Hey {{first_name}},
This week me and my bro finally booked the trip we've been talking about for over 5 years.
The plan is simple. Travel to incredible places and learn whatever skill that country is known for. Bali first for surfing and jungle survival. Then the Philippines for more jungle survival and Kali, the Filipino knife and stick fighting martial art. Then Thailand for free diving and Muay Thai.
And I'm terrified.
Not of the trip itself. Travel doesn't normally scare me, not anymore. Over the years I've learnt how to manage my IBS in unfamiliar places, even when I don't speak the language.
This one is different.
Bali belly. Food poisoning. Those words have been circling in my head since the moment we hit book, because one of the actual causes of IBS is a bad bout of food poisoning or a stomach virus. Both of which are incredibly common in the countries we're heading to.
So I'm not worried about navigating food from an IBS perspective. I know how to do that. I'm worried about getting genuinely, properly ill, and my IBS getting worse because of it.
And ever since the flights got booked, that's the only thing my brain wants to think about.
Which is the cruel irony of IBS. Stress is one of the biggest amplifiers of symptoms there is. So the thoughts I've been having about "what if I get sick" are, on their own, the most likely thing to make me feel worse before I've even left the country.
So I have a plan. 4 months. Two things in this newsletter, the third (daily exercise) I'll save for its own one.
1. Breath work, 3 times a day, every day
I'm using Nerva (Not sponsored), I've just been using it for over a year and it's genuinely one of the best things I've ever spent money on. It's specifically built for IBS and it pairs gut-directed hypnotherapy with breath work.
The breath work itself does two things. It releases the tension my body has been holding onto for weeks without me realising and it regulates my stress baseline, so when something does spike, I'm starting from a calmer place.
Both of those calm my IBS down directly and as a side effect, they completely change my attitude towards the trip. I'm not facing 4 months thinking "what's going to go wrong". I'm facing 4 months thinking "I've prepared for this".
2. The thought flip
Every time I catch myself in a "I'm going to get sick" or "I'm going to be stressed the whole time" loop, I fight it with a positive counter.
Not a lie. Not "everything will be fine, don't worry". That kind of empty positive thinking doesn't work, because your brain knows it isn't true.
A realistic counter.
"I might get sick, but I've dealt with IBS for over 5 years. I know what it feels like, I know how to manage it, and I know I can get through whatever it throws at me."
"And yes, there's a chance my IBS gets worse but I'm literally a specialist in this. I've almost completely recovered from it once already. I've done it before, I can do it again if I need to."
That's the flip. The fear is allowed to exist. I'm just refusing to let it be the only voice in the room.
Why this works
This isn't just personal coping. It's well-established psychology. What you consistently think shapes how you experience your life. If the only thought you let yourself have is doom and gloom, doom and gloom is all you'll see, because that's the only filter your brain has running.
Flip the filter and you flip what you notice. Same trip, same gut, completely different experience.
This week's practical tip
Pick the 2 thoughts that spiral you the most. Write each one down. Underneath, write the most realistic counter you can come up with. Not "everything's fine", but a fact-based reframe that acknowledges the worry and reminds you of what you already know about yourself.
Next time that thought lands, read the counter out loud.
You're not lying to yourself. You're just refusing to let one half of the story do all the talking.
This week's mindset
You don't prepare for a trip like this with a packing list. You prepare with your head and your nervous system, months before the flight.
Calm baseline. Honest reframes. That's the real work.
See you next week.
Zak