all and in this way you can gradually begin to swop them out for kind alternatives.
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Most travel bags are made of either plastic or leather, so for my trip I decided to take my Hemporium hemp travel bag with me. This travel bag is perfect carry-on luggage size and zero waste, made of all hemp by a conscious and sustainable proudly South African company – plus its a beautiful bag and comes in my go to colour! Grey! (I’ve never really been one for too much colour)
I also decided to take my Kway rucksack. This unfortunately isn’t zero-waste however it is cruelty free and because I plan on having it for life I felt it was a conscious choice.
To make sure that I could walk around an explore during my travels I also opted to take along my Hemporium Moon Bag. I am sooo glad Moon Bags have come back into fashion (thank you 80s!) because they are super convenient and PERFECT for travelling. While my Moon Bag may look small I managed to pack in all my walking essentials – my wallet, phone, passport, fav essential oil (sweet orange – lemongrass is also up there on my list), Kafui Naturals lip balm, home-made rose water face spray and of-course my little Ganesh statue which I feel brings me good luck and safe passage (I’m mildly superstitious I guess). I’m always amazed at how much you can fit into these things AND that you can still have both of your hands free!
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TOILETRIES
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The next thing to pack are your toiletries. I’m going to do a separate post on zero-waste toiletries and having a zero-waste bathroom because it’s quite a lengthly topic but as a quick summary important things to consider here are:
Size:
Travel sized toiletries are super important. I like to use small glass jars and bottles to keep mine in because (you guessed it) it’s zero waste and I use my home toiletries to fill them up. I know a lot of pharmacies sell travel sized toiletries but that’s just more single use plastic if you ask me so no thanks!
Contents:
I like to use all natural and organic skin care products and toiletries and most of them I make for myself! Again this is a topic on its own to be covered later but for now, think about trying to pack products you can use on your face, skin and hair to minimise the number of bottles and jars you need. For example coconut oil can be used on all three!
Bag:
A good toiletry bag is hard to find! I got mine from Hemporium and it fitted everything I needed in perfectly. It’s also made from all hemp and is super easy to hand wash if something spills. I’d also advice having a zip-lock bag for toiletries that you know will stain or ruin your clothes (obviously these are plastic but they aren’t single use so not as bad as just a normal plastic bag). I’m a bit of a stickler for no plastic though so I just took the risk of my toiletries spilling and they didn’t so yay for me!
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CLOTHES AND SHOES
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Sustainable fashion is quite a well understood topic now but most of us still have the same wardrobe we had before we knew about these things. Sustainable clothing is clothing made of sustainable, cruelty free and ideally local materials and is made by local companies that treat and pay their workers fairly. Take a moment to think about where your clothing comes from and if you are like me and new to conscious living, as a general rule it’s probably not sustainable.
Making my wardrobe sustainable is still an ongoing process but what I decided to do when packing was to look at items that I had 3 or more versions of and to give the garments I liked the least away. For example- I had four bikinis. From packing I could already tell which my two favourites where because I took them on my trip with me, so I decided to give the other two away.
In this way, packing for a trip can help you establish which clothes are your favourites and which are just closet fillers. Either do a clothes swop with friends of family or give the fillers away to charity so you can slowly begin to clean your closet out.
This method worked the best for me with my shoes! For my trip I needed comfortable, light and breathable closed shoes for days spend strolling around Bangkok city. Immediately I chose my Palladiums. I have a pair of their awesome Pampa High Organic boots which I looove. They are part of an eco friendly range Palladium have going and so everything about them is eco focused! 100% recycled rubber outsoles , biodegradable cork insoles, 100% organic cotton fabric and laces, and biodegradable lace tips. The designer of these boots thought of everything 🙂 which is awesome because as the consumer I don’t have to! Yay to eco conscious clothing brands!
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(with removable label)
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After choosing my Palladiums (click here to see their eco-friendly range) I realised that I had a lot of leather and plastic shoes. I decided to give away all of the pairs I hadn’t worn in the last 3months and kept only the shoes that I loved. While I’ve decided to not buy any more new leather goods, I decided to keep the leather shoes I loved as I figured they would likely last almost a lifetime. Remember, conscious living is also about being kind to yourself so if you really love certain closet items or they have sentimental value, honour that and keep them knowing you have chosen to do so with awareness.
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ACCESSORIES
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A super important part of conscious travel is bringing a lot things that make being conscious easier. By this I mainly mean a few zero-waste accessories that’ll help ensure you don’t need to by or use non sustainable products. Things I took with me:
-My metal straw from Forever Straws.
-Two reusable bags for shopping finds
-A reusable spork for takeaways (you can also include chopsticks and a small container here)
-My Mina Cup in case I got an unexpected visit from my cycle
-My water bottle (Thailand doesn’t have safe drinking water so this was a MUST have to prevent buying loads of plastic bottles of water!)
