Depending on who you ask, travel can either be seen as a necessity or a luxury. Many people confuse travelling with long trips or going overseas but it can also be as simple as driving to a nearby town and enjoying some personal time alone or with your family.
Picture: Getaway gallery
There’s a famous quote by Saint Augustine: ‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.’ Studies show that he was not too far off, as travel can also have health benefits.
From reducing your stress levels to lowering your chances of developing heart disease, the health benefits of travelling are enormous. For some people travel has actually even gone as far as managing their anxiety and depression. But how do we know the healing was due to travel rather than something else?
Being out of your comfort zone affects your mental well-being. Studies show that if you can’t step out of your comfort zone you may experience difficulty making a change or transitioning, growing, and ultimately learning something new.
According to Dr Abigail Brenner, who has been a board-certified psychologist for more than 30 years, ‘Your real life exists beyond the bubble of your own personal thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Your real life is the sum total of all of your experiences, not just the ones you’re comfortable with.’ Travel, of course, is one thing that is sure to push us outside our comfort zones.
Learning a new language is also one stimulating activity that research has linked to stronger cognitive benefits.
What better way to learn a new language than through travel and experiencing different cultures and landscapes than what you usually see in your home town?
A study conducted by The Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) revealed that stress levels significantly reduce within two or three days of taking a trip abroad.
READ: How South Africans like to spend their holidays
We decided to ask our readers different questions about travel in a poll on Instagram. Take a look at what they said.
We further asked whether they believed that travelling had healing qualities.
100% of our readers answered yes to this question and there are studies to prove them right.
A 2020 study published in the journal Nature found that people who see more changes in scenery day-to-day tend to be happier.
A study by World Population Review ranks Finland as the happiest country in the world. Further studies by World Atlas rank Finland as the country with the most travellers per year, with each citizen taking roughly seven trips abroad per calendar year. The report claims that ‘The Finnish people make most of the inbound and outbound travels because of high income and lower unemployment status of the people. Their cultural attributes also make them widely acceptable, as they are open, warm, sincere and have a travel-oriented culture as well.’
So, there you have it. The benefits of travel can’t be ignored, which is why we’ll always be the first to say yes to taking that trip.
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