Why We Love Travelling
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Why Travel Is Important
It’s no secret that we here love traveling. Although we weren’t always into it as we were stuck in the 9-5 work cycle, we caught the travel bug after our first proper travelling experience backpacking around South America for 6 months in 2016. Ever since then, we’ve been well and truly hooked. There’s nothing like stepping off a plane with little to no expectations (and those you do have often being misguided) and exploring a new place. From the diverse food to the new people and new things that you see, travelling really is an adventure for the senses and food for the soul.
For now, if you’re curious about what benefits we think the world of wandering can have, read on below for our top 4 reasons why we think travel is so important:
4 Reasons Why Travelling Is Important
1. It Expands Your Worldview
Travel abroad can help give you with the realisation that your “reality” is not absolute in a way that’s impossible to conceptualise without actually experiencing it. You don’t know what you don’t know, ya know? There are a million different ways of doing things, some that would have never even crossed your mind, and each perspective is correct and beautiful in its own right. It will help you realise more clearly that your worldview is not the only one and help expand your awareness to new possibilities. The opportunity of learning about different cultures and the history of a country (from their point of view) also creates empathy and understanding. Which, now more than ever, is extremely important and it’s crucial to continually expand on our cultural sensitivity. It can also help to put certain things into perspective. When you see how a vast majority of people live without the basic necessities that we often take for granted, your sense of gratitude will grow beyond measure.
This can be extended to the animal and plant kingdoms too which, again, are also really crucial to bring into our hearts more and more! Seeing animals in the wild in their natural habitats is a completely unique, magical experience and one that cannot be replicated in a zoo (which holds its own questions of ethics unless for conservation) or online. After you see with your own eyes the unfathomable diversity and exquisite beauty that our magnificent planet Earth has to offer, and how vast and powerful, yet delicate, it is, it will be easier to really drive home why it’s so important to try and protect it as best we can. Especially when you see firsthand the damage and destruction that can be caused by developed countries on developing nations, through no fault of their own, it can be particularly humbling and incendiary for igniting positive action! For some tips on how to be a more eco-conscious citizen, check out our post on 21 Simple Ways To Be More Sustainable.
2. It Gets You Out Of Your Comfort Zone
There’s nothing quite like travelling to spur your personal growth, not only because of the new riches you will acquire through the experiences, but also (and often mainly) because of all the mistakes and blunders you’ll make! Travel will test you and push you to your limits like nothing else will, and that’s a good thing! Growth doesn’t come when you’re comfortable, and you’ll quickly learn about yourself more in depth than you ever knew possible. Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor, as they say. Traveling helps you to think on your toes, be comfortable with sudden change and deal with the unknown- all qualities that are extremely vital to develop in life, especially right now when things are up in the air more than ever before. After you’ve been travelling for a while you’ll acquire a certain zen-ness and laissez-faire attitude that you can then bring back with you to your “normal” life, making your day-to-day stressors run much more smoothly. You also start to embody (not just understand intellectually) that everything is a part of the journey and that’s what makes the journey worth doing! Plus, learning to go with the flow, is an extremely useful skill to have too.
Along with self-development, it can also genuinely make you smarter by constantly experiencing new things, our brains develop new neural pathways, grey matter and expands its plasticity. Plus, with all the unique sensory stimulation you’ll constantly be experiencing, you’ll become much more present and mindful, living in the moment so you don’t miss a thing. Traveling to new places with no commitments can also give an enormous sense of freedom and adventure, especially if it’s your first time visiting there. Honestly, this feeling alone is worth it.
3. It Gives You Life Experience
Travelling is such a privilege to be able to do, if you are able to, you certainly won’t regret it! At the end of the day when all’s said and done, your memories are all that you have. Money won’t keep you company and you certainly can’t bring it to the grave (well you can but it won’t do you much good). In fact, your experiences are precisely the sum of who you are. Knowing that you can depend on yourself no matter what, that you’ve always got your own back, and that no matter what happens, you can always figure something out will really build your confidence and develop your relationship to yourself in a way few other things can. Traveling also helps you develop new skills- including ones you didn’t know you had. Plus, you will meet some of the most amazing, different people that you would have never crossed paths with otherwise! Some of these new friends could stay with you for many years, or you might just have the most in-depth, honest conversation of your life and then both go your separate ways- either one is awesome in its own way and serves different purposes.
Additionally, travelling is usually when you do all those crazy and exciting things you wouldn’t normally experience back home and so will create even more awesome memories to last you a lifetime! To this day, some of the memories from our first travels are my most cherished. Another beneficial aspect is that it helps to show you firsthand that the world is NOT a scary place, not even close. The overwhelming majority of people are extremely friendly and helpful (we haven’t actually really had any bad run-ins), and things are not as hard or complicated as your brain might like to make them seem! In fact, once you start, you’ll see how easy, all things considered, travelling really is (once you get into the swing of it- if you’re just starting out on your first big trip you will most likely have some growing pains, we certainly did haha).
4. It’s Good For Your Health
From cutting down on stress, to lowering your chances of developing a heart disease, for some it can also ease anxiety and depression, travelling is great for your health. It’s also awesome for your self-esteem, which, apart from the points mentioned in number 3, can even be as simple as helping you to get stuck out of a rut. Mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, travelling is like a one-stop spa for all aspects of life. Depending on exactly the type of trip you’re having, travel has a way of touching all points of your being. Just the relaxation levels you’ll feel from the break are substantial. Plus, all the extra walking you’ll be doing as well as all the new foods and microbes you’ll be exposed can have a positive influence on strengthening your wellbeing and immunity (see more on how we stay healthy year-round here). Not to mention the diversified brain pathways that you’ll be using compared to normal which will increase your cognitive functioning and help minimise the risk of certain brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s! You could also pick up a new language, or at the very least a few key words, which holds its own brain benefits.
Finally, travelling will massively increase your gratitude levels. From appreciating the beauty of the world and its diversity, to your life back home and family and friends, travel can help re-set your priorities for what’s truly important in life, and what you want from it. It can actually even strengthen social connections because interaction can’t be taken for granted anymore and so you are forced to make the extra effort. Seeing novel things is also incredibly inspiring and you never know what sparks it could ignite in your subconscious. Plus, at least for us, it gave us the inspiration we needed to become relative minimalists and realise we didn’t need to own and buy so much STUFF, all we had in the bags on our backs was enough :)
Living in an increasingly globalised world, yet with an environmental crisis on our hands, and now with a pandemic that forces us to stay put, brings questions of how to integrate travel responsibly and sustainably into our world. Erasing it altogether isn’t realistic, and think of the humongous riches we’d be missing out on! Each nation and culture is so intricately full with detail and specialisations, it would truly be a disservice to not experience and share them. As the saying goes for zero waste: we don’t need a handful of people doing it perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly. In the developed world where the bulk of the damage comes from, it’s up to us to find new, more ecological ways of doing things. For some starting ideas, have a look at our post on Responsible Tourism.
So those are just the top four reasons of why we believe travel is important, we’d love to know what you think about them in the comments section below, and if you have any other information to add as well! Personally, we can’t wait to get back out in the world exploring. One thing we’ve learnt from this time is to never take it for granted again, but also to really choose our destinations and trips carefully and mindfully in the future. For more sustainable travel tips, check out our post on How To Be An Eco-Conscious Traveller.
We’re curious to know what you think about travel?
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