Reduces stress

Everyone is stressed from time to time; it just can’t be helped when we are all so busy and have so much to do. The problem for some is that they are never not stressed. They never have a chance to relax and unwind – they are working all the time or concerned about this thing or that thing without any chance to stop thinking about their worries for just a second.

Travel will give you that time to de-stress and truly relax. You will, if you plan your adventure correctly, be so caught up in the moment and the joy of discovering new things and being in an exciting new place that you won’t think about the worries and stresses that you have left at home. In fact, with the chance to unwind and stop worrying, you might even find that a solution to your issues comes to you without you even thinking about it. When the mind is not focused on just one thing, it's far easier to work out ways around problems.

When you have less stress, your blood pressure will lower, there will be less stress on your heart, and your mental health will benefit, too, with less chance of developing anxiety or depression.



Become better with uncertainty

Most people don’t do well with uncertainty in their lives – they like to know exactly what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. When you're traveling, uncertainty is something you'll need to learn to live with; even if you plan out your itinerary, you should always leave some room for a change of plans and go with your instincts if you think you need to do something different to what you thought you were going to.

In ‘real life,’ this idea might be a scary one, and once plans are in place, it can be difficult to get into the mindset that they can (and sometimes should) be changed. When traveling, this decision's much easier to make, and by the time you return home, uncertainty is not something that will faze you any longer. You’ll be able to make quick decisions, but you’ll also know when to change them and how to go about doing just that.

 

Broadens your horizons

In order to have a truly wise worldview and to be accepting of other people and situations, it’s a good idea to travel. You’ll see so many different ways of living and so many interesting and different things that will really broaden your horizons, and you’ll come home with a new appreciation for the world around you.

When you look at your own daily challenges with this new perspective, you'll be able to come up with many different kinds of creative ways to solve your problem. You'll see what does and doesn’t work elsewhere and will be able to implement these ideas into your everyday life, offering you huge enhancement and positivity – and it’s all done through travel and taking time away from your regular ol' daily life.



More creativity

Something that a lot of people feel is missing from their lives is creativity. Whether they ‘need’ this ability for their career or a career they want to go into, or whether they feel it would enhance their lives if they could take up a creative hobby, the notion is the same – there just isn’t enough creativity in their lives.

Creativity is something that travel can certainly help with. As mentioned above, when traveling, your mind is much freer because you aren’t thinking about or worrying about the problems you might have been concerned with at home. This means you can think of other things, enjoy other things, and really put your new skills to good use.

It also helps you to be more creative. Studies have shown that when people are taken out of their comfort zone (and traveling is a prime example of how this can happen), different neural connections start to be made in the brain. These connections trigger creativity and original thought. It’s no wonder that so many people find travel inspiring when it comes to their writing, painting, photography, sculpture, and much more.

 

Better social skills

One of the biggest benefits to any kind of travel, whether you choose to go abroad or stay at home and discover more about where you live, is that your social skills and ability to communicate will become much better. Say, for example, you're taking a trip to Asia and don't speak the local language, you will, by necessity, need to speak to all kinds of people to get information and to give them information in return. Otherwise, you will be solely dependent on guidebooks and the internet, and although potentially useful, you won’t get as vibrant and interesting a story as you will when talking to real people who live where you are visiting.

When you're better at communicating, it won’t only help you when you are traveling; it will help you at home as well. For example, better social skills mean:

• More confidence in job interviews
• More successful dates
• You can stand up and talk in front of others
• You will have the courage of your convictions when arguing a point

All these things and more will help you in the future, and the bulk of the learning can be done while traveling in a very practical sense.