Lately, I’ve been dying to go on a trip. Luckily I have my honeymoon comping up in just a few short months, when we’ll be going on a month long trip to Nepal and Bali (two weeks in each place). OUr honeymoon will quell my travel bug for a little while, but I bet that within a short period of time, I’ll be ready for another trip to another country or city that I haven’t yet seen. I give myself three months – four at the max. After all, I am already planning my next travel experience.

I have this bucket list of places that I’d love to travel to prior to having children. I haven’t travelled that much, but I have had a few great trip within North America and have loved them all for different reasons, even if the trip wasn’t exactly fun.

It’s such an important goal for me to travel because with every travel experience I’ve been on in my adulthood, I’ve grown more as a person. Travel can do a lot for a person. There’s a quote that says “travel is the only thing you buy, that makes you richer”, and I believe that to be the truth.

Travel Humbles You

Travelling can be a completely humble experience. If you ever feel like you are getting to big for your britches (or, as some bloggers like to call it, affluenza), going to see another country or city can be a humbling experience and will almost definitely take you down a few pegs.

Even travel within your own country or continent can provide a humbling experience. History of different places and seeing sights that you have never before seen can show you that sometimes, the grass it not always greener on the other side.

Travel Makes You More Self Aware

Especially travelling to a place that is culturally different from where you live, travelling can build your emotional intelligence, and particularly self awareness, like no other thing.

There’s something about embarrassing yourself by going against the cultural grain of whatever country you are travelling to (which is something you can almost bet on that will happen, at least once in a small way) that makes you look inward.

There’s a reason why people who travel extensively say that they were soul searching. Travelling helps you get to know yourself and your own strengths and limitations acutely.

Travel Makes You Uncomfortable (And That Might be Just What You Need)

Discomfort stokes change and innovation. Rarely are people at their most creative and ingenious when they are in their comfort zones.

Pushing your boundaries of comfort can be incredibly good for a person. Nobody likes to be outside of their comfort zone, but sometimes that is just what you need to open your mind, and do amazing things.

Travel Opens Your Mind 

Nobody likes a closed minded person, but it’s incredibly hard to be open minded when your experiences in the world are limited to your immediate surroundings.

Travel helps you push your limits and boundaries; it exposes you to new things by default. It forces you to try new things, to explore new places and to experience ways of life that are different from what you are used to.

It’s not easy to open your mind to new things or become more open minded, but travelling can help the process along immensely. It’s difficult to be a well travelled but closed minded person.

Travel Helps You Learn

They say you learn something new every day, but it’s far more than something when you are travelling. You learn so much every day of your travels, from geography to cultural customs and languages.

Travelling can help you learn how to budget, how to be resourceful, how to be independent and out on your own, as long as hard skills and knowledge.

 

There are a million more benefits to travel, but my favourites are the ones that make me grow as a person. Have you experienced the benefits of travel?