10 Ways Traveling Can Help You Better Your Life
St. Augustine once said, ‘The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.’ People are becoming more and more obsessed with traveling these days. The cases when a successful businessman quits his job and sells everything he has to travel around the world aren’t rare any more. Traveling is believed to be the best cure for depression, narrow-mindedness and stereotypes. Indeed, when people return home from a long journey, they are not the same, they are better. But even a short trip can be a great starting point for beginners. If you still hesitate to travel, read on to learn 9 amazing ways traveling improves your life.
1. Traveling makes you more sympathetic and less critical
Living in a small closed world is the easiest way to become an ignorant and self-absorbed person. Traveling expands your conscious and perception and changes your character for the better. Friendliness and kindness of strangers are absolutely disarming. It’s amazing when people, who have no idea about your life and who owe you nothing, offer help and support! When visiting foreign countries you face different traditions, lifestyle and norms of behavior, which teach you tolerance and acceptance. Moreover, when you see something with your own eyes you become free from stereotypes and misbeliefs.
Traveling also enables you to compare your life with the life of others. You’ll see that apart from luxury life, the world is full of poverty, starvation and disasters. You’ll witness that simple things can also bring happiness and a person needs little to be satisfied. All this stuff will make you a better person.
2. You become more inventive and flexible
It’s always nice to have a reasonable plan to stick to, but traveling is full of unpredictable situations and accidents you cannot be ready for. You will never be able to plan your journey to the smallest details, that’s why you will have to use your ability to make quick decisions and find the way out of any situation. The best things come from where you don’t expect them. And the spontaneous part of your adventure is usually the most interesting and memorable.
3. You learn to feel good outside your comfort zone
Before traveling my comfort zone tended to get smaller and smaller since I was caught in the flurry of my day-to day activities. I used to meet the same people, perform the same activities and live the same boring days. As a result, everything new frightened me and I could hardly step outside my door without feeling confused. Honestly, I felt absolutely fine living in my comfort zone and I didn’t even try to break it.
My traveling experience started by accident. Thus I’ve realized that trying something new is awesome and not that scary. Exploring a new country, tasting a new dish or communicating with a stranger can give you more impressions than you’ve had during your own life. Now I’m eager to look for new experiences and opportunities. I want to develop myself and grow as an individual.
Read also – 9 Ways Meditation Helped Me Become a Better Person
4. You understand that bad luck isn’t that bad
Most people recognize bad luck as totally bad thing. Traveling has taught me that bad luck is a great lesson and priceless experience. You may argue that there’s nothing good in being robbed, injured or attacked. But when traveling, you learn to look at your bad luck from a positive perspective. In fact, we became the people who we are today only due to our bad experiences, but not good fortune. When you overcome difficulties and fight against circumstances, you build your character and courage. Moreover, you can always find humor in the situation. Failures and misfortunes are usually the cases that we love to talk about in the family circle and with our friends when we come back home.
5. Traveling dispels boredom
Start traveling and you will never say ‘I’m bored’ again! People who have never traveled can’t imagine how awesome and interesting this world is. I didn’t read a single book and I didn’t watch a single film during my 6 month journey across Europe last year. The point is that I was surrounded with so many interesting people and I was involved in the countless number of fascinating event and I felt no need to read or watch something. Real experience is much more involving than the picture you see on the screen of your TV.
Another thing that bothers many inexperienced travelers is traveling alone. Most people think that they need a company to make their journey more interesting and unforgettable. In reality, most of my best journeys I accomplished on my own. Solo travelers have better chances to merge with a foreign culture and communicate with native speakers. Moreover, when traveling alone you can concentrate on your inner feelings and reconsider many things in your life.
6. You gain independence and confidence
It’s an undeniable fact that new experience helps people build confidence. For those who live a sheltered life, traveling is like a magic wand that would change their character forever. The ability to make decisions is important, but the ability to make decisions when you are alone in a foreign country is literally vital. Traveling doesn’t stand hesitation and uncertainty. When you travel alone you can rely only on yourself and you can make choices that depend solely on your personal needs and desires.
While traveling I was constantly surrounded by crowds of people in hostels, trains and streets and I had to communicate with them. Gradually I’ve noticed that nobody cared about my appearance or clothes. People were focused on what I said and did. Such an attitude made me forget about my imperfections and shortcomings. I accepted myself and became a more confident person. It’s changed all my life.
7. You stop worrying about your weight and diet
While most people are concerned about weight, travelers never bother themselves with these issues. Many seasoned travelers affirm that you will never put on weight while traveling since your body experiences a great stress so you have to provide your body with enough calories. A lot of people travel for the sake of food only. Indeed, what can be more exotic than tasting cockroaches, brains, lizards or larva? Sure, this would be one-of-a-kind experience ever. But cuisine is an integral part of any culture and if you want to get a holistic impression of a country, you shouldn’t miss an opportunity to try its national cuisine.
8. You change your attitude to the world
Thanks to my travel experience I’ve understood that world isn’t a hostile place to live in. This is the most common misbelief among people, but in reality our world is much more comfortable and friendlier than you might think. Sure, being far from home means you will have to face numerous obstacles and troubles. You will meet a lot of bad people and dangers. But it would be just a tiny part of your experience. You’ll be surprised at how many awesome and helpful people will come to support you. Traveling determines your outlook; your outlook determines your attitude to this world and people. When you adopt a positive thinking, your life becomes much more comfortable.
Read also – 10 Rules to Follow If You Want to Be Happy
9. Traveling allays uneasiness
It’s no surprise that anxiety controls our whole life. Unpaid bills, difficult projects, business appointments, unhealthy relationship, traffic… we face hundreds of reasons to feel stressed every day. In everyday life, we can run away from our fears, but while traveling we have to face our fears regularly. Gradually, we get to the point where we are not scared or anxious any more. Traveling will teach you that bad experience is also necessary and your worries are just useless.
10. You learn your true self
This is the last and the most important way traveling can better your life. I often hear that people decide to travel because of the mere desire to understand themselves better. Traveling alone enables you to spend great amount of time on your own, reflect on your life and reconsider your past. When you’re far away from your surrounding and society, you can be honest with yourself since you aren’t affected by someone else’s influence. Sooner or later you’ll have to learn who you are in this life and who you want to be. The road will just help you to find the right answer.
Yes, traveling is hard and challenging. Sometimes it’s much more stressful and difficult than our habitual everyday life. But improvement always implies getting through difficulties. Priceless experience, excitement and unfading memories are definitely worth your efforts! Just try traveling and you will never look back or regret it.
