World travel has been something we have always wanted to do well before we had a family.
The idea of jetting off to exotic countries and meandering through different locations, and cultures, and meeting new people seemed to like the adventure we were destined to do.
However, over the years, of university, work, kids, and what seems like the world’s most prolonged lockdown, it seemed like we would never leave.
Come mid-2021, amidst an array of travel restrictions, an opportunity to begin traveling the world came up.
On a whim, we booked everything and sold our stuff.
And with a mix of emotions, we were gone in 3 months.
There are so many reasons to travel the world, but what happens to us when we travel?
Today I’m going to share with you 12 scientific reasons why you must travel the world in 2022.
Table of Contents
- Why is it important to travel the world?
- What are the 5 key reasons people travel?
- 12 Scientific Reasons Why You Should Travel the World
- Why does travel make you happy
- How much does it cost to travel the world?
- Do I need to be rich to travel the world?
Why is it important to travel the world?
World travel is an important part of human development as it allows us to experience different cultures, strengthen connections, and visit amazing and historic locations.
Travel is can be a great stress reliever and experiencing new cultures and help give you a perspective of what you have.
Gives you a sense of gratitude or even better challenges you to seek more from your current routine and lifestyle.
Why does travel make you happy?
Travel makes you happy due to decreased stress and the release of feel-good hormones dopamine and oxytocin, which are associated with success and positive relationships.
Travel is an experience of freedom and exploration, that helps us to escape regular life stress and improve our connection with the world.
The combination of this and increased physical exercises, and exposure to a new culture can foster a sense of gratitude which is also known to improve physical and mental health.
How much does it cost to travel the world?
Traveling around the world is estimated at roughly $20,000 – $30,000 per person per year. This is assuming a mid-experience.
This number however is completely subjective, as many factors such as destination, location, accommodation, and meals greatly impact the bottom line.
Do I need to be rich to travel the world?
You do not need to be rich to travel the world. While there are considerable costs associated with travel such as flights, visas, and accommodation, these costs can be altered to reduce expenses while still getting an excellent travel experience.
To do this, traveling using cheaper airlines, staying in hostels or house sitting and visiting countries where you get more for your dollar is a great way to stretch your money and your time abroad.
12 Scientific Reasons Why You Should Travel the World
From seeing historical sites, and experiencing new cultures, to visiting new cities, there are so many reasons to travel.
But what actually happens to us and our bodies and our mind when we travel?
Why do we feel so accomplished when we venture out into the world?
Below are some scientific reasons why you should travel the world in 2022.
1. Strengthen Relationships
Our relationship with friends and loved ones is an important component of life.
However, it can often feel like the social aspect of our life falls to work and virtually every other part of our life.
Travel can be a great way to reconnect with others and meet new people, often in a positive social setting.
When we positively socialize, the happiness hormone oxytocin is released.
While we travel, we can often feel drawn to the people we travel with as they are our familiar anchor in a foreign place.
We disconnect from our devices and venture out sharing new experience that makes a lasting imprint in our memory.
Deepen our relationships and strengthen our bonds.
2. Learn to Value Your Time
One thing we have learned throughout our time traveling the world is that not everything is worth doing.
Typically when we are young we are exposed to a variety of social groups and activities to find out who we are as people.
As we get older this decreases significantly, as we value the quality of our relationships over quantity.
Travel is a great way to find your place in the world.
Not everyone you will meet will be a worthwhile friend, and you choose to spend your time and energy more effectively.
Because your circle is small or nearly non-existent when you travel to new destinations, you can hand pick friendships, activities, and hobbies that suit you.
3. Improve Phyical Health
From the moment we leave, to when you arrive and move around during travel can be be physically demanding.
Which is a great thing.
Physical health is linked to improved brain function, managing weight, strengthening of muscles, and increasing bone density.
When we are back in our home countries, many of us (not all) venture to and from sedentary jobs, which contain little physically demand.
These poor habits have been linked with cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndromes.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reports that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, with 659,000 dying each year.
Which cost the United States $363 billion in 2016-2017.
When you travel you lead a more active lifestyle.
From the moment you arrive in a country, you limited access to personal transport, with the task of lugging your bags to your hotel.
Site seeing often results in long days out of the house, accumulating tens of thousands of steps.
While simple task such as going to the grocery store means a walk home with bags containing a week’s worth of food.
These incremental activities accumulated.
These factors all add up resulting in a much fitter and happier you.
4. Promotes Life Long Learning
The act of deciding to sell your belongings and move overseas requires you to step out of your comfort zone.
While this is something that you may have dreamt of, doesn’t make it any less daunting.
However, doing so changes something within you, which reduces the fear of trying new things.
Since moving overseas, my desire to learn has increased.
Long-term learning has been associated with new neural activity patterns, with changes in the brain at every level of organization.
I personally have learned a new language (basic), started martial arts, changed my career, and learned to ride a scooter, among many more things I would like to pursue.
Daily tasks and experiences feel like an opportunity to expand my knowledge and skill set.
5. Learn to Adapt
Moving overseas and travelling constantly is not withouts its pitfalls.
Many times you can find yourself in places without many options to stay, visas expire and flights get cancelled.
