Spring is finally upon us and, if you’re very lucky, with it comes the joyful anticipation of summer travel. Plans might include sprawling out in front of a glittering ocean or traversing the streets of a beautiful city somewhere far away. (After all, what is Instagram good for if not for soft-launching your new partner or showcasing a vacation destination?)

This year, though, travel has taken on insidious undertones with recent actions from the Trump administration. Increased tariffs — which stand to disproportionately burden people of color and those who are low income — will inevitably make flights and hotels more expensive. And threats from the Trump administration toward lawful permanent residents, disproportionately people of color, have instilled fear of detainments and confiscations upon re-entering the U.S.

While the political and economic climate is driving up our collective heart rates, we also have an opportunity to re-evaluate how we travel. Now more than ever, it’s worth exploring how to infuse intention and ethics into our travel plans and perhaps even dismantle the American exceptionalism and hyperconsumption that has long stood as travel’s foundation.

The notion of American exceptionalism extends itself in the way many American travelers interact with other countries and their people. It’s also why the rest of the world has designated us as the loud and presumptuous ones. The mentality that the world is our playground has exploited local economies and disrespected cultures — just look at Bali’s response to unruly tourists and news about more than a few tourists who somehow found a way to be the worst. Comfort has come at the cost of cultural immersion.

And then there’s our specific brand of hyperconsumption. It’s the reason American tourists generate an estimated 4.8 million tons of trash annually. Even domestic travel carries its own consequences; just look at the tons of trash left in New Orleans after Mardi Gras or the waste produced during each Super Bowl game.

To be fair — most Western countries are guilty of this mentality, not just the U.S. But in this atmosphere where the stakes around traveling feel high for Americans, we can do our best to spark joy in our trips.

So, how do we infuse intention and ethics into our travels this summer? We spoke with Marie Kondo, queen of clutter control, whose work revolves around finding intention in big and small ways. An important one for her involves acknowledging new spaces she enters when she’s traveling, which helps her ground herself and find purpose.

“Whenever I go to a client’s house, I have this little ritual where I greet the house and allow it to welcome me. So I do the same thing wherever I travel,” she tells me, through a translator. “I am very appreciative and thankful for that destination, for allowing me to be part of it and absorb its energy.”

Kondo, who is Japanese, says her upbringing and work in Japan has influenced her approach to travel. “I used to work part time at a Shinto shrine. We would greet the shrine every time we entered its space, we bow twice, clap our hands twice and then bow again,” she says. “So we’re almost paying respect to the encounter itself, the fact that we were able to share this time and space together at that moment.”

These principles are also the foundation of Kondo’s partnership with travel and experiences platform Klook through a campaign called “The Best You,” which centers “discovering yourself and challenging your own boundaries, comfort zone, and status quo to understand a different side [through travel],” she explains. “It’s not just about traveling and having fun. I think there’s a deeper connection you have, not just with the destination but yourself as a human being.”

Kondo’s approach to intentional travel feels both spiritual and practical — very much like decluttering a part of your life that’s meant to recharge your social battery and help you learn more about yourself. Shifting our cultural perspectives on travel could ultimately help us stretch that short holiday into longer-lasting bliss.

“Why would you have that thought if there wasn’t some kind of meaning there?” Kondo says. “I think that that bond or that connection you can’t explain is something that you need to honor for yourself.”