Travelling is a passion for many and anyone who has never experienced it is missing out on a big and beautiful part of life.
Travelling comes with countless benefits, some of which include but are not limited to: an enrichment of cultural understanding and awareness, witnessing and learning history of a place, seeing beautiful sights that you've never seen before or imagined and interacting with people who have different life experiences or a language from you.
With how easy travelling is now compared to the past, it's no wonder that so many people are addicted to it!
Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of regular travellers have struggled having to stay in one place and losing the sense of freedom that travel brings. If you are one of those people, you are not alone!
Here are some of the benefits travelling has for the mind and mental health, namely in the area of reducing stress and giving your body rest and repose.
If you feel like you need to be renewed and to get your strength and motivation back, it's a good idea to book a trip as soon as you are able to do so. The following reasons may motivate you!
1. Travelling provides mental clarity
During an average day, you may be bombarded with difficult decisions or tasks that must be completed. From the time you wake up to the time the day is over, your mind constantly has to work through responsibilities and obligations.
Mental clarity is very important to make the right decisions at the right time, and most efficiently. This will also allow you to feel less stress in your day and more contentment as a result. While there are many tips to achieve and facilitate mental clarity, travel is certainly a great way to give your mind a break. Just by being out and away from a stressful environment will allow your mind to process information at a more relaxed pace. Even better, this information will be processing the background and ultimately, you will be able to make a decision that has been properly evaluated and understood for your circumstance. Sometimes all you need is to forget about work for a short time.
Traveling helps you with exactly that and this could also be a great way to get relief from anxiety, which goes into the next point.
2. Travel relaxes you
...or at least it should!
There is nothing better than not having to wake up to an alarm clock or a list of to-do tasks right from the morning. When on vacation, you'll feel much more relaxed when waking up and ready to face the day with a renewed sense of energy not having to worry about anything. You will also look forward to your day! A few days like this will be extremely helpful when you do get back to your routine, as you will feel refreshed in your mind AND body from the rest.
You will also have a new perspective from your rest that you may even wake up feeling LESS stressed than before and more optimistic to make the most out of your day.
3. Travelling relaxes the mind, which in turn relaxes the body
Mental health is physical health.
Renewing your mind is essential to consistently being able to feel better and function at your best.
Sometimes all it takes is a new environment and different experiences than what you are used to. Mental health contributes to physical health in major ways. Even the exercise you get from travelling will be good for your body and may bring back some motivation to move around more often at home!
The new perspective from travelling may also calm your expectations and make you appreciate what you have more. This is great for building patience, gratitude and wisdom.
Travelling does a great job with relaxing a person mentally, by making them temporarily distracted by a new adventure and environment. As long as you travel with the goal of taking a break and relaxing, you should be able to get just that.
There is nothing better than feeling refreshed and being more at peace.
Take some time out for yourself and book a trip somewhere! You deserve it.