We’ve all heard the clichés about why travel is good. Due to this, we often take the benefits of travel for granted. Everyone knows travel broadens cultural horizons, as it’s hard to be xenophobic when you’ve seen what different cultures offer. It’s obvious you’ll meet people and you’ll clearly experience new worlds. These reasons to travel are so bland they’ll put you to sleep. Yet there are so many other benefits that are less obvious; you really don’t discover them until you’ve experienced frequent travel yourself. For a little inspiration to pack your suitcase, here are 5 of the less obvious reasons why travel is good for you.
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Travel makes you more employable
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that travel is simply pointless wandering for lazy bums, avoiding the real working world. Actually, travel can really open up your world to new employment possibilities and, furthermore, teaches you important career skill sets. Backpacking, for example, gets you to think on your feet. You learn key skills you’ll need for any job, such as planning, problem solving, communication and creative ingenuity. You are also likely to make important contacts in the world that can offer employment opportunities. Thanks to the Internet, employment is no longer limited to one locale. Seeing the world gives you important contacts that can lead to a more satisfying career.
Find happiness at home
Sometimes you have to leave home to realize how good your home really is. Living in a hotel and experiencing new people makes you appreciate what you have in your own living room or backyard. We can tend to get a sense of cabin fever if we are in one place too long. Get out, and you’ll be much happier when you come home again. Travel offers a fresh perspective to kill the boredom of typical surroundings.
Strengthens developing relationships
What doesn’t break you will make you stronger. When you travel with a significant other, there’s a bond that develops because you’re in it together. You share adventures, laughter and challenges as a pair, and that can really improve a relationship. Granted, there’s always a chance you’ll grow not to be able to stand each other, but that really just serves as a nice weeding mechanism. It’s better to know you can’t stand a boyfriend or girlfriend after a month in India, than after 30 years of a boring, pointless marriage that slowly saps your soul.
Travel is therapeutic
When you are dealing with trauma, grief or other difficulties in life, travel offers a great way to gain perspective. It takes us out of our shells so we can grow new wings. You step out of your problems and get away so you truly think. When you come back, your problems will still be there, but they’ll look different, smaller, and more surmountable.
Journalist Elizabeth Gilbert describes a beautiful transformation she achieved in her book, “Eat, Pray, Love.” Following a devastating divorce, Gilbert decided to travel to Italy, India and Malaysia in the span of a few short months. She learned to enjoy life through the wonderful flavors of food in Italy, found peace through meditating with a guru in an Ashram in India, and discovered new spiritual wisdom studying with a medicine holy man in Malaysia. Her travel taught her to live, laugh and find spiritual peace that she could never have found in her backyard.
Travel teaches independence
There’s nothing like hitting the world on your own and finding your own independence. We’re actually capable of doing much more than we give ourselves credit for. When we step out of the bubble we’ve always lived, we realize our own potential and confidence. Find yourself by leaving the world you’ve always known. The earth is enormous, find your place on it by experiencing all it has to offer.