Who does not like to travel? In 2016, residents in Spain made 182 million trips, 8.6% abroad, acording to data from the National Institute of Statistics.
Buying tickets, packing your bags, planning tours and then embarking on an adventure are activities enjoyed by almost everyone.
And, unlike so many other things that provide pleasure, traveling not only has no contraindications, but also has many and varied benefits for mental health.
Traveling brings so many benefits, you can’t even imagine. And to prove it, we’ve separated some tips on why traveling is good for mental health!
Why Traveling Is Good For Your Mental Health!
Every traveler knows that the closer the day of the trip gets, the faster the heart beats. It’s the expectation of getting to know a new place or missing a city that we loved to know so much.
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The opposite is also true: in situations where we are momentarily unable, as in the case of the pandemic, we end up feeling bad, precisely because we cannot reap the benefits of traveling.
7 Reasons Why Traveling Is Good For Your Mental Health
1. Less Stress And Greater Emotional Well-being
Stress reduction seems to be the most prominent of the purpose of travelling.
Even if it is a short outing and to a destination not too far away, leaving behind the routine and frenetic pace of life in the city allows you to disconnect, leave your anxieties behind and enjoy the present.
Everyone is always in the biggest rush of everyday life, huh? And the result of this excess of activities is the enormous load of stress and all its complications, such as headaches and muscle aches, in addition to sleepless nights.
Therefore, getting away from problems, even for a few days, is essential to rest your body, mind and recharge your batteries.
After all, the human body is a machine and, therefore, needs rest so as not to overload and tilt.
But Beware: mood is important, because there is also the so-called vacation stress, a state of tension caused by the preparations for the trip, the risk and complications that this may bring, the feeling that there will not be enough time to do the destination all what needs to be done, etc.
2. Collaborate For Your Happiness
Traveling is good because it breaks the routine and forces you to take a break, forget a little about the problems, put work obligations in the background to have fun with the people you love the most.
Taking more trips, even short trips, throughout the year helps you stay on top of life.
A Cornell University study found that the more travel, the greater the feeling of happiness.
The researchers analyzed what travelers posted on Twitter and most posted half-hearted comments on the home-work-home routine.
On the other hand, when they talked about their travels, itineraries and destinations, they used words that showed happiness much more often.
3. Improves Self-esteem
Traveling is good for self-esteem. That’s right! When you are visiting a new city, every now and then it will be normal to come across some challenges that will need a quick resolution.
That way, you get to exercise making important decisions and still get that taste of being fully capable of solving problems and overcoming any obstacles that come your way.
4. Open the Mind
Taking off from home to work and from work to home daily. Do the same programs on weekends. Routine, even relaxation time, keeps you in your comfort zone.
And that’s not good, after all, new experiences open your mind to significant changes in life.
Knowing different customs, flavors, places and people is perfect for expanding horizons and practicing respect and tolerance.
This is also another reason why traveling is good for your mental wellbeing.
5. Puts You in Touch With Yourself
Whether alone or with others, traveling is always an opportunity to discover not only new cultures, but also yourself.
One of the benefits of traveling is realizing your own limits and facing them.
New experiences can awaken your sense of purpose or help you find personal significance in life.
Traveling alone you will live a kind of experience, making your own decisions and learning to deal with unexpected situations that end up appearing.
Traveling with a partner you will need to share more, you will be challenged to negotiate and give up at many times.
Whether alone or with someone, traveling is always an excellent way to discover how your self behaves in the face of the challenges you encounter.
6. Greater Scope To Deal With Problems
Traveling helps to get away from the parts stressful things in life.
It can also help enhance your philosophies, provide new points of view and allow you to acquire new strategies.
That is what it is about: when one knows other realities, one takes distance from one’s own life and can see one’s own problems in their true dimension.
After a trip, people value what they have much more and avoid complaining about what they need, which also leads to greater emotional well-being.
And furthermore, traveling makes you modest, because it makes you see the small place you occupy in the world.
7. Good For The Brain
Until a long time ago it was believed that the brain, from adult age, no longer changes.
However, science has shown that this is not the case: neurons can create new connections, and new neurons can even be formed, throughout a lifetime.
For this it is key to train and stimulate our brain, and there are three key elements to do so, into to face our brain to novelty, variety and challenge. Travel meets all three.
Conditions as simple as the need to adjust to new sensations, landscapes, sounds, etc.
Creating a mental map of where one is or having to communicate in another language promote the brain function and make it more intelligent and more creative.
Traveling requires mainly, learning and memorizing everything strange until everything is normal and familiar.
This is a challenge for your brain and it’s like accelerated training. These benefits even reach people who already have a neurological disease.
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