Benefits of traveling: why you should leave your home

This time, I decided to travel a bit differently for this article. Without implemented SEO rules, without a secret wish at least once to find my article on Google’s first page. Just my unconstrained thoughts, my perspective. So why do people travel? Why I do this? The most straightforward answer would be because people take a vacation to rest their body and mind. But traveling is much more than just lying on a beach under the hot Mediterranean sun.

Broaden your horizons

Traveling gives you the joy of learning new things. And it doesn’t matter if you go to explore an isolated African tribe or simply took a day trip to a nearby town and visit a local small museum. Chances are that in both places you will learn something new. In the first scenario, you will get a rare chance to immerse yourself into a completely different culture, in the second one, you may discover something unheard about the place you live in. Remember, you live as long you still have first times.

Challenge yourself

I’m a typical introvert. I could be an example for a psychology study about the behavior of such people. And yet, not being a chatterbox and usually keeping myself out of the spotlight, I managed to at least partially overcome my fears and uncertainties. How come? Well, traveling helped to achieve this a lot.

I remember like it was yesterday: I got a chance to study in Italy with my best friend but at the last minute everything changed drastically. She couldn’t come with me anymore and here it was a dilemma in front of me: go abroad anyway or keep myself out of trouble and stay at home. In the beginning, a voice in my head shouted “stay at home, you unsocial creature!”. But my heart responded, “go, try this, what wrong could happen if you try?”. And so I left to my first completely self-relied experience abroad.

I won’t lie, it was hard for me. I didn’t know anyone there, I felt lonely, homesick, back then I didn’t know Italian well enough and still needed to find someplace to live on my own. There were a lot of tears and even thoughts of buying a return ticket. But eventually, I started to appreciate my little personal victories. I managed to ask for directions from a stranger without a stutter. Great! I ordered my food smoothly and when a waiter asked if I want anything else, I even managed to order a dessert without reading directly from the menu. My personal little conquers helped me to start believing in myself.

That was my first unforgettable experience but after that, there were hundreds of others. I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I know what a big cliche this expression is but that is exactly what helped me to become a little bit braver. Otherwise, I would have stayed forever closed in my tiny safe house. And I love the world, love its diversity. I just needed to find a perfect way to approach it.

Traveling makes you appreciate

Some people are more likely to complain about things than others. Their target of dissatisfaction can become anything: bad weather (too hot, too rainy, too windy, too damp, etc.), bad infrastructure, rude people, not enough salt in their food, and a million other things. The feeling of discontent especially grows bigger when a person is familiar with a particular place, for instance, the home city. A person circles like a lab rat into his daily routine and eventually his eyes can see just negativity completely excluding beauty around him.

Traveling might help to solve this issue. There are so many places in this world that are far less clean, nice, and modern than our above-mentioned person’s home town. Once you see how really bad can get, you start to appreciate what you left at home. Walking downtown Los Angeles one understands that his country doesn’t have such a disastrous homeless people problem. After spending a significant amount of time in Naples and Sicily, I finally started to value clean streets in my home country. Sometimes a person needs to see things from a different perspective to change their mindset.

Traveling makes you more humble

If some individuals tend to complain too much, there is another fraction of jingoistic people who feel like they are the center of the world. Everything in their country is awesome: food, people, architecture, infrastructure, nature, culture, fastest internet, etc. But guess what? You’re not the center of this world. Don’t get me wrong, everyone should celebrate one’s home country’s culture (or any culture for that matter) but at the same time keep yourself humble and remember that this world is huge and most likely you’ve seen just a small fraction of it.

Traveling around the world and experiencing its diversity and immensity makes you humble. Makes you understand that you’re just one of almost 8 billion people, and each of the remaining 7,999,999,999 view the world differently. So if you are French and you’re convinced that French wine is the best on this planet, it’s ok. You can still think that way, but be prepared to hear and accept different opinions.

Exercising not just for burning calories

There is a type of traveler who doesn’t mind walking the whole day exploring a city while the sun is threatening to melt their brain. And they’re really OK with that. In fact, sitting at a hotel pool drinking mojitos might endanger their mental health. And one should come back home from a trip more mentally stable, right?

