When you travel beyond your comfort zone, you open a world of adventures you never knew existed. A peaceful good night sleep, A healthy active lifestyle, and discovery of local cuisine; all these are amazing things that you’ll definitely enjoy. But have you ever thought of what Travelling does for you?
Well, one thing Travelling does is that it takes your experience to the next level and enrich your entire self-being! Exploring different locations and destinations is the most underrated yet rewarding to your mind, body, and soul. If you ask someone who has travelled the world, they would enthusiastically share the benefits and outcome they have endured.
To trave is to take a journey into yourself~ Danny Kaye
As exciting as it can be and the thought of sipping those glasses of Martinis, sun-bathing, sight-seeing, there is so much more it offers. It helps your mind to relax as it diverts your attention from everyday problems that you might be facing in your life. Moreover, you get a chance to learn and develop skills that can be beneficial for every aspect of your life, maintaining your health and well-being.
There is a powerful relationship between traveling, wellness, and mindset. There have been several evidenced-based research findings regarding this relationship and some of these benefits are mentioned below:
It Helps You Rediscover Yourself
Moreover, a simple getaway can help you rediscover yourself along with setting up your priorities in the correct order. People tend to discover more about themselves and learn more about their values while in a neutral environment. There’s something unique about being in a foreign country/place and the fact that you’ve let go of your comfort zone. It is easier for them to change their way of thinking and beliefs after they visit places based on what they used to believe earlier on.
As we all encounter challenges in this life, traveling and exploring new areas can help you recover from those challenges and come up with a fresh start mindset. Valerie Wilson of Trusted Travel Girl emphasises this by saying that, “By traveling and interacting with the world around me, I found a new passion for life. I convinced myself to travel even more when I wasn’t feeling well. It has brought me happiness, given me a purpose, and has made me a stronger independent woman.”
It Helps Relieve Stressors
If you are feeling stressed out from your day to day routine, and you wish to get away from everyday life and problems for a bit, then traveling is the best way to do that. Getting away and doing some daily fun activities gives you novelty and relief through the people you meet and create those experiences.
We all know that stress can create and cause havoc in your entire life; be it mentally, emotionally and physically. When we are stressed, our cortisol levels get elevated and we become unstable and this leads to so many other health-related issues. So by taking a break, you’re diverting your attention from these factors that are causing stress and anxiety as you automatically start focusing on the positivity and scenic beauty around you and meeting new people. You are so engrossed in exploring places now and you no longer feel the heavy burden you had previously.
“The stress of work and daily demands can distract us from what we find to be actually meaningful and interesting,” says clinical psychologist Dr. Tamara McClintock Greenberg.
Traveling releases the hormone serotonin in your body, which makes you feel happy and content with what is around you. It makes you feel more positive about yourself as you’re actually living for yourself. You are no longer bound by the typical office, home or university routine. Every individual needs a break now and then to maintain the level of energy required to carry out everyday tasks.
You Become Resilient Through It All
People who travel a lot are more mentally resilient as compared to people who are not fond of traveling. Traveling alone teaches you how to adapt to different environments and cultures and it helps you appreciate where you’re from more, especially when you travel to places that are different from yours.
You learn to step out of your comfort zone, and it gives you the strength to become patient and toughen up emotionally as you learn to accept whatever challenge life throws at you. When you face difficulties overseas or traveling, you’re forced to find a way to solve the issues at hand, you give in to the uncontrollable to be able to solve the matter at hand. This toughens you up because you’re on your own.
Allan Hinton is a travel expert who has seen it all during his travel adventures, he emphasises that travel allows you to “deal with larger issues in life with more grace and patience.” There will be hiccups here and there when you travel but they give you strength as you navigate around them to enjoy your travels; this strengthens you and gives resilience.
Boosting Your Creative Ability As You Travel
It is widely believed that traveling broadens your horizon, and it helps boosts the levels of your creativity. This is one of the reasons why many artists tend to travel before they start creating a piece of art for the world at large. It is believed that when you travel to a new place, your brain can reorganise itself to form new pathways in relation to your environment!
So by changing our environment through travel, we stimulate our brains to be in a state of creativity. This leads to our own creativity, how cool is that!
It is, however, vital to remember that the full benefits of travelling and the creativeness is evident if you are more open-minded and willing to embrace the culture you’re visiting. When getting engorged in the culture, e.g. trying local cuisines, learning a little bit of local language, or doing something locals do, you elongate your creativity more.
Travelling Makes You Happier and Richer Emotionally
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries ~ Aldous Huxley
Once you decide that you’re taking a holiday and travel, that very same moment your emotions become elated, an emotional boost begins to burst out. The anticipation, the planning and the ideas that come with it become enormous! We all look forward to our next holiday, don’t we! There is no better way to educate yourself than through traveling the world around you! We all hear a lot of information about certain places and how they’re no go zones.
However, when you happen to visit these places, the experiences, and knowledge you acquire become unfathomable. Cornell University conducted a study, and they found that “we get more happiness from anticipating a travel experience in comparison to anticipating buying a new possession.”
So, make travel one of your things to do if you haven’t recently and allow yourself to be happy. Fill your own cup first so that you can come back and be able to help those around you better.
It Increases Networking and Improves Relationships
As mentioned earlier, travel gives you the opportunity to meet different people and form new relationships which can be long-lasting. In the years that I have travelled, I have met some of the most incredible people I never thought I would meet in my life. I have made long-lasting friendships, I have sort families I never imagined, so I have personally benefited significantly form travelling only because I decided to do it.
If you’re traveling with a companion, you’re both sharing, experiencing and creating memories together thus boosting your already existing relationship. When you travel as a couple, you will be able to discover things about each other outside your normal comfort-zone. This could be an added bonus to strengthen you both.
US Travel Association conducted a study which confirmed that the relationship strengthens when you travel with a companion. IT doesn’t have to be a romantic couple; friends or siblings also shown similar results.
Travelling Promotes Healthy Heart
As we know, the excitement we get when we travel is huge. The physical activity involved is a lot such as rushing to the airport, moving baggage across gates and also walking in a foreign land. All these activities are a form of a cardio session which is vital for heart health. If you intend to just relax or walk along the beach; that’s a good form of exercise as beach sand walk is always a double the effort.
A Study by Framingham Heart found out that men and women who travel annually are less likely to suffer a heart attack and/ or develop other cardiovascular diseases. It concluded that less stress and anxiety were amongst other things attributed to these results.
Visiting different locations and destinations can keep you fit and helps keep problems like weight gain at bay. Another evidence-based finding to note is the fact that traveling helps you live longer. The research showed how travel reduces stress levels, improves your general body well-being and health and boost your brain health thus improving our life expectancy.
Conclusion
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.– Saint Augustine
If you are still contemplating on whether to take a holiday or not, don’t delay it anymore! We have now learnt from this blog post that there are a lot of benefits in taking time off and going on an adventure trip.
If you haven’t travelled recently, maybe it’s time for you to do it? Find a location you can afford and it doesn’t have to be overseas. Start with taking a weekend trip or an interstate holiday and then plan the big one. We are humans and not machines; therefore a break is a must for us. After travelling, you will definitely feel different as a person and emotionally. Whether at home or work, you will feel the energy shift you’ve been looking for.
The time is now. Plan out your trip and make it worthwhile.
I don’t know where I am going, but I’m on my way. ~ Carl Sandburg
