7 Simple Ways Traveling Can Help Improve Mental Wellness

7 Simple Ways Traveling Can Help Improve Mental Wellness

Do you feel as if you are stuck in a rut?

From family to work issues, daily chores, illnesses, maintaining your home, and a hundred different concerns, the daily grind could sometimes take a toll on your well-being. 

Having a change of scenery or taking a vacation can already do wonders for your mental health. In fact, it has been scientifically proven that traveling provides several benefits to your mental health. 

Taking a trip could change your life for the better. In this post, we will talk about the seven simple ways of how traveling can improve your mental health:

1. You’ll discover more about yourself

Traveling helps you re-assess and re-invent your life. It helps you boost your thinking in a way that you never thought of. It’s important to make sure that you’re traveling safely. MIRA Safety provides quality safety gear to keep you safe both at home and while on vacation.

Overcoming the challenges that come with traveling brings about a feeling of independence and a sense of control in your life. For instance, choosing which luggage brands to purchase from.

Going out of your comfort zone helps you build resilience, which allows you to learn how to cope with different situations. 

Moreover, traveling and achieving these goals can make the day-to-day stuff back home easier to handle. Spending the time to fend for yourself while traveling, like bargaining in a local market or catching public transportation in a foreign country, could also lead to positive personal outcomes that build up your confidence.

Not to mention that it improves your overall life satisfaction. 

2. It helps you increase creativity

According to Adam Galinsky from Colombia Business School, a key to increasing your creativity is to immerse and engage yourself in the local culture.

This open-mindedness helps you embrace various situations and could even influence your outlook in life. Moreover, because creativity is directly linked to neuroplasticity (or the brain’s ability to form new neural connections) it means that our brains are often sensitive to change.

New environments and experiences could influence creativity. Having your own creative outlet is one of the best ways to practice mindfulness. Also, the more you’re able to put this into good use, the better.

Immersing yourself in unfamiliar sights and sounds when traveling boosts your creativity.

3. You’ll be familiarized about other cultures

Traveling allows you to navigate, communicate with others, and to learn about different cultures. 

Whether you are asking for directions in a foreign country while bringing your luggage, meeting new people and new friends, or immersing yourself in new cultural experiences, you will learn more about the world as you try to get around. 

4. Makes you mentally resilient

Traveling and living somewhere exciting yet intimidating at the same time could toughen you up mentally and emotionally.

When you face challenges in an unfamiliar environment, it forces you to learn and adapt to something that is beyond your comfort zone. This helps you be more flexible on things and emotionally strong.

Delayed or canceled flights, and last minutes plans? Traveling helps you deal with bigger issues in life, with more patience and grace.

5. It gives you a change of scenery

If you have been struggling to find motivation at work lately or just ended a tough relationship, hitting the pause button and going somewhere is one of the best ways to restore yourself. 

Although staying in a familiar place could bring a sense of comfort to others, it could also make you physically and mentally trapped. 

Changing your daily routine and going somewhere will help stimulate your mind, improve your overall happiness levels, and could make you feel as if you are doing something worthwhile with your time. 

6. It disconnects you from daily stress

As mentioned previously, many people travel because they want to break away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Traveling helps you rejuvenate, destress, and recharge. That way, when you’re back from your holiday, you can put forward more great ideas and lots of enthusiasm. 

Traveling also helps you take off your mind from stressful situations, leading to more cortisol levels, and making you feel more calm and content. It also helps you focus on the present moment. 

Having a list of fun and exciting activities can add novelty and change in the form of new sights, sounds, and experiences. 

7. Traveling increases happiness

Booking accommodation, finding the perfect travel destination, and packing your bags are proven to make you happy. 

In fact, a study conducted by Cornell University found out that the process of planning and anticipating a trip increases happiness levels more than the process of obtaining new material possessions such as a new car or clothes. 

The time to relax and do what you want on your trip significantly reduces your stress and increases your overall happiness as well. 

So there you have it. After you have read about the wonderful things traveling does to your mental health, it is time to do your research and plan your next trip!