The Benefits Of Travel And Why You Should Make It A Priority

As many of us discovered when Covid-19 appeared and put paid to even short domestic excursions for a period of time, staying at home has its downsides as well as its advantages.

While we all remained dutifully locked indoors, finding various novel and sometimes bizarre ways to occupy ourselves, the trips and holidays we would normally have taken loomed in the backs of our minds. Part of the allure of journeying away from home is that, besides offering a welcome break from work, going travelling brings us so many other pleasures too, many of which we couldn’t – or shouldn’t – do without.

Whether you relish your yearly family vacation to North Wales, exploring the ancient wonders of Egypt, or rediscovering yourself on the golden beaches of Thailand, the fact is that travel can have a number of substantial benefits for our mental well-being. These benefits, in turn, can also help to improve our physical health.

Let’s find out what some of those benefits are. While we do, you may just discover why it’s a great idea to make travelling more often a top lifestyle priority going forward.

Travel Helps You Forge Meaningful Connections

Perhaps one of the most significant advantages of spreading our wings and soaring off to pastures new is that it helps us to realise that we are connected to a much wider world – and all of the people, plants, and creatures in it. This kind of revelation is arguably of even greater importance in the wake of the pandemic, when all of our worlds shrank dramatically – causing all kinds of mental and physical ailments.

Being able to journey to different countries and meet new people from different cultures, religions, and backgrounds can expand our horizons in more ways than one. It can also help us to cultivate positive attributes such as empathy, tolerance, and general open-mindedness.

Travel Allows You To Have New Experiences

One of the wonderful things about travelling – whether for a holiday or a longer exploration – is the potential it gives you to have all kinds of new, novel, and often unexpected experiences.

Besides breathtaking landscapes, interesting people, and the usual tried-and-tested activities that you will find on many a tourist trail, the world is packed full of quirky wonders for you to add to your bucket list. From the colourful slopes of China’s Zhangye Danxia mountains to Colombia’s Rainbow River, and the glittering glow worm-infested caverns of New Zealand, there are so many remarkable sights to experience on your future travels.

Travelling Can Encourage Healthier Habits

While some people go on holiday in order to let their hair down and indulge in all kinds of unhealthy habits, for others, travel can inspire them to pursue a healthier and more active way of life. Sometimes, the mere act of booking a ticket can prompt you to think about the habits you may need to curtail while you’re away – such as smoking too many cigarettes. For heavy smokers, the prospect of going away on a journey might encourage them to think about switching to more convenient – and healthier – ways of getting their nicotine fix.

Elf bars and vape pens, such as the wide variety provided by Grey Haze, can offer a portable and easily controllable method of reducing cigarette use while you’re away. You can also experiment with different delicious flavours, which is an attribute decidedly lacking from regular cigarettes.

Of course, travel can also help you to acquire some new positive habits as well as cut down on unhealthy ones. During the course of your journeying, you will probably find that you pick up all kinds of wellness-boosting tips and inspiration to take back home – from new and delicious recipes to recreate at home, through to traditional healing and relaxation techniques, such as the Japanese practice of ikebana, or lomilomi massage from Hawaii. By opening yourself up to different ways of tending to both your mind and your body, you can create a holistic self-care routine at home that will help you get through tough times.

Travelling Is Good For Your Mind

If you have been struggling with mental health issues, then you may be in need of a prescription for some travel! The mere act of packing a suitcase, getting on an airplane, and jetting off to distant shores can help to pull us out of our negative frame of mind. At the very least, give us a fresh perspective on our problems!

By focusing on the new and exciting sights, sounds, and smells all around you, you will spend less time dwelling on the sensations of anxiety or depression that may be plaguing you at home. Travel can also give you the distance- literally and metaphorically – to examine your current way of life and pinpoint things that could be contributing to your low mood, such as a job that you hate or a living situation that’s proving untenable. Using these fresh insights, you can then hopefully start coming up with ways to shake things up when you get back home and start creating a more positive lifestyle.

Travel Makes You More Optimistic

Did you know that travelling is such a positive thing for your mental well-being that the mere act of thinking about a trip that you are going to take in the future can boost your happiness levels? This is because we tend to focus on what’s coming, rather than dwelling on the past or even fully inhabiting the present moment, and this ability to mentally inhabit the future can help us to stay optimistic when we know something pleasant is on the way.

As highly imaginative creatures, we can also boost our mood merely by thinking about a trip, as we are capable of clearly envisioning the many enjoyable experiences we plan to have while we’re away. For instance, perhaps you can already taste that delectable gelato you will savour on your next trip to Rome, or perhaps you can already feel the soft warm sand of a Mauritian beach sifting between your toes. Being able to visualise, plan and look forward to our future forays into the great wide world can do us the world of good; we don’t even have to step outside our front doors.

Conclusion

So, there you have it; not only can the mere act of planning a trip prompt a mood-boosting burst of positivity, but the travel itself can also bring you all kinds of remarkable benefits.

With so much to look forward to and experience, then, it seems undeniable that making travelling more of a priority in your life will help you in ways you may never have expected. So, what are you waiting for? Start planning that next adventure!