How to keep energized despite heavy travels

May was one of those months where I barely recognized my own reflection in the hotel mirror.

Traveling for 4 weeks between the US, Switzerland and Spain might sound appealing, but can be draining at times.

During those travels, we were visiting local market units in the US, we executed the biggest SAP customer event in 2 different regions (Sapphire: Orlando & Madrid) with a tremendous amount of meetings and finishing-off the month with the Ecosystem Excellence Summit in Barcelona.

Despite the heavy travel, I try to maintain my morning routines: running, reading, breathing & yoga. However, I was not really successful to do so in the first half of my trip. Staying up long hours, getting up early in the morning, traveling between locations, preparing for meetings etc. made it (in my mind) almost impossible to keep the routines running.

Breath as a resource

Then I had a coaching session with my breathing-instructor and I shared this story with him. Being empathetic to my situation, he reflected what I told him, and said:

You see breathing (et al.) just like another check-list item. This is nothing to check-off your list, but should act as a resource for you to have the energy for your travels.

This little reframe (from to-do to resource) helped me, to rebuild my daily practice. Even just 5 minutes on the corner of my bed in the morning helped me a lot, to bring some attention to my body, regulate my stress and start the day energized.