The Psychological Benefits of Travelling

BONJOUR BRAVEHEARTS!

Fun fact: Do you know Australians evidently follow a cultural tradition of working temporary jobs for half a year to save up money just so they can spend the other half of the year in travelling: Charming Rovers!

Hey there, Imagine this, you get up one day and there’s no pressure of hefty work or following a routine schedule that you’ve been following for the last two decades. You feel refreshed and experience the day as it unfolds, no plans, no worries and no other reason to get dark circles which makes you look like carrying heavy suitcases packed for an 8 week trip underneath your eyes.

Well, what if I say you can experience this for real? There are studies that suggest that people who love to travel a lot are often perceived as the people who like to run away from underlying problems that they don’t want to address. Obviously, you don’t want to fall under the category of a non-responsible citizen but travelling often can actually boost up your overall health and mental state without investing billions in therapies. How?

Read on to find out.

Over the years we humans have modified our movements from throwing a spear for hunting to push buttons on the keyboard incessantly, from dragging a mammal to the cave to smoothly move the pen over the surface of the paper and in this shift of movement we have forgotten the basic and considerable amount of time to move our body for actually staying healthy and fit.

Sure, Travelling for a long duration might get hectic and costly at times but the right amount of escape from the monotonous life can actually help us re-shift personalities and reorganize our priorities to devote time more productively. Here are a bunch of brainy advantages that travelling offers one to enjoy:

• YOU FEEL LIKE A KID AGAIN

Travelling makes you feel free from obligation, as long as you have food to eat and a shed over your head to doze off, you don’t have any worries for the time that the practical life brings. Your mind switches to the state of a child’s mind, making you appreciate the little things like showering under the waterfalls, feeling the prickling of the warm sun rays sitting on the cold snow or petting a furry animal who accompanied you on your journey sipping on hot delicious supper. This in turn helps you to look at life in a much simpler way which we humans forgot in the long race of proving ourselves the best. You become more curious and spontaneous like a kid in making decisions and start living life in the present rather than overthinking your past decisions which further can trigger your mind to spark your interest in trying new things and come up with unique solutions to your unsolved problems.

• YOU BECOME A VERSATILE THINKER

There are certain norms and regulations that we unconsciously follow when we stay somewhere for a long time. We get adapted to the place and before we know it, we develop a bubble of beliefs and live by them to get accepted in society. Travelling forces you to burst that bubble and makes you open to new excitements and adventures. When we travel our mind develops new habits and characters making us behave in a certain way to adapt to the frequently changing surroundings so that we can learn and experience from different cultures, witness the way they eat, sleep, work, their values, traditions and a close insight of their perspective towards life. The simplicity of not having much but still having eyes crinkling smile on their faces makes you rethink the values and wishes of your life. Why do you really want that new bass system or that fancy purse that will actually cost you a fortune for nothing?

• YOU DISCOVER YOURSELF MORE

Travelling for a considerable amount of time brings a major shift in your mindset. Psychologists believe that many people switch personalities when there’s a change in the environment. You become more minimalistic as you cannot carry unnecessary things on your backpack which also cease your unnecessary wants in life. One more great reason to travel is you are a stranger wherever you go, so you don’t have people keeping their expectations on your shoulders which discard the need to impress or put on filters to behave in a certain manner. People accept you as you come by which helps you understand yourself better keeping your mind off from the judgements of people over your character, the way you look or dress. You get to meet new people all the time and have deep talks about topics that really matter to you because while travelling, nobody is lesser than the other everybody en route on the same journey to discover themselves and learn from each other.

• YOU GET PLENTY OF TIME TO THINK

As already discussed, travelling forces your mind to adapt to new situations and surroundings in a less amount of time which in turn helps you understand how you behave in critical situations and face discomfort. Travelling is not always a sunny side up egg on a breakfast plate, you face a lot of uncalled problems no matter how much you were prepared when you started your journey. Eventually, these problems end up evolving you from the person you were before the beginning of the journey. You focus on the way you react while facing the situation, learn and reflect on how you can improve to handle the situation more efficiently next time.

• YOU BECOME MORE PRODUCTIVE AT WORK

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections to boost learning, experience and cure injuries faster. It acts as a real hope from stroke victims to dyslexics. Travelling triggers cognitive flexibility; your mind’s ability to face obstacles, retain new information and revise old plans or mistakes and according to Brent Crane’s article in The Atlantic, cognitive flexibility helps stimulate neuroplasticity which in turn, can help generate creativity that persists even when travellers return home, helping them generating innovative ideas at their jobs.

What else is stopping you from grabbing your backpack and hitting the road, if you say Covid? Then let me remind you, we already developed a herd immunity towards the pandemic threats so scratch that top-notch reason of never set your foot out of your four walls because we already are on the verge of erasing that reason. Hold onto that gipsy thought and step out to explore nature's heart to give your confidence a contrasting hike and snatch a solid increment from your boss on your next presentation.

Until next,

Stay wild!

Sanjana!