Posts for traveller

As Traveller’s Are We Emotionally Intelligent?

Travel Tips - Ross French - April 12, 2011

By: Maria Climent Huguet
Maria Climent is a 26-year-old Catalan lady. After studying translation, she decided her life was odd enough to became a humor scriptwriter and by default, a blogger. This is how she’s now a mother of no one and a better person. She also likes to cook!

Emotional intelligence is a term that emerged during the 90’s, which implies that a person has the ability to feel, understand, control and modify emotional states of oneself and others.
The reason I am writing this post is to make you (and me, by the way) aware of how important this kind of intelligence is in all aspects of your life, and how you can apply it during your travels.

First of all we need to learn to identify our emotions and make ourselves more aware of them, as we are at their mercy. For example, anger – as soon as we are starting to get angry, we must take notice and apply step number two:

The second step is controlling our impulses in order to adapt them to our objective. Everyone has an objective –although we often don’t even know what it is- but I guess you do not just travel around without knowing where and why. Even if this is the case, you are probably looking for something on an unconscious level, perhaps personal growth, happiness, love. Anyway, the point is that we should be able to handle our emotions. Otherwise we could go mad at an airport when the plane is canceled, or hit the jerk who gave us the wrong directions when asking how to get somewhere. Moreover, we have the right to be angry, super excited or sad, but how long will this sadness last? Can we handle it? Or is it going to last the whole trip?

Third step is achieving the ability of self-motivation. It’s about making ourselves enthusiastic about what we have to do, so that we can do it the best we can. Imagine you see a picture of a traditional lost Spanish city and you suddenly feel like spending a week or two there, rent Seville accommodation. I’m telling you this because our emotions are what make us move. Not only during our travels but through life in general. We come across difficult situations and we have to motivate ourselves from within to get ourselves out of a bad situation. Or sometimes a good situation takes work, we have to push ourselves to get there.


Empathy is the next ability implied for emotional intelligence. Empathy is the ability to notice emotions of other people. Whether you travel alone or with other people, there are moments in which empathy is essential. If you are alone, there will be moments where you need someone to empathise with you or you’ll come across others who’ll need your empathy. And this becomes even more crucial if you’re travelling with your partner. Arguments and disputes could be an everyday occurrence. And here body language plays a great role and also one’s ability to interpret it, so pay attention to the way people move…

And finally, the ability to handle relationships. In the same way we can learn to control our emotions, we can also learn to control others’ emotions. But these abilities can be used altruistically or egoistically. For example, a boss can play a great role here by empathising with his or her employees, congratulating them when doing good job, or kindly asking what’s wrong if their body language is asking for it. Of course there is the other side of the coin, when a sales person tries to sell cheap, bad quality products to helpless old people. But let’s focus on doing good to others, as we want to be treated well, too. For example, receiving a text message or a mail from a friend who knows you may need it is priceless. Automatically this friend gains ten (metaphorical) points in your friendship ranking. And this is a kind of good “handling of relationships”. Don’t forget about karma!

I hope you enjoyed the read. Actually, you don’t need to rent apartments in Seville, New Delhi or wherever to test your emotional intelligence. Start by questioning yourself “how I am feeling now?” And “how’s my partner?” This way and with good faith I’m sure life will be a better place.

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Picking Out Your New Best Travel Friend

Travel Tips - Ross French - March 25, 2011

lonely_traveler

By: Maria Climent Huguet
Maria Climent is a 26-year-old Catalan lady. After studying translation, she decided her life was odd enough to became a humor scriptwriter and by default, a blogger. This is how she’s now a mother of no one and a better person. She also likes to cook!

The importance of meeting people during your travels

We are social animals. That’s an absolute truth. We need other people to survive. Studies prove that without human touch during the firsts months of life we die (see Harry Harlow’s experiments, for example) and, indeed, as we grow up our need for touch does not diminish.

The reason I’m bringing this up, is that most travellers travel the world by themselves and although they eventually meet people, this situation may put them into lonely situations.

How many times have you been on your own somewhere wishing you had a friend by your side to tell him or her what you’re thinking about?

I remember when I first arrived at one of the apartments in Madrid. I was completely alone without knowing anyone or anything about the city. Whenever something amazing happened to me, I had no one to share it with. Sharing your thoughts and feelings over a social network – though, I am fond of the amazing possibilities they provide – is not the same as a face-to-face conversation with a friend. During direct interaction, all our senses come into play.

lonely_traveler

Because of the importance of direct contact with others, I’m going to come back to the main issue. In the moments when lonely travellers need a “friend”, they would have to meet them somehow on their way. There are travellers who have no trouble meeting new people, who are open and talkative right from the start. It’s almost in their instincts to meet people, but there are others who don’t have this talent and social personality. Either way, I am going to give you some tips to make friends –and not just meeting people- wherever you go:

I bet that, in the case of going to Madrid, you’d go to a youth hostel rather than any other kind of Madrid accommodation. And there, once surrounded by new people the first thing to do is to feel the place out. Check out what kind of people there are: Party travellers? Couples? Individual travellers like you?

The second thing to do is recognize your “friend” before he or she knows it. This sounds weird but it’s very easy: You just need to observe them. Who is the one smiling the most? Who’s dressed the way you would dress like? Find the other ‘travel you’.

friends
You’ll know when you have found this person who’ll become your friend and best travel companion during the time you coincide in space and time when your looks cross and you both smile. It’s that easy. And, surely this is not only applicable to youth hostels and travelling, but to every day life. Remember, your future best friend could be right in front of you!

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