Last week I wrote about having a panic attack while kayaking at night with my husband. I illustrated how my “travel” self is usually more adventuresome and less neurotic than my “everyday” self. Usually. I also mentioned having a breakdown in college, flunking out and running away to Thailand to ordain as a Buddhist nun — an unlikely detour that ended up being my salvation.

I’m guessing that some of you might find the prospect of shaving your head, taking a vow of silence and moving into a forest temple on the other side of the world a bit scarier than a nighttime paddle across a calm bay 90 minutes from home. The questions I get most often from friends, strangers and readers alike are often in the vein of: Wasn’t ordination hard? Weren’t you scared?

My answers are yeah and hell, yeah! But, I think travel should be scary sometimes. Personally, travel allows me to move outside my comfort zone and cultural expectations and truly embrace the invitation to grow. And yet, I sometimes wonder if I’m using travel as avoidance. Is “keeping it moving” just a way to escape my circumstances? Myself?

As someone who often gets mail from readers who also started traveling as a balm for personal and social wounds, I reached out to Gentamu (Jen Jen) McKinney, founder of Keep Calm, Bring Your Carry On, a holistic mental health service specializing in support for Black travelers and travelers of color. Her book, “Keep Calm Bring Your Carry On: The Ultimate Selfcare Guide for Travelers of Color,” has an ingeniously simple premise, which is that each chapter describes responses from Black travel influencers in response to the question: What’s in your carry-on?

Personalities like Evita Robinson of NOMADNESS Travel Tribe, Fletcher “The Wheelchair Nomad” Cleaves, Nubia Younge of the expat community Black in Tulum, Jeff Jenkins of Chubby Diaries, whom I profiled in October and pilot Ejide Fashina discuss the personal items they can’t do without. “It’s an analogy for the things that keep you sane and grounded,” McKinney said on a video call from an undisclosed African location. “It could be crystals. It could be tea. It could be podcasts or books. An heirloom from an ancestor. Your headphones and music. Your journal or photos of loved ones you’re making this journey for.”

McKinney released the book and its companion workbook “Keep Calm Bring Your Carry On: The Official Journal & Workbook for Travelers of Color” during the pandemic. This was a time of racial reckoning when mental health issues in general but also in travel specifically started receiving long-overdue attention. “Covid really bought out the truth,” she said.

McKinney’s services are geared toward expats, digital nomads and industry professionals, but as she explains: “There are a lot of people who need services overseas or while they’re traveling. Digital worker life can be isolating or misunderstood. Not everybody who’s traveling is having a happy experience. Maybe they’re traveling to a funeral or to visit somebody in the hospital. Others have anxiety about flying.” Some of McKinney’s clients have developed anxiety and depression specifically as a result of chronic illnesses or disability limiting their travels.

And, as we know, systemic racism takes a huge toll on Black mental health. It was certainly one of the factors that contributed to my college breakdown and choice to move to Thailand. And back then, my solution, meditation, was unorthodox. There were no prominent Black buddhists in the U.S. and no ordained Blacks in Thailand. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing or why, but, as McKinney points out, “not everybody wants to go to a traditional therapist. American mental healthcare was never meant for us in the first place.”

Her healing modalities include trauma yoga, plant therapy and exploring the arts, while her book includes a variety of other mental health resources. The workbook offers pre-trip anxiety worksheets, journaling exercises for daily check-ins and post-trip reflections and a primer for developing a safety plan — important preparation as the numbers of Black expats have been rising since the 2016 election.

McKinney cautions readers not to simply travel to avoid any problems they experience at home. “A lot of times people feel that just because they go to a different country, whatever problem they had here — it might be a personal issue or racism itself — is going to not happen there,” she said. “There’s xenophobia and anti-blackness everywhere.” Ultimately though, as I learned when forced to sit alone in a Thai hut for 19 hours a day with only my thoughts: Wherever you go, there you are.

Faith Adiele founded the nation’s first writing workshop for travelers of color, and her award-winning memoir about ordaining as Thailand’s first Black Buddhist nun, Meeting Faith. routinely makes travel listicles. Her media credits include A World of Calm (HBO-Max), My Journey Home (PBS), and Sleep Stories for the CALM app. She’s @meetingfaith on Twitter and Instagram.