The 4 Sobering Realities of Being a Digital Nomad You Don’t See on Social Media

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ile, things started to blur and despite being in Malaysia for the past month, I haven’t done anything touristic. Due to travel burnout, I’ve been focusing my attention on rebuilding a daily routine, which brings me to my next point.</p><p id="d367"><b>2) Constant traveling means that I have to develop a new routine every time I move to a new country.</b></p><p id="bc04">When I lived in Oaxaca, Mexico, I would get up before sunrise so that I could get a morning run in before the sun rose. Now that I’m living in Malaysia and attend more late night activities, I usually wake up after the sun has risen. This is to say, different countries contribute to different lifestyle habits and every time I move to a new country, I have to reorient myself, my schedule and my routines and all of this takes time and mental effort.</p><p id="4efe"><b>3) Constant traveling and novel experiences leave little room for down time and self-reflection</b></p><p id="be98">Oftentimes, there’s so much happening — whether it’s a day trip to another town, dinner connecting with other nomads or an event I want to attend. As exciting as all of this may be, the more time I spend outside, with other people, the less time I have for myself and self-reflection. Without the time and opportunity to integrate my life experiences to reflect on how they’re contributing to my life and personal growth, it’s easy to get caught up in distraction after distraction, without questioning why I am doing something.</p><p id="d638"><b>4) Constant traveling has contributed to decision and mental fatigue</b></p><p id="28e1">Every time I decide to move to a new place, I have to figure out where I’m going to go, which part of town I’m going to live in, how long I’m going to stay there. In order to figu

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re out where I’m going to go, I have to determine if I <i>think</i> I’ll like it there — is there an expat/digital nomad community? Do I have close access to nature? Are there opportunities for me to develop my spiritual practice? All of this requires me to make decisions, decisions, decisions and subsequently, I experience decision and mental fatigue. Last year, I took a weekend trip somewhere and my friend graciously planned every aspect of the trip. It felt like such a gift for someone to do all the planning and for me to sit back and not have to make any decisions.</p><p id="e368">Being a digital nomad requires resilience and the willingness to embrace the life’s ups and downs. I look forward to staying put in Malaysia for a bit and seeing where life takes me in the future, with faith that I’ll end up where I’m meant to be because if being a digital nomad has taught me anything, it’s this: the only thing that is certain in life is uncertainty.</p><p id="d5c2">Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, you might like the one below too:</p><div id="a2a1" class="link-block"> <a href="https://betterhumans.pub/4-ways-a-decade-of-solo-traveling-has-shaped-my-life-for-the-better-d0349deb5bf8"> <div> <div> <h2>4 Ways a Decade of Solo Traveling Has Shaped My Life for the Better</h2> <div><h3>4 ways I’ve learned and grown as a solo traveler in the last 10 years</h3></div> <div><p>betterhumans.pub</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*z_XOo6kO3GAJC_nVdf8hnQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Being a digital nomad isn’t as hyped as it seems — here’s why!

Temple visit in India, the most intense country I’ve visited & lived in (Photo courtesy of author)

I’ve been traveling and living abroad for the last 2+ years. Life has taken me from Central & South America (Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Colombia) to Europe (Bulgaria and Portugal) and most recently, Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, India and Malaysia), where I’ve been for the last half a year. Being nomadic for the last 2+ years has broadened my perspectives on life, allowed me to befriend people around the world and provided clarity in terms of my future (I don’t see myself returning to the U.S. and believe that I will eventually settle in another country as an expat.)

At the same time, traveling and living abroad for the last 2+ years has also worn me down emotionally, mentally and physically. This is to say, nothing is ever as glamorous as it seems, especially when you only see a snippet of someone’s reality on social media. Here are the 4 ways that constant traveling has negatively impacted my life:

1) Travel burnout is real.

It’s not uncommon for people to burnout from work — long hours, stressful work environments, unreasonable managers. Travel burnout, though less common of a term, is very real. In the last 2+ years, I’ve lost count of the hikes I’ve trekked, the beautiful sunsets I’ve witnessed and the beaches I’ve visited. After a while, things started to blur and despite being in Malaysia for the past month, I haven’t done anything touristic. Due to travel burnout, I’ve been focusing my attention on rebuilding a daily routine, which brings me to my next point.

2) Constant traveling means that I have to develop a new routine every time I move to a new country.

When I lived in Oaxaca, Mexico, I would get up before sunrise so that I could get a morning run in before the sun rose. Now that I’m living in Malaysia and attend more late night activities, I usually wake up after the sun has risen. This is to say, different countries contribute to different lifestyle habits and every time I move to a new country, I have to reorient myself, my schedule and my routines and all of this takes time and mental effort.

3) Constant traveling and novel experiences leave little room for down time and self-reflection

Oftentimes, there’s so much happening — whether it’s a day trip to another town, dinner connecting with other nomads or an event I want to attend. As exciting as all of this may be, the more time I spend outside, with other people, the less time I have for myself and self-reflection. Without the time and opportunity to integrate my life experiences to reflect on how they’re contributing to my life and personal growth, it’s easy to get caught up in distraction after distraction, without questioning why I am doing something.

4) Constant traveling has contributed to decision and mental fatigue

Every time I decide to move to a new place, I have to figure out where I’m going to go, which part of town I’m going to live in, how long I’m going to stay there. In order to figure out where I’m going to go, I have to determine if I think I’ll like it there — is there an expat/digital nomad community? Do I have close access to nature? Are there opportunities for me to develop my spiritual practice? All of this requires me to make decisions, decisions, decisions and subsequently, I experience decision and mental fatigue. Last year, I took a weekend trip somewhere and my friend graciously planned every aspect of the trip. It felt like such a gift for someone to do all the planning and for me to sit back and not have to make any decisions.

Being a digital nomad requires resilience and the willingness to embrace the life’s ups and downs. I look forward to staying put in Malaysia for a bit and seeing where life takes me in the future, with faith that I’ll end up where I’m meant to be because if being a digital nomad has taught me anything, it’s this: the only thing that is certain in life is uncertainty.

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