4 Reasons Traveling Broadens Your Mindset

This guest blog post was curated for Bucky by Kristin Savage.

“Travel is still the most intense mode of learning.” These words by Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired, beautifully summarize how important traveling actually is. Being a huge fan of travel himself - and you might be one, too - he has learned the value of traveling for expanding his horizons and forming his worldview.

Indeed, he’s not alone, as many frequent travelers agree that it broadens the mind and improves the ability to adapt to a globalized world. Whether you are a passionate traveler already or you are just about to go on a first journey, along the way every adventurer sees how impactful traveling can be.

In the following lines, we’re going to discuss the benefits of travel with the focus on how it can expand your horizons. This can help you realize how to take advantage of this incredible learning opportunity. So, without further ado, here are the four main reasons why traveling can broaden your mindset.

Accept Differences

One of the amazing benefits of traveling is that it helps with discovering the inherent differences among not just individuals, but entire cultures.

The fact is that if you want to enrich your life you need to understand human diversity.

Recognition of cultural and individual differences demand that you get yourself exposed to variation of countries, cultures, and people. Visit local markets and restaurants, celebrate different traditions, or volunteer in a foreign country. Besides getting to experience the differences, you'll also support sustainable traveling.

“Education, upbringing, social life, norms, religion, and other aspects of life define us individually and consequently our culture. Traveling to different countries will give you the chance to see people’s daily routines, hear their stories and opinions, and observe their culture.” – says Diana Adjadj, travel blogger and writer at Studicus.

As a result, you gain fresh and more objective perspectives on things

Become Mentally Resilient

Those who you want to be more accepting, open to new ideas, and emotionally stable should know that traveling is the path to revelation.

Dr. Julia Zimmermann and Dr. Franz Neyer conducted research to test whether traveling affects out emotional stability and viewpoints. In order to obtain results, they decided to compare a large sample of German university students who had studied abroad (for one semester or more) with those who had never traveled.

The results showed inevitable personality development. Students who studied and lived abroad were more extraverted than students who consistently stayed in their country. Travelers expressed that they prefer to spend time with people rather than to be alone. Their experience abroad led to emotional stability, increase in agreeableness as well as openness to new experiences.

This comes as no surprise because during traveling you must rely on other people for advice, direction, or recommendation. Not to mention that listening to people’s stories or seeing how people accept and cope with hardships will make you more grateful for the life you live.

Any opinion or belief you currently have can be tested when you start exploring the world.

Get Out Of the Comfort Zone

It’s a known fact that routine makes people complacent and, ultimately contributes to losing direction and drive. That is why you need to shake things up.

Traveling keeps you going forward. It makes you forget about your usual obligations, responsibilities, and worries, and start living an exciting and spontaneous life.

Getting out of your comfort zone will help you explore your limits, your ideas, and get you to re-evaluate yourself.

As Patrick Rothfuss beautifully expressed in his book The Wise Man's Fear:

“A long stretch of road can teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet.”

Facing difficulties and challenges makes you stronger and shows you that you can be more resourceful and capable than you could ever imagine.

You might have a certain image of who you are, what you can and cannot do, and how you should live your life. By testing your boundaries and exposing you to unexpected situations, traveling will show you that your convictions can be change.

Know that you can do more than you think. All that it takes is to give traveling a try.

Let Your Creativity Out

Adam Galinsky is a professor at Columbia Business School who worked on numerous studies that focus on the connection between traveling and creativity. He claims that the connection is present and that traveling certainly increases creativity.

However, superficially exploring countries and cultures isn’t enough. What you need to do to boost your creativity is to absorb and immerse yourself in the environment.

“The key, critical process is multicultural engagement, immersion, and adaptation. Someone who lives abroad and doesn’t engage with the local culture will likely get less of a creative boost than someone who travels abroad and really engages in the local environment,” says Galinsky.

The point is that you need to truly get yourself out in the world if you want to start thinking outside of the box.

By seeing how other people live and handle problems differently, you’ll gain some creativity along the way, too.

Besides, you'll be able to get inspiration from breathtaking sights, unimaginable variations of colors, unexpected tastes and smell, and observing animals in their natural habitat.

Conclusion
Traveling is more than a way to fill out your vacation days. It is a road to broadening your mindset and shaping your personality. Getting to know the differences and similarities among people from various sides of the world will change your perspective.

Through traveling, you'll be able to learn how getting out of your comfort zone isn't something you should fear but something you should look forward to. Such an attitude will bring you emotional and mental stability and bring your creativity to a whole new level. So, don't hold yourself back to become the person you should be. Pack your bag, put your finger on a map, and travel far enough to meet yourself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she works as a freelance writer at TrustMyPaper and GrabMyEssay. 

*Bucky does not endorse any products or practices suggested by guest bloggers. All ideas and opinions are their own and do not reflect the opinions of Bucky.