Are Your Easter Travel Plans Cracked?

I love Easter candy. There, I said it. The day after the Easter holiday is one of my favorite days of the year because Easter candy is all on sale for a ridiculously low clearance price. I hustle down the aisles with arm extended to shovel down rows of candy into my shopping cart. Cadbury eggs, Reese’s peanut butter chocolate Easter bunnies, and Starburst jelly beans rain down from the rows above with a spectacle of pastel colors.

During this lingering pandemic, travel is the candy and Covid-19 is the not-in-the-Easter-spirit guy in front of me that took the last of the candy from the shelf. I’m left staring at empty shelves and my barren shopping cart, knowing what is supposed to still be there for me.

Have you had this feeling during the coronavirus pandemic? You had your travel plans all set, even plans that were months away and couldn’t possibly be taken away by Covid-19, right? Just like watching someone remove all the delicious once-a-year candy just before you could get there, you have had to watch that eagerly anticipated trip be removed right before your eyes.

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom about this. It’s a reality that social distancing is effective in flattening the pandemic curve, and things could be a lot worse than losing your leisure vacation. Still, if your holiday travel plans have cracked like an Easter egg, it’s time to consider how you’re going to handle the disappointment. Let’s use some travel psychology. Here’s a simple tip to help cope with cancelled travel plans during Covid-19:

Coping With Cancelled Travel Plans this Easter

• Identify the goal that you had for your travel plans. Getting away from your work setting? Visiting family for the holidays? Perhaps to explore a new place now that you had a little holiday time?
• Now that you’ve identified why you were traveling, you can figure out how you can fill that particular void.
• If you were traveling to get away from your work setting, take the time to appreciate that by working from home (or any time off you have at home) you are getting away from your normal routine after all.
• If you were traveling to visit family for the holidays, set up a Zoom video chat and share a favorite holiday activity virtually. Hide Easter eggs in the background for the kiddos to locate and direct you to find.
• If you were traveling for the pure joy of exploration, take a drive down main street and see what your town looks like without traffic or the common sites of bustling people. It’s absolutely an exploration to see the familiar in an utterly unique way.
• Importantly, you don’t have to pretend that it’s “really” traveling to do this. It’s not what your Easter travel plan was going to be. It’s not the same. Remind yourself that that’s okay. Perspective slays disappointment.
• If you’re wondering if travel will ever be the same following Covid-19, see here for the answer.
• Order crazy amounts of Easter candy after you’re done using this approach. Well, I take that back, leave some on the shelf for me…

Happy Travels (and Happy Easter),

Dr. L

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