Some people clear their minds through physical activities. Being at home can be in a gym, riding a bicycle, or simply taking a brisk walk. When such a person travels, he climbs mountains, swims through the rivers, and sneaks into every corner of an unfamiliar city. Once I heard a tour guide saying “a real tourist is always tired but at the same time immensely happy”. Intense physical activity combined with a joy of exploration might become a serious remedy for your mental wellbeing. And of course, your body shape will thank you for all the calories you burned during your trip!

Clearing your mind while doing nothing

Not everyone is eager to spend their whole vacation on foot. And that’s completely understandable. Some people just want to disconnect from their daily life: no job, no troubles, no household chores. At least for a week to leave everything behind them. Why can’t they do the same at home and just keep their phone turned off? – you might ask. I believe, some people choose this way of disconnection but admit, sometimes one needs simply to change the environment. Most likely you don’t have a huge pool in your backyard, no one would cook you fresh seafood three times a day and keep refiling your mojitos. All that you can get in all inclusive vacation package. 

Even though I love planning my own trips, sometimes – but just sometimes – I choose to go on a trip with a tourism agency. Why? Exactly for the same reason: for disconnection and trouble-free vacation. Everything is taken care of for me, I don’t need to use my brain. I just turn on my “sheep herd mode” and enjoy a different environment. This kind of traveling can also be highly beneficial. 

Meeting new people

You can be a solo traveler but actually, you will never be alone. You’re constantly surrounded by people: on a plane, in a lovely coffee shop, or even hiking in the mountains you most probably meet a fellow hiker on your way. The only difference is how you will respond to other people’s presence. You can limit yourself with a slight smile accompanied by a nod of your head, or you can get involved in a serious political discussion with a random guy at a bar. Either option is cool as long as you feel cool with it.

Over time I’ve noticed that one of the best ways to dive into a new culture is to talk with locals. It can be a bartender, a receptionist at your hotel, or simply a tour guide. But my personal favorites are a taxi or Uber drivers. Trust me, they know so much about local places and lifestyles that none of your guide books will ever reveal for you.

It’s unlikely you will make a lifelong friendship with a taxi driver or a local bartender but the most surprising things might happen while traveling and keeping yourself open for new acquaintanceships. Sometimes solo travelers meet in a random hostel, get to know each other, and eventually end up walking around the city together. Because why not? I, personally, consider one of the life gifts to have acquaintances, or even better – friends – from different cultures.

Traveling teaches

Traveling teaches so many things! The list is long, so where to begin? The most obvious things are the ones that every tourist/traveler comes across in an unfamiliar place. Traveling might teach you a bit of history, a bit of architecture and arts, a bit of anthropology, culinary, and tens of other things. It depends on a traveler how many questions he has, how many of them he dear to ask or look for an answer, and eventually, how much he’s prepared to listen.

Most importantly, traveling teaches certain skills that other ways would be difficult to obtain. For instance, I’ve learned a hard way to be more careful and don’t leave my belongings on public transport. Also, I learned that we all are people and most of them are ready to help even a stranger. I’ve learned to plan my time carefully, and at the same time to be more spontaneous. I’m not even talking about such obvious things as an opportunity to exercise your foreign language skills in a real-life situation and financial responsibility.

So, are you finally convinced?

Some people around me don’t understand why I do what I do. Why waste money for traveling if you can save it for…something? If buying a thing instead of spending it for an experience makes a person happy, that’s totally fine. Different people have different priorities. However, I’ve also noticed that some of these people have never experienced the joy of traveling. Basically, they don’t like the thing that they’ve never even tried before. Or even worse, they tried it once or twice, they had some bad experiences and they decided that it’s not suitable for them. Practice makes perfect.

We live in crazy times. There is so much turmoil and animosity around us. I’m convinced that tolerance is one of the possible solutions: I can disagree with you but I respect your way of living as long as you respect mine. But tolerance isn’t something you can buy in a nearby supermarket. And again, traveling can be an answer. Go and see how other people live to understand better not just other cultures but also yourself.