Ever feel like you’re trapped in a rut? We’ve all been there, especially with our busy work schedules and life responsibilities. We spend nearly all our lives working, providing, and worrying about our future, without considering how this may impact our health and wellbeing.
The fact is, most of us are terrible at taking time off work. Whether it’s because we don’t get paid enough, we think that everything will crumble when we take a break, or we just don’t know how to save money and plan for a trip.
Sometimes not taking time off and revitalize may be doing you more harm than good, because too much work is not only detrimental to your health but also your happiness and wellbeing. That said, we should all view traveling and vacations not as luxuries, but necessities for a well-balanced, healthy life.
Research studies indicate that taking some time away from your regular work schedule can have a myriad of psychological and health benefits. People who regularly take vacations report less stress, increased happiness, and a better outlook on life. If you need a little more convincing, here are five reasons traveling can be beneficial to you.
Enables Stress Relief
If you feel like you are in a stressful point in your life, packing your bags and exploring wonder-lust worthy destinations may be just what you need. Travelling fosters happiness and may be the medicine we need to take our minds off stressful situations and improve our mental health.
There is some sense of freedom attached to the act of traveling that can help you alleviate constant worry and anxiety. While vacationing, you can sleep in, stay up late, and do things when you want to without pressure. The whole point is getting out of a daily schedule and enjoying the freedom that comes with it.
Whether you are spending time on a safari in Masai Mara Kenya, sky diving in Dubai, mountain climbing in Tanzania, sitting on a beach in Seychelles, or cruising on the Nile in Egypt, doing the things you enjoy most will definitely relieve stress.
Increases Mental Power
Scientists report that brain structure is altered by chronic exposure to stress hormone cortisol, a factor that plays a major role in depression and anxiety. The aggravation of these mental disorders often arises with increased life stress that comes from work and lifestyle.
Experts show that taking time off to vacation can be not only beneficial in enhancing mental health, but also mental power. Upon returning from vacation, a person tends to be more focused and productive.
This is because taking time off to travel can allow us an opportunity to do other things such as learn a new language, attend to our hobbies, and bond with our friends and families. Travelling provides you a chance to challenge yourself, think of alternative options, and learning new things during your adventures.
Tip: Allowing yourself time to travel affords you a perfect opportunity for you to learn new languages and cultures to enhance your vocabulary, language literacy, experience, and know-how. For example, during a trip to Nigeria, you can learn the Hausa Language. If you opt to visit South Africa, you can learn the Zulu language and so on. Such activities will not only enhance your expertise but also improve your goal-directedness and mental power.
Enhances Physical Health
For many people, traveling is associated with excitement, fun, and learning new experiences. You get to take a period away from work or regular routine to explore a new city, country, destination, cultures, cuisines and make merry solo or with the loved ones. All these are geared towards mental wellbeing.
However, traveling can also be significantly beneficial to your physical health. It’s a perfect way to promote physical activity, which may sometimes be limited by daily work routines. Travelling allows you to be active the entire day, visiting local attractions, taking part in fun activities, or just exploring.
For instance, when you are booking a Kenyan tour package, some travelers prefer adding hiking, cycling, or mountain climbing to their travel itineraries. All these activities are exhilarating, not only when immersing yourself into the adventure but also stimulating your physical wellness.
Enhances Your Relationships
Whether you are doing it with your partner, family, or friends, traveling makes everything feel like new again. The great thing about this is that experiencing things together, away from the daily routine, is bound to always make you see your loved ones in a new light.
Studies indicate that couples who travel together often report feeling more satisfied with their marriages. The same reports also indicate that partners who vacation together report less stress, better sex, and better understanding between each other.
Similarly, sharing experiences during vacations is shown to boost family bonding, which is priceless. In fact, it is reported that experiences shared together are more valuable than material goods acquired together in a couple or family’s lifetime.
Traveling together promotes not only the quality time you enjoy together, but also allows you a chance to plan and overcome obstacles together. All these work in tandem to help you better your relationship bond, which can subsequently enable you to avoid or deal with issues such as anxiety, depression, and stress.
Helps You Reinvent Yourself
Finally, when you break away from the daily routine to travel, you afford yourself a chance to relax and reinvent yourself. If you allow it, traveling, particularly in a foreign country, can give you the capability to expand your mind in a way that you never realized possible.
From the onset, you have purposefully made the decision to suspend your current routine and embark on an adventure that takes you away from familiar activities, faces, and territories of your daily existence.
Once you start the actual exploration, you will be giving yourself a chance to reconnect with your desires and things that trigger your excitement, all of which can represent a chance for you to be blissful.
These are experiences that will force you to re-evaluate your life and enhance your wellbeing. Visiting new places, encountering new people, and facing new situations will enable you to reinvent yourself, something that should happen organically.