While this can all be stressful, it can be an opportunity for you to adapt.
A component of resilience, adaptability helps adjust to external circumstances, our internal processes and helps us to formulate a new path.
Getting stuck in tight situations requires us to problem solve.
For myself personally, getting stranded in Bangkok, stuck in isolation while staying over-staying my visa was possibly one of the morst stressful times in my life.
It starts off with a massive freak out, but once the initial shock passes you begin to think, and research possible solutions.
Naturally I got out, albeit with an $800 fine.
But now I am well versed in Thai immigration law and will definitely not make the same mistake again.
This building on facets resilience and long-term learning, with this experience serving as a reminder to plan ahead.
Since then we plan every aspect of our travels, so we don’t get caught in such troublesome situation again.
6. Life After Lockdown
It’s no surprise that many of us struggled in isolation during our lockdown period. With little communication with friends and family.
Travel is a great way to exercise your freedom and let’s be honest, never thought would be able to do it again.
Social isolation can have significant effects on mental health and physical wellbeing.
Research indicates that a long period without human contact can result in poor cognitive function in older adults.
With additional physical and mental health implications include risks of heart disease, mental health, and a weakened immune system.
The simple act of getting out and exploring the world will hopefully pull you out of your rut, get you physically active, and freshen you up mentally.
7. Practice Gratitude
While travel can present us with some of the worlds most amazing experiences, it can also shows us harsh realities.
Being from a developed country such as Australia, we are privileged to have excellent health care, hospitals, roads and access to clean water and food.
Unfortunately, not every country we visit is as fortunate, countries enduring financial crisis, poverty and homelessness.
When we witness this first hand it gives us the oppotunity to reflect on what we have and practice gratitude.
The practice of gratitude being linked to improvements in mental health and phyical health, and can be used as a cmplimentary practice in the healing process.
Since moving overseas and travelling full time, no matter where we are we have been thankful for the opportunity to pursue our dream.
We understand that we are very fortunate to be able do so, and even when times are tough, we can look out and see that there is always something to be thankful for.
8. Reduce Stress
Travel can be such a great stress reliever, as it cna remove us from our daily life and transport us to destination we could’ve only dreamt of.
While travel isn’t without its stress, it is a different form and personally one that I would much prefer.
Back home, it was car and mortgage payments, keeping a business running and getting stuck in traffic.
While travelling, stress is, what is our next adventure? How long will visa processing take? When should we book flights?
This type of stress filled with adventure, and rewarded with excitement.
Pathological disorders have long been associated with severe and long-term stress
Removing ourselves from unfavourtable environments, while not always a quick fix can help to reduce negative stress and improve quality of life.
9. Improves Creativity
As our minds expand with travel so to does our creativity.
Literature indicating that travel and exposure to new cultures improves creative performance such as idea generation.
While there also enhancements to creative-suopported cognitive process, such as retrieval of unconventional ideas.
This combined with factors such as to a decreased level of stress.
Increase in creativity due to physical activity which has also been documented, which is a component of travel.
Making the simple act of getting out, visit new locations and immersing oneself in a foreign culture, seemingly responsible for a considerable boost increativity.
10. Learn New Language
When traveling or moving to a new country many of us take on the challenge of learning the language.
Whether our stay is short, many of pursuing this goal to reduce the impact of the language barrier and immerse ourselves in the culture, and expand our skillset.
Oh, and how cool is knowing a local language?
However, these aren’t the only factors at play.
Learning a new language also produces non-linguistic benefits including:
- Increased vocabulary
- Creativity
- Improved memory retrieval
- Better making skills
- Empathy
All these skills are seemingly apparent when we think about the processing and understanding of learning and speaking a new language.
11. Strengthen Your Immune System
With the past couple of years seeing us isolated from one another, there is more reason than ever to travel.
During this time many of may have experience considerable amounts of life stress.
Research stating that in times of prolonged and chronic psychological stress that our immune systems taking the hit.
Combined with prolonged isolation, our bodies antiviral response decreases, presenting impairment to immune function.
Further research also stating that diverse social networks can provide a higher level of resistance to the common cold and other upper respiratory illness.
Getting out seeing the world, and socializing is great for us physically, and mentally.
Combined can make considerable impact on restoring and improving our immune system.
12. Sense of Achievement
When we travel there can be countless opportunities for us to feel as sense of achievement.
When we set our goals and achieve them we can get a dopamine hit.
This achievement hormone can increase our alertness, focus, creativity, memory and long term concentration.
Whether its getting on the flight and relaxing after months of planning, seeing a world famous sight, or speaking a new language, there is a sense of success and achievement that fill us like few others.
Final Thoughts
If you have been dying to travel these past few years, have never been overseas or are looking for a long term change, 2022 is your year to break the mold and expand your horizons.
In a time where we thought jetting off would be limited and even impossible, the doors have again opened and we can set out on our journey for exploration and personal growth.
With benefits such as decreased stress, improved physical and mental health, to increased creativity, and strengthening relationships, travel is truely on of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and your family.
So, what did you think of the list? Are you planning a trip this year? Let me know in the comments below.
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