Traveling is one of the most popular forms of leisure around the world. It promotes brain health and decreases your risk of heart attack and depression. There are so many great things about traveling, but here are a few. I hope these fuel a spark inside of you that makes you want to adventure out (either if it's 10 minutes outside your hometown to a coffee shop you've never been to or to a whole new country that you've been dying to go to.
1. Traveling teaches perspective.
Millions worldwide desire to visit the U.S. but are unable to either because of unsecured visas or lack of money. Traveling is a huge privilege, which is something we forget when we’re sucked into that crazy addictive vortex of our own selfishness.
2. Traveling teaches gratitude.
We take for granted that our streets aren’t brimming with garbage. That every child in the U.S. has access to public education. Or the fact that the water in our toilet bowls is often cleaner than the drinking water available to entire villages. That it is, in fact, illegal to rape a woman here, including your wife. America is not perfect by any standards, but traveling helps us learn that we are, for the most part, pretty darn lucky to live the way we do. Also, meeting people with serious struggles makes us less likely to become selfish and throw temper tantrums when something small doesn’t go right.
3. On the other side of things, traveling also teaches you how we can improve our own county.
Ashlea Halpern went to Galle, Sri Lanka, and was stung by a jellyfish in the sea. She was driven to the hospital, saw a doctor and had been given some meds for pain/inflammation. The entire experience to the hospital and meds cost $7.50! Imagine what this bill would have been in the U.S.
4. Traveling can also teach us to become dauntless.
Many people are scared of traveling because of the terrorism throughout the world. However, isolation is not the answer my friends. Experience is the answer. The more you travel, the more you meet different types of people, which help you understand one another and dismantle your walls of fear and anxiety.
5. Traveling helps you see the world through different, more fresh, eyes.
Road trip whenever you can. Traveling, to even a close place, can change your life forever. The world would be a better place if we all left our own comfort zones and experienced other cultures.
