The Positive Impact of Travel on Mental Health: 10 Unexpected Benefits to Help Change Your Life
By Callie Fraser, LCSW
There’s vacationing, and then there is traveling. I would differentiate the two by saying that vacationing prioritizes relaxation while traveling prioritizes exploration.
We know the basics of why either can benefit our mental health: being around beautiful scenery, an escape from work and the usual, and some time to relax and do nothing productive. All of those things are great for recharging as long as it’s with the right people (or without the wrong people). There are other long-term benefits of travel that we talk less about. As both a therapist and a travel lover, I know how much travel has helped my mental health. I want to challenge others to use their time off not just for relaxed vacationing, but for pushing your comfort zone with some travel too. Of course, both cost and time can make our dream trips unrealistic at times. Start wherever you can, whether it is the town over, a new trail, an overnight stay, or a week abroad. There are a lot of helpful sites that can make travel more affordable with deals and payment plans. Plan as far in advance as necessary…it gives you something to look forward to!
Here are some ways that travel can help you grow and improve your life:
1. Meet new people.
When you’re exploring a new place, whether it be a town or new country, you often find yourself more present and able to notice who is around you. You ask strangers or staff more questions and have more small talk that can lead to bigger conversations. The conversations can expose you to new ideas, information, and stories. It can help with social anxiety long-term, as well as remind us how nice it is to look away from our phones and talk to people again. Staying in hostels and signing up for different tour groups can help fuel new friendships even more so. Experiencing new things together can create bonds and memories that stay with you. Not to mention, it means you have free places to stay all over the world! If you feel ready to travel alone, you will really be pushed to talk to new people. You’d be shocked how much more approachable you are when you’re out and about alone.
2. Connect in a new way.
If you travel with people who were already in your life, it can create new experiences that day-to-day life cannot. When put in a new environment, you can learn new things about those you thought you knew everything about. Not to mention, being with someone for an extended period of time can test our patience and force some more communication and vulnerability in order to keep getting along and feeling comfortable. Nothing brings people closer than shared experiences and memories to look back on.
3. Hear new perspectives and alternative social structures.
Visiting new countries or communities means understanding new cultures, beliefs, ways of life, and governments. Learning about these helps us either challenge or appreciate our own. For example, a group of Australians once told me the biggest difference between Australia and the United States was that Australians “worked to live” and Americans “lived to work”. This helped me challenge how much of my time and energy is given to work. In Norway, employees are allowed to leave work by 3 p.m. during certain times of the year in order to make sure they get to have some free time in the sunlight. They also have free daycare, longer maternity and paternity leave, and free higher education. In Copenhagen, Denmark, so few people drove cars. They had entire parking garages filled with bicycles…and both the people and the environment were better because of it! Long story short, for me, travel has pointed out things about U.S. culture that really impact our daily mental health, and therefore, what could help it. However, you don’t have to leave the country to explore different mindsets, perspectives, and ways of going about life. These differences can be seen city to city and town to town!
4. Push your comfort zone by facing some anxieties.
Navigating new and crowded spaces like airports, public transportation, and tourist attractions can be very anxiety provoking. You are often put on the spot to figure out how to get to different places and how new things work. You have to talk to more people than usual, pushing social anxieties at times. If you are traveling alone, you are relying on yourself to navigate all this and keep yourself safe. You may be far away from anyone you know, pushing your self-trust or relying on strangers more than usual. When you come back home though, proving to yourself that you can do these things helps you trust yourself to be able to do a lot of the daily things back home as well..
5. Zoom out.
Whether we go international or a few hours away, getting out of our usual bubble…that 20-mile radius we spend 90% of our lives in, is always a great reminder of what’s important. Just like small towns tend to have more drama, keeping our bubble small can start to make everything feel like a bigger deal than it really is. Travel can feel like zooming out. It reminds us that there are much more important things going on, many more awesome things to experience, and many more beautiful places to see. That thing your coworker said to another coworker about you suddenly feels pretty insignificant when you’re looking out at the ocean or down a mountain.
6. Challenge rigidity.
We can get pretty comfortable with our typical routines, habits, and plans. Travel shakes all of that up. Not only is it a reminder that we don’t HAVE to sleep with that particular pillow every night or drink the same brand of coffee every day, but it shows us that sometimes, rigid plans and expectations can set us up for failure. Plans will inevitably change as flights are delayed, you turn the wrong way and get lost, something costs more than you expected, someone cancels last minute, or who knows what else! It is good practice in learning to adjust in the moment and go with the flow a little more in our regular lives as well.
7. Try new things.
Often unintentionally, we can get stuck in our ways. Sticking with the foods, music, and activities we know we like. That’s great to an extent, but spontaneity and novelty is key to fulfillment. Travel exposes us to these new foods, music, sports, clothes, and you name it! You can discover new interests, hobbies, and likes. It can also push our comfort zone and give us an opportunity to prove to ourselves we can do it. In moments of adrenaline while traveling, I’ve been pushed to try things I would have never expected: luging, swinging off the edge of a building over 100 meters tall, parasailing, and zip-lining, to name a few.
8. Practice letting things go.
The hotel might look different than it did in pictures. That cool activity you wanted to do might actually be more of a tourist trap than it is fun. You may not have enough time or money to fit in everything you wanted to do. Travel helps us appreciate what goes right instead of comparing everything to the perfect image we had in our head or travel photos we’ve seen others post.
9. See how far you can push your body and how to take care of it.
Vacations may be relaxing, but traveling can be exhausting. I’m talking blisters, sore legs, sunburn, bug bites, chaffing, sweating, you name it! You’re trying new foods your body isn’t used to. You may be drinking more than usual. You’re probably sleeping less than usual. You may be walking miles and miles a day. You may have to adjust to new time zones. Traveling can remind us to appreciate the luxuries of daily life, to listen to our bodies, and care for them even when it’s inconvenient. It also shows us that we can handle more than we think.
10. Experience the joy of minimalism.
When you’re lugging your belongings from place to place or trying to avoid checked baggage fees, you’re forced to really narrow down what to bring. Suddenly, you’re not always able to wear the perfect outfit or wash everything after each time you wear it. You care more about the comfort of the shoe than what it looks like. Only having a few things to choose from when you’re picking what to wear can actually feel like a relief. You don’t have much of a choice so why care so much what you look like? It can be great to carry a little bit of that thinking home with you long after the trip is over.
Why not get to know—and grow—yourself on a trip?
Through all of the above, you learn so much about yourself when you travel. The variables of your daily life are removed and you get to see your personality when you aren’t shifting it to fit someone else, a work environment, or a family dynamic. You learn what you like (and maybe who you like). Your perspectives and opinions are challenged. You learn about your body, what impacts it, and what it needs. Most importantly, by pushing your comfort zone, facing anxieties, and sitting in some discomfort, you truly learn what you’re capable of. Nothing builds more confidence than that.
….So, have I convinced you to do more traveling yet?