Suffering from motion sickness is one of the most unpleasant elements of travel and I for one have been suffering since time immemorial. As a scapegoat of this psychological coil I can confidently tell you that there are however, a few things you can do to avoid that sinking, spiralling feeling, one that can almost make you swim the whirlpool of your own vomit. Switching flight food with health bars, swapping coffee for soda or water and just cultivating one’s mind to think the good thoughts is really all that you need to ease yourself on your next air trip!
A light headache, a change of smell and the approach to an aircraft; the whiff of disinfectants and lingering aerosols; can you relate? Don’t worry, you are not alone. The blower of the air conditioner and the fragrance of flight food don’t make our lives any easier, only adding to the magnitude of this sickness leaving the mind with a loom of nausea. What do you do to make yourself better? Let’s start with the physical relief. The acid that is formed in one’s stomach due to the physical and mental discomfort of this process can be soothed by requesting for a glass of carbonated water (soda, coke, limca, ginger ale) topped with ice before take-off. The gases in the drink not only relaxes one’s stomach but the ice chills the mouth and throat, offering instant relief to one’s discomfort. Sipping this during the first 20 minutes of the flight is something I genuinely rely on.
Coming to the psychological side of this situation, listening to peaceful or uplifting music, browsing picture memories on your phone of past travel, or running over your itinerary are some of the things that helps the distress. Envisioning one’s trip as you take off, the beautiful feeling of diving into the clouds and looking at the ground below from a different perspective, really shows us how minute and irrelevant our issues are, how much there is to be grateful for and how beautiful God’s creation really is. This brings me to my next activity. Doing a gratitude journal either on your electronic device or in a diary (something I recommend) is a great booster. Hitting the nib of the pen to a fresh page is almost like starting over, a new day, a new opportunity. Almost poetic.
Travel really shows us our strengths; physical, mental and emotional. Dealing with not only one’s body but also the million feelings, memories and pent up situations that we need to forgive, to empty out the muddy water of our minds and hearts, awaiting for it to be filled with a barrel of sparkling fresh water, this is what travel means to me.
Yes, the journey can be tricky for some of us, but doesn’t that make the actual holiday so much better?(The pain makes the joy better and all!) Well, no harm thinking like that after all! So every cloud does have a silver lining, doesn’t it?
Written By Priyanka Agarwal
Week 16, April ’19