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I put almost all of these into my cute and functional Hemporium accessories pouch
(click here to view all of their travel products and accessories) and voila! I was sorted for all occasions. You might think that whipping out your own straw every time you order a smoothie or cocktail is a bit weird but actually it’s a great conversation starter and really makes the cafe staff and people around you question their own use of plastic straws – plus my metal straw looks amazing in pictures so win win!
That pretty much sums up the most important part of sustainable travel which is preparing for your trip.
Here’s what to do when you get to your destination:
Step 2: What to do
A big part of conscious travel is engaging in activities that do not bring harm to the local people, their culture and their livelihoods and to the local environment – plants and animals alike.
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Mindfulness
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An activity I would highly recommend that is free and very likely to improve your whole trip is meditating and maintaining a gratitude practice while you are away.
Try watching your breath for just 5minutes every morning counting out the length of your inhale and your exhale. Next list 10 things you are grateful for and end this off with a heart felt thank you for another day of being alive. Watch this practice and small routine ground your trip in joy and present mindedness and thank me later!
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️Activities
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Whenever you are booking an activity while on holiday do a little bit of research into the organising company and ask questions like:
| How does this company treat their employees?
| Are any animals going to be hurt or mistreated?
| Does this company have any social responsibility projects where they give back to local communities?
| Does this company and activity portray the local people in a respectful and dignified manner?
| Does this activity involve the use of a lot of plastic or single waste materials?
Generally after taking a breath and a moment to think about what you will be doing the answer will be clear anyway. Trust that gut feeling and if something feels off or you aren’t satisfied to the answers of the above questions, don’t do it. There is so much to do on holiday. Why not choose to do something kind to the local people, animals and planet.
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Getting around
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In terms of getting around opt for the most environmentally friendly option: walking!
Not only is this great for your health but I find I tend to see sooo much more when I walk around a place rather than driving. Cycling and using a tuktuk or scooter are also great alternatives to driving everywhere depending on where you are visiting.
Step 3: What to bring back
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The last part of sustainable travelling is coming back home and deciding what to bring back with you.
Shopping in exotic places is so much fun and often there is a big temptation to buy lots of cheap things. Being a shopaholic myself I have now learnt though, that I get an even better feeling from buying a few really beautiful and precious things instead.
When traveling try to buy things that you cannot buy locally that “spark joy”. Yep that’s a good old Marie Kondo reference. Find objects that are unique to the place you are visiting, that you looove and that are made from biodegradable and cruelty free materials: wood, straw, cotton, hemp. Products from shells are a debatable issue. I’d say unless you find products that are explicitly said to be made from sustainably harvested shells – steer clear.
Better still try to buy the products as close to the start of the value chain as possible for example from a market stall where the owner or their family make the products. This will likely make the products cheaper and will also help to support that small business owner and their family – win win!
When it comes to nature finds like shells or rocks found on hikes or walks down the beach, my motto is leave it where you found it. Imagine what your surroundings would look like if every single tourist took what you wish to take and you will soon realise that the place would be destroyed. If you find a treasure you absolutely love – hold it in you hand and look at it (really look) for 5 mins while breathing deeply. Take in it’s smell, feel, colours and textures. Next try holding it in your hand for a little while as you walk on and you will soon find that after being present with it your heart will have had its fill. If you still feel attached take a great picture of it. Then, carefully and with awareness put it down. Thank it for its beauty and move on proudly knowing you have done a good thing.
Step 4: Settling in once you are back
Last but not least, end off your conscious travel experience by doing both a mental and a physical declutter when you get back home.
Take a moment once you get home to walk around your home expressing gratitude for all that you have and reuniting yourself with your home. Then take some time to look at your belongings with the fresh eyes of your travel.
We all change a little after travelling so notice things that you connect to more and things that don’t speak to you anymore. Give these things away. Remember the words “spark joy” and only keep things that make your heart sing.
Notice if you need to buy any new supplies be it groceries, toiletries, household cleaning products etc and chose to buy zero waste, eco friendly alternatives so that you can maintain your conscious lifestyle at home and lastly pat yourself on the back for having a great trip anchored in mindfulness and kindness!
If you have managed to read all the way to the end of this blog well done! That in itself shows commitment. To help with some little reminders of the tips I mentioned here I’ve made a few checklists and graphics about sustainable travel that you can check out on my Pinterest page here. Otherwise scroll below for the images.
Safe travels. Be kind and be happy!
CREDITS:
-All images taken and editted by Anesu Mbizvo
-Quotes and illustrations taken from @less_stuff_more_meaning @mindfullywed and illustrated by @fogandco