Believe it or not, traveling is transformative and can even have a healing effect. Yes, leaving your habitat and going after something new has a secret power that will lead you to growth, self-knowledge, and new perspectives. There’s an even greater chance for this to happen when traveling to a place where the beauty of nature speaks loudest and touches the heart. Everything that surprises us causes a reaction and the impact that contact with nature has on us is indescribable.
Renewed Perspective
Traveling and being in the midst of nature not only connects us to the Author of existence but also promotes an encounter with our inner peace in combination with the much deserved and desired physical rest. With so many things to admire, details to look at, and other activities that arise in such environments, there is little time to obsess about the problems that have remained at home, the daily worries that make our lives complicated and for some almost unbearable even. A break to rest and get away is necessary from time to time. Traveling can be the beginning, a complement to, or even the end of a restoration and healing process.
Going somewhere new after a traumatic event has its benefits. Traveling is good for everyone but especially for those who are going through a difficult time, an emotional or mental health problem. Of course, traveling doesn’t replace proper treatment for an illness with a professional, however, in some cases, people have found traveling, leaving the workplace, and putting a pause on routine to be one of the most effective antidotes to the evils of anxiety and stress pains.
Traveling also motivates, inspires gratitude, and invites us to embrace life more fully. It installs in our being another worldview. You realize how small you are in the face of reality. Though our planet is so small in the universe, it is large before us. How small we are, and yet how loved and protected by the Creator. How wonderful He is that He presents us with life and the opportunity to explore the awesome wonders of creation.
Making Memories and Forming Relationships
My father worked as a missionary when I was a child, and we visited several countries in South America. These were unforgettable experiences that created rich memories as a family that I still carry in my heart today.
Traveling also affords the opportunity to meet new people. My husband and I met on one of his trips to California, where I lived. Now we travel together, meeting new people and learning about different cultures together. Crossing continents together refreshes us individually but also strengthens our relationship.
If there is something that I learned from my father and I always carry with me, it is this spirit of freedom, of not being afraid of making mistakes, of falling, getting up and starting over. Through travel, I learned a lot, especially about new beginnings. Thanks to the many times I have moved in my life, I have been able to meet many amazing people and see things that I would never have seen if my story had been different. I had to adapt to new environments over and over again, which has afforded me a richness of memories of everything I lived and saw, the people I met, and the things I have learned.
Traveling can make you fall even more in love with life. Whenever you have the opportunity to break routine and go somewhere new, take it. You don’t have to go far. Visit somewhere new near you. Get up! Get out! Go near! Go far! Discover something new. Discover the renewing and transformative power of travel.
Photo: Joice Kelly
