Travel, a great way to open wider vistas to form new life perspectives. Read on to find out why travelling is good for the soul.
Travel to see spectacular sights, form multi-racial and multi-cultural friendships, get immersed in world history and enrich personal experiences. Gather memories while you can, the enriching nostalgias will be good for your soul when the twilight years start settling in.
“Go to a place you’ve never been to before at least once a year, it will be good for your soul,” is becoming quite a bit of a cliché.
Having heard or read why travelling is good for the soul again and again too many times make people too ready to dismiss it as just another misbelief. However, the people who are too eager to mock it can be counted by the fingers, which you can then qualify as the exceptions rather than the rule.
Today, the bucket list is becoming a trend, and travel is one of the few goals that top the list. When asked why travel, and not anything else the answer will often be, “I don’t know, it just seems like a too ambitious or too impossible to achieve life goal but the one I know I need”. And not stopping there, you will be subjected to a pitch on how great some destinations are, complete with brochures which describe these places as Instagramable or Instagram-worthy destinations.
For the jaded travellers, and by “jaded” I don’t mean old and world-weary but those who are frequent travellers and had been to almost all the exciting and beautiful sights around the globe. it’s not all about the impressions their travel posts would stir in their Instagram followers, but also the chance to meet new people, the chance for gaining diverse gastronomic experience and the possibility to immerse themselves into new cultures.
I was also disbelieving of the “travel is good for the soul” bit, when I was still caught up by the 9-5 grind. So, I procrastinated on this item in my bucket list and eagerly fulfilled others like; graduate, get employed and achieve promotions at a certain age and periods. To the point that one day the thought of travel as a way to gain freedom just came over me suddenly and travel is no longer just one item on my bucket list but an imperative call.
When I finally decided to go fulfil my travel bucket list, each new place conquered and ticked off the list slowly opened my eyes to a different truth. Let me list and define each of the reasons which convinced me.
Travel Lets You Broaden Your Perspective and See Life in A New Light
When you just stay in one place or move around a bit but still within reach of that place, you will only be able to form or shape your perspective within or about the things you have seen or experienced in that limited sphere. Travel will let you experience unfamiliar ambiences, view new vistas, sense unfamiliar impressions and feel fresh emotions. Nothing can beat setting foot in a new place for the first time. And I say it was mixed emotions for me, always, every time I reach a new destination.
Meeting people of different cultures will teach you to see that the world is a stimulating space. It is not only you or your country or race that’s in it. Your patience and compassion will be motivated and challenged anew, and you will learn to embrace people and environments that are alien to you.
Travel will teach you that the world doesn’t start or end only at your doorstep. And the world is an awesome place full of people with an interesting culture. An impression and lesson that will enrich anyone.
Exploring New Places Will Let You See Other Facets of Yourself
It will make you see that you have been isolated from the rest of the world, and your bias toward other races are unsubstantiated. You will be educated that diversity does not mean one race or country is better or lesser than others but rather we are all equal but uniquely different in many ways.
Setting forth on my first travel made me realize that the world out there, needs me to care, to get involve and to cooperate. All of us are just one screw and nut, one hinge, one bolt and one gear out of the many that make the world roll. Our actions whether principled or corrupt will not only affect us but others too. When we cut all the trees in our part of the world not only the atmosphere in our region will heat up, but we are adding to the percentage of Mother Earth’s deterioration.
Travel will make you see that when you work to earn you are not only contributing to your coffers but also to the funds that will support activities targeted to take care of Mother Earth. And that there are various ways to be productive and to increase your focus other than being a 9-5 employee. That you can travel and still earn your keeps, and don’t need to eat the same kind of food you eat at home to stay satiated and healthy. it will make you more prudent with what you have and appreciate the little conveniences along the way. You will not panic when a familiar item or utility is missing because you will learn to adjust and see that finer things in life are just the trimmings and not the meat.
Without you being conscious of it you may settle in a place where you’ll only have the most basic and find that you enjoy being there more than in your home.
Why Travelling Is Good for the Soul and The Best History Teacher and Experience Shaper
What’s the best way to relive history than being in the place where specific history happened? You will find that it’s different looking at historical sites in pictures than being there, feeling the ground beneath your feet and breathing the fresh air with the faint hint of the mustiness of the moss cloaking the ruins and structures. Hiking the craggy stretches of canyons where ancient time heroes and fugitives had trod in their pursuit of freedom and justice can be a life-changing experience and will shift the balance with which you view life worries of today. Swimming in the beaches were Allied soldiers of long ago had fought for the world’s freedom will make you appreciate the life you’ve gained in exchange for theirs.
I can’t be eloquent enough to describe the experience to you and why travelling is good for the soul. It’s mystifying and sometimes overwhelming. Looking at a vast expanse of nature’s beauty which you once saw in history books and photos as full of dead bodies bathed in a pool of blood, can be a great experience. Standing there you can feel in your bones and smell in the air the absolute freedom that was cleansed with blood and offered to you unconditionally.
You will feel that what all of us do in life are not only all about ourselves but include and affect others as well and that life is a reality susceptible to broken dreams, death, and suffering. Your soul will thank you for realizing this when you still have time to make a difference.