Flight Attendant Diary: How to Maintain Mental Health While Traveling

How all of my friends and family think I look at work.

People often think the life of a flight attendant is glamorous 24/7. And while yes, being a flight attendant can warrant some great destinations and amazing people, it's not even close to enchanting as it appears to be. Hence, today: while on standby at the airport I was assigned a turn (a trip without a layover) to San Jose, Costa Rica. On my way to the gate I realized I didn’t have my work phone; luckily my landlord agreed for me to send her an Uber to bring it to me, and another flight attendant met her at security (because I had to stay on the plane) to hand it over. (silver lining... I guess).

We then waited for an entire hour for catering to bring new food. (Back story: the reason I even got assigned this trip was due to the original aircraft having a maintenance issue causing the flight to be so far (five damn hours) delayed that the original crew wasn’t legal to work for the flight there and back) Ok present time… Crew Scheduling recruited to 4 standby flight attendants to work (one of them being me obviously). Anyway, I'm rambling… we get on our way to Costa Rica (at this point only 3 of us were from standby because the fourth flight attendant was a line holder (a flight attendant who works a known schedule for the month) and had a layover in San Jose. Gosh: low-key I hate explaining this crap lol... Fast forward: we land and the customer service agents are telling us we’re waiting for our 4th flight attendant to land from another flight (delayed) coming from Newark. She wasn’t scheduled to land until another 45 minutes. The issue at that point became the pilots timing out! They had been at the airport the entire time our flight was delayed; so here we are now calling the crew schedulers to coordinate where we’ll be laying over, (because as you can guess we don’t just have extra pilots hanging around in San Jose).

This takes us almost 40 minutes to get ANY information about where to go and what to do. Then we get outside to wait an entire hour for the hotel shuttle, who, by the way… actually pulls through the airport but never stops. We had to call the hotel to have the driver sent back, and while this is going on, we have a plane full of passengers staring at us like “ why aren’t you doing anything about this?” In which a lady actually comes up to us and asks. She insists on us “calling someone at the company” to help them because we can just get in our cab and go, all while telling us the help isn’t for her “I have money and a phone, but what about these other poor people? They have children" (Oooh lady you have no IDEA!!). After literally telling her to beat it and waited an extra 15 mins, hotel guy shows up, and three minutes later we’re at the hotel… I can't make this s&$@ up! Then, of course, the hotel doesn’t have our rooms organized, which crew scheduling said they already accomplished. Another 25 mins later and we have our room keys and finally in our room.

At this point, I’m totally over it and I’m ready for bed. I’m waiting for the hotel to bring me some lotion because I guess they’re super eco-friendly there. It's cool though, my skin only flaked off like two inches of flesh in the meantime. Van time to the airport was in 7 short hours at this point. And that's just how the cookie crumbled. Definitely not how I imagined my first trip to Costa Rica. A “do over” is def necessary.

All that to say (by the way, thanks for sticking with me this far through my sob story): It's essential to be aware of your mental health when dealing with any and everything travel related. Let's face it: traveling can be a nightmare! And even though I told a story from my perspective, I can't imagine what those passengers were going through, unaware of exactly what was going on, possibly had a fixed spending amount for their trip, on the way to an important event or just simply didn't know what to do.

At the end of the day, it's important to have a few tricks up your sleeve to help maintain stress levels. So here are 5 things I practice religiously:

PRAYER: It's important to keep a very close relationship with God. He is the author of every single moment of our lives whether we believe it or not. Staying prayed up can help offset the burdens we sometimes take on unnecessarily. It’s already written and this too shall pass!

ESSENTIAL OILS: Lavender, clary sage, jasmine, frankincense, and eucalyptus are my go-to oils particularly for stress relief. You can add drops to your bath, rub it on your wrists or temples, inhale, or use in a diffuser.

FLOW IT OUT: It might be a bit weird to bust out in a stretch at the airport, but incorporating stretching daily can minimize stress overall. A few yoga poses for your morning routine could include a few sun salutations along with child’s pose, a few cat and cows, eagle pose (may require balancing practice) and downward dog. This technique will help center and ground you when chaos strikes. Stretching has proven to release toxins and built up energy in the body, giving you a natural release.

STAY HYDRATED: Water does wonders, so keep that H2O on hand at all times. Flying, in particular, is very dehydrating so whether pairing this with your yoga poses, or making it a daily habit outside of travel, drinking adequate water allows for those toxins (stress) to be flushed out of your system. And let's face it, you’re on vacay to have a good time, so you’ve probably been eating everything in sight! (I know I am. You can catch me wherever the food is) so even flushing out toxins, sodium etc that naturally come with eating can help minimize the side affects on the body.

And last but not least...

SLEEP: Get those Zzzzzzzz’s. There’s nothing worse than getting to your vacay destination or work function and completely lethargic. With travel being so unpredictable, try to manage your sleep schedule as much as possible; your body will thank you when your trip takes an unexpected turn.

Hope these few tips help during your next trip. Remember, you only get one body. No need to speed up the aging process with extra stress. Stress is inevitable at some point, but using these tips might help to minimize it as much as possible.

Happy Traveling!