The physical benefits of traveling are obvious from the very first day you feel your feet aching from walking. There you realize how little you walk in your day-to-day life or how little you ride a bike since the car has now become our dominant means of transportation. Even for those who workout regularly, nothing compares to a long hike, a light climb or a bike ride that can combine not only exercise but also mental rising.
Research around the world has shown that people who travel often suffer less frequently from heart disease and of course have lower levels of stress.
But how do you become a better version of yourself by traveling?
Your mind relaxes
Do not skip this part so quickly. It is the first and foremost thing that should concern us. We are now giving more importance to keeping our bodies well-groomed, forgetting to look after and nourish our minds and mental health. At such an intense pace that we are now living, there is not much time left for us to relax. The stresses of life a lot, the rhythms are getting faster and most of us pay more attention to our bodies than to our brains that are struggling to stand still for an hour.
You get to know new cultures, customs and people.
Truth is , no books or movies will provide you with these images and the personal touch you will gain through travel. Traveling somewhere new, you will not only realize how many different customs there are or how different one person may be thinking but above all you will be motivated to think a little differently, seeing a situation from a different perspective. You’ll try new flavors, talk to people who might have something useful to tell you, and you’ll see places and pictures that won’t compare to what you’ve seen so far.
Traveling makes you smarter!
And I do not mean that returning from a trip you will eventually become a math expert but think for a while, when was the last time you learned something new? Growing up, going to school, learning something new every day, our brain was working and gathering new information. We learned foreign languages, we did sports and extracurricular activities, we went to university, we graduated, we got a job and BOOM! That’s it. Days are passing by, and other than a book or a good movie the new stimuli we receive are rather rare! One of the most important benefits of traveling is this! When traveling , the mind is alert. You have to find your way if you get lost, you have to try to learn even a few expressions of a new language, you have to be able to find a solution if something goes wrong on your journey.
By traveling you become more humble.
At first you realize that you are literally a little dot on the map. You are not the center of the world and surely your country is not the most beautiful in the world! Or to rephrase, it is but you share the same point of view with millions of people! You reflect on how little you know about our planet and how many more things there are to learn. You realize how little material goods we ultimately need to live and be happy. You learn to care.
You learn that people are fundamentally good
Most people in this world are kind and willing to help another person in need. By traveling, you learn to slowly dispel beliefs that the societies in which we grow up have placed deeply in us,. Such as , we must take great care of strangers and always be suspicious. Yes we have to be cautious but when we travel we must open our eyes and heart to new people.
Quick story
On January 19th we traveled to Rome, where after three days Giorgos got quite sick and raised a very high fever. Our room had no kitchen, nor was there any place I could prepare something to eat (other than pizza), so I went off at the streets of our not-so-nice neighborhood to find a restaurant that serves soup. After several strolls I find one , and after explaining to the waiter the situation, he replies that they have no soups on the list but at the same time he calls the owner and starts a very intense chat with him, then a cook and another person (had no idea who that was) intervenes they all give me a ball of soup , which they had prepared for the staff to eat as soon as the shop closed and of course they refused to take any money!
You might also like : https://www.evitatravelstheworld.com/en/2020/02/04/got-sick-while-traveling-what-now/
Moral Lesson: There are good people everywhere, make sure you are one of them.
Evita.
