Did you know that travel is good for your health? How about that it lowers stress, raises creativity, awakens your humanity, and expands your mind?
And that’s not all. According to recent studies, it can actually keep you alive longer.
Learn more about these and other benefits of travel in the guide below. Here are the 9 most important reasons why you should travel more often.
1. Get Away From Daily Stress
Daily stress is a phrase we’re all too familiar with. And why is that? It’s because our days are stressful.
This shouldn’t be. But when life becomes routine for the sake of routine, what is there to be excited about.
Don’t get us wrong, stability is important–necessary, even. But so is spontaneity. To live a full life requires both.
Life without routine is inefficient and dysfunctional. But when life is only routine and nothing else, we lose all motivation to keep the routine going.
Travelling once or twice a year injects this spontaneity into your routine. Little of how you live while traveling is the same as you’re used to. The whole trip you force yourself to adopt a different routine, or none at all.
It lets you experience life apart from the daily grind burnout.
2. Come Back to Life
When this happens, it’s almost like being a kid again. While traveling, everything in your life is new, unfamiliar, unexpected. You’re experiencing many things for the first time, dealing with decisions and challenges you aren’t used to.
You’ll be learning new things and solving new problems. It forces your brain to jumpstart several thought-processing functions you never normally use.
Your brain goes into creative mode. All the imagination, passion, hope, and high expectations you laid to rest long ago become tangible once again.
3. Grow Inner Strength
What’s the most beneficial side effect of all this? It teaches you that the unfamiliar is exciting, not scary.
Normally, we fear to leave the safety of our routine. Unpredictability makes the routine harder and is, therefore, bad. Unexpected problems are the bane of our workday.
But on vacation away from home, everything is unexpected. And most of it is pretty awesome.
Of course, it never goes off without a hitch. There are always plenty of problems during travel. But you’ll find you get over them quickly without much thought.
Through this, you learn that unpredictability can make life even better. You discover that unexpected problems really aren’t that bad.
When you get back, you’re stronger than ever to face life’s challenges.
4. Socialize For Real
Social interaction is another dormant life-skill traveling wakes up. Today, most of our socialization happens remotely.
Live conversation, including phone calls, have been all but replaced by texting and Facebooking. Usually, these are comments, not conversations. Face-to-face human interaction is at an all-time low.
But during travel, things are completely the opposite. Most of your conversation and interaction with other people is done live.
You’ll be out in the real world, talking to real people instead of avatars. This forces you to actually see them as people and not notifications. You’ll wake up your humanity and develop better people skills.
5. Become More Interesting
So what happens when you get home? All your passion, imagination, creativity, and people skills come with you.
You’ll be a different person throughout: hopeful, re-energized, spirited. And it won’t go unnoticed.
You’ll enjoy the people around you more and they’ll enjoy you, too. Plus, you’ll have so many stories to share of your experiences.
These experiences are unique for every traveler, every time. And that makes you more unique, too.
6. See Your Life From Outside the “Bubble”
You’ll also see your normal routine life through different eyes when you get home. After experiencing life for real on your travels, you’ll realize all the important things that are missing from your life.
With a fresh perspective, you can see specific problems with your current routine. Perhaps you don’t hang out with people enough or get enough variety in your diet. Maybe you used to enjoy creative activities like painting but stopped a long time ago.
After learning what’s important to you over your trip, you’re equipped to make big changes to your daily routine. Through these changes, you’ll reduce many big stressors in your life and add positive, invigorating activities to your schedule at the same time. Then your life is less long stressful after the vacation, too.
7. Improve Mental Health
Studies show that vacationing improves your mood and decreases feelings of anxiety within days. Even planning a vacation makes you happier.
Women who vacation 2 or more times per year are less prone to chronic stress and depression. Other research found that vacationing led to improved sleep patterns and reaction times.
For those who struggle with stress, anxiety, depression, or sleep disorders, traveling might be just the medicine you need.
8. Improve Physical Health
Travelling may even prolong your life.
Another study shows that men who don’t vacation at least once a year are 20% more likely to die suddenly. And they’re 30% more likely to develop a fatal case of heart disease. The study also reported that women who rarely vacation are more at risk of heart attacks and coronary death.
This may have something to do with the fact that 89% of those who do travel see a significant drop in stress within two days.
9. These Benefits Require Reapplication
But, as these studies show, none of the benefits on this list are lasting. One by one, they begin to fade away as you disintegrate back into routine living.
This is no one’s fault. It’s just the way we are.
To continue receiving the benefits of travel, they all must be reapplied at least once per year. For this reason, annual or bi-annual travel should be made part of your routine.
Remember These Reasons Why You Should Travel
Why should you travel? Now you have your answer(s):
- Perspective
- Purpose
- Humanity
- Sanity
- Physical wellbeing
- Prevention against literally dropping dead from stress
You really can’t find better reasons than these to do anything, right? If you value continuing your existence, don’t forget these reasons why you should travel.
To learn more health benefits of taking time off, read Do What’s Best for You: When It’s Okay to Take a Mental Health Day.