It might get impossible to find time for yourselves in your routine lives. If you are not working, you are engaged in monotonous tasks and responsibilities that slowly wear you out. When you travel, however, you get time away from this routine, to temporarily disconnect from your stressful lives, and to step into a world of self-care.
No longer are you trapped in a room, sitting on a desk, but have entered another realm of meditation. It has enabled you to breathe deeply, to mute off the unnecessary noises that fill your minds, and shrug the burdens weighing you down. The change of place has helped by pushing you to focus on what’s essential—your breath, your body and mental peace.
It’s no wonder that studies show that travelling improves your overall health and creativity.
A good scenery, a good conversation with someone unknown, a great breakfast in a new place can stimulate neurons to fire connections that spark off creativity and positivity. Connecting with people from different cultures, people who find their roots away from yours can break what’s daggered and old for something new.
Today, science backs the benefits of travel and here are some additional reasons why travel should be one of your resolutions for 2019.
Travel Rewires Your Brain
A lot of research has been conducted on how travel allows brain patterns to grow and enhance. Professor Adam Galinsky from Columbia Business School, for example, concluded after extensive research that, “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought—the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms.”
This means that our brain actually attempts to rewire itself to adapt to a foreign language or culture to help process decisions faster. The exposure can allow for a revision of stereotypes and a step out of your comfort zone which, daunting at first, can be a hugely exhilarating experience.
Travel Hones Your Skills
Professor Galinsky has also proved that people who spend time abroad, like the 20,000 United Kingdom students who spend almost three months abroad every year, are more creative with their thinking process and can help gain confidence and a sense of independence.
Similarly, a study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported that students who lived abroad were 20 per cent more likely to solve a computer task than those who didn’t travel. Evidently, experiencing another culture for a period of time opens up our mind to look for creative solutions. In the end, it also makes one a better problem-solver.
Travel Helps You Pause And Think Clearly
Speaking to Thrive Global India, social scientist Dr VN Alok says, “Travelling gives you a chance to think back on the decisions you made in your life, what went wrong where and it opens our mind to be able to think clearly.” He also points out, “Travel has the potential to light up the brain across a diverse range of neural pathways, leading to many health and cognitive benefits.
Travellers Already Know It, Do You?
Those who travel often know the benefits of travel intuitively. Travel bloggers Mishal Reebye and Emilie Toussiant, for instance, say, “Travel has rewarded us with a greater sense of purpose in life.” They’ve long known that “Travelling improves thinking, energises the body and mind and provides an individual with mindfulness,” and now utilise what they learn from travelling in their daily lives.
Travel is also joyous for the act itself. Like bloggers Shahrukh and Sarah Bamboat say, “Travel is a great way to add a spark in your life without doing much. You don’t have to visit exotic locations or have a high budget plan for it. Just be together, live the moment.”
In the last month of 2018, as you think of ways to improve your life in the coming year, make sure packing a bag and flying to new a place crowns that list. You deserve it!
(With inputs by Ashutosh Vashist)
More on Thrive Global India:
3 ‘Super Hosts’ on How Inviting Strangers into Their Homes Helped Them Redefine Wonder
5 Creative Ways to Keep Your Wonder Alive