7 Ways Travel Can Impact Your Mindset Long After You Go Home
It’s no secret that exploring the world can change your life by shaking up your routine and exposing you to new and interesting places you would not have otherwise seen or experienced had you not taken the risk to hit the road and set off for the unknown. Studies have shown that those who regularly seek new and novel experiences for themselves feel happier and more satisfied with their lives, and even show increased brain performance in laboratory settings. Travel is one of the most effective ways to broaden the scope of your day-to-day life and enrich your mind and body with different adventures, scenery, cultures and people from all walks of life. Read on to discover some of the vital ways traveling can benefit your journey long after you return back home.
- Expands Your Horizons
That new rice dish you try in Thailand could irrevocably change the way you cook in your home, while the cliffside pools of Santorini could have you seriously researching pool loans when you make it back to your own stomping grounds. Travel can introduce you to brand new ways of life and methods of doing everyday things that can transform the way you look at your own growth and development. Exposure to new and interesting things may even change your life’s trajectory in ways you may not have considered had you not taken a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a new destination.
- Brings New Perspectives
The only way to truly experience a new culture, climate and environment is to immerse yourself directly in an area that will allow you to see it all with your own eyes. Every corner of the world has its own norms and customs, and experiencing the different standards around the world can lead you to question and consider your own. The more you’re able to perceive the way people exist and thrive around the world, the wider your scope of understanding becomes.
- Improves Your Mental Health
Many of the things you experience while out on the road, from hikes in lush rainforest greenery to days spent lounging on white-sand beaches, give you a significant, all-natural boost for your mood. Sunshine, physical activity, viewing art and history and trying new things all give your brain a boost in serotonin, your body’s happy hormone. Travel also allows you to trade the daily grind at work for a more leisurely schedule that may include longer meals, naps or long walks into town to grab a bite to eat, which can all go a long way in reducing pent-up stress and anxiety.
- Keeps Things Fresh
When you get stuck in a routine rut in which you rarely alter your surroundings and generally do the same things every day, you can start to feel cooped up and crowded in your daily routine. Travel gives you the opportunity to shake up those routines and trade your tedious every day for new possibilities and experiences. Doing so can help to fight off boredom, and even depression, and help you to feel more satisfied with the way you spend your days, even while back at home.
- Encourages Creativity
Many popular tourist attractions and activities are crowd favorites for a reason. Whether you spend hours taking in famous works of art at the Louvre in Paris or you try your hand at pasta making in Rome, different destinations offer new ways to explore your own talents and creativity and can get you thinking about new ways to approach different tasks in your own life. While you may not necessarily be prompted to pick up a paintbrush after seeing the Mona Lisa for the first time, you may find your brain making new and interesting connections about things you hadn’t previously considered. Even if they seem insignificant at the time, these new considerations are the mark of increased creativity and curiosity about the world around you.
- Teaches Respect
Travel opens your eyes to a number of things, and many of these things can be quite humbling and instill new respect in you for different rites, rituals and customs around the world. International travel, in particular, requires you to become acquainted with cultural mannerisms and norms, and these newfound pieces of knowledge have the power to step fully into polite respect for the people, religions and systems that make up the foreign communities you’ve chosen to visit.
- Boosts Confidence
It takes a particular sort of bravery to explore a new place. Travel can challenge your comfort zone and give you a new level of confidence as you make choices to put yourself out there in a place you’ve never been before.
The more you navigate, understand and maneuver through an unfamiliar place, the more self-assured and independent you’re likely to feel–and the easier it will be to handle unfamiliarities back at home.
