10 Ways Traveling Can Change Your Life

One of the most significant memories of my life growing up is visiting the Taj Mahal, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and the only one in India. I remember standing at the entrance on the grounds of the Taj Mahal right before the fountains, where I had my first glimpse of this remarkable mausoleum. It was on a school trip to Agra and I was 14 years old. I don’t really remember what I said or did, but I think that was the first time in my life that I truly felt spellbound! To this date, I remember the feeling of being swept away by the beauty of that glorious structure.

Nothing and no one could have described the feeling I had while staring at the Taj Mahal and no one could have prepared me for the experience. It was only through being there and soaking in the look, the feel, the smell and the touch of the place that truly conveyed the enormity of my reaction to the structure in front of me. And since that day about 15 years ago, I am constantly in search of re-experiencing that awe and wonder at looking at the Taj Mahal. And traveling has given me so many more such experiences to cherish while changing me in more ways than I can count.

Why Should You Travel?

Traveling is one of the essential ingredients of a successful Life Résumé and it can open you up to so many new possibilities. Saint Augustine of Hippo once said:

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page

Augustine of Hippo

If you are new to the website and would like to know what Life Résumé is, you can find the article here.

To read more about the Ingredients of a Kickass Life Résumé, you can find the articles here: Part I and Part II.

I am sure a lot of you already love taking time off and traveling. But if you are someone who needs a little more inspiration to go ahead and take a few days off your day to day life to just go ahead and book that travel, I have compiled a list of ways in which traveling can truly transform your life.

1. Traveling Opens Up Your Mind

Going to new places opens up your mind in so many ways. It exposes you to new ways of thinking and perception. What you have deemed right all your life, might not be so right in some other places around the world and what you have deemed wrong may not be wrong at so many places. Each place has its own unique blend of practices and culture depending upon the history, the location and the psyche of the people and what has affected them over generations. And traveling to such places can totally expand your mind towards the possibilities of doing things differently.

Being from India, I am used to crowded and chaotic streets. Crossing a busy road demands your undivided attention. You need to find that perfect time when you know you can comfortably run or walk across the street while the cars and motorbikes are manoeuvring around you. Imagine my surprise while I was trying to cross the street in Mannheim, Germany, when this dude just stopped his car to let me cross the road even though there were no more vehicles around (You have no idea how special it made me feel!).

From simple and subtle things to huge cultural shocks, traveling opens your mind to new ways of living and doing things.

2. Traveling Helps You Break Out of The Filter Bubble

Filter Bubble is defined as ‘a situation in which an Internet user encounters only information and opinions that conform to and reinforce their own beliefs, caused by algorithms that personalize an individual’s online experience.’ The term Filter Bubble was coined by internet activist Eli Pariser and it implies that most of the social media algorithms today personalize your social media experience so that you are intellectually isolated and you do not encounter information that contradicts your points of view.

Traveling to new and different places can help you break out of this intellectual isolation by exposing you to people and thought processes that are very different from yours. This is crucial for the overall development of your intellect and your development as an individual. If you are exposed to only one part of the world-view, how can you become a better citizen of an increasingly global world?

3. Traveling Exposes You to New Foods and Languages

Not only does traveling help you break out of the intellectual filter bubble, it also exposes you to new and unique cuisines and languages. Picking up a new language is actually known to improve your memory and increase your attention span. It can even enhance your ability to concentrate.

And food is an important factor that drives a lot of human gatherings and cultures. There is no better way to understand a culture’s history and demographic than through its food. Having food at the teppanyaki counter in a Japanese restaurant in the US was one of the most fascinating and entertaining food experiences I had. And trying out Creole food in Seychelles surprised me by its similarity to the western coastal food and curries that we get here in India giving me an insight into the history of that place.

4. Traveling Gives You New and Unique Experiences

Traveling can take you to lands that have very different geological structures than the place you belong to. You could travel to a beach, to the mountain, to a desert, or to an archipelago. You can experience a wide range of climates as well from freezing cold, to tropical, to rains. And as such traveling exposes you to so many different terrains and weather conditions than what you are used to.

And this difference in terrain and climate can give you so many unique experiences. Be it scuba diving off the coast of Mahé in Seychelles, spending a night in the desert in Dubai or spending hours looking at the wondrous art in the Louvre Museum in Paris, traveling has given me a wide array of experiences that I cherish and look back upon time to time.

5. Traveling Enables You to Make New Friends

When you travel, you end up having a lot of encounters with a lot of new people. Some of the encounters are good, some, not so good. And some end up making you a ton of good friends for life! You could end up making friends with some of your fellow travellers, your Airbnb hosts or sometimes, even your tour guides. Interaction with people who are very different from you can help you learn so much more about the world that we live in.

And some experiences are just better for making friends than others. One of the best friendships that I have formed in recent years happened when I went on a Himalayan trek with my husband. I have made a lot of friends throughout my travels so far and I hope you guys get to experience this too!

6. Traveling Makes You Braver

Traveling to new places forces you to test your limits. Be it for trying out some new experiences like skydiving or dune bashing, or be it for the simple fact that you are going to be surrounded by people who probably won’t understand you, traveling can push you to become gutsier.

I remember my first time leaving the country alone at 22. I had a connecting flight to Frankfurt through Dubai. And I did not get a boarding pass from Dubai onwards. You have no idea how scared that made me feel. I did not want to be stranded at an international airport with nowhere to go. Luckily for me, they had overbooked the Economy Class and bumped me up to Business Class (I still do a dance when I think about it)! But that experience of traveling to a different continent alone, made me so mentally stronger in just 3 weeks’ time.

7. Traveling Makes You A Better Storyteller

Well, this is not really true. I mean, traveling won’t make you a better storyteller. If you are bad at storytelling, you will not just be bad at it. You will be someone who is bad at storytelling but has super-awesome stories to tell anyway.

Traveling to newer places leaves you with so many stories that you can share with people around you. Be it about how you almost missed that one flight, or how you got down at a wrong stop and instead of ending up at the Eiffel Tower, you just ended up in one of the random lanes in Paris (Yes, this has happened with me and no one around me understood what I was trying to say!) or how beautiful your experience was just sitting by the beach, sipping on a drink and doing nothing. Traveling leaves you with so many interesting experiences that it just enriches you as a person.

8. Traveling Improves Your Appreciation for The Mundane

We all crave some deviation from our routine from time to time. Taking a break from work, or studies, or both, always seems to give such a good respite from the mundane. You plan a trip and you are excited to go and then you go on your trip and a few weeks later, all you want to do is get home and back to the routine (Maybe being almost 30 does that to you?). But even if you are one of those people who suffers from an unquenchable wanderlust, traveling does end up making you appreciate your home, your family, your local grocery shop, or just the view from your balcony! It improves the appreciation you have for the day-to-day life.

9. Traveling Improves Your Productivity

When you travel, you experience a completely new environment which is known to inspire and improve creativity in humans. Unless you have a super hectic trip schedule, taking a vacation can give you time to catch up on much-needed sleep. If your vacation involves going amidst nature, it is known to boost your mood and happiness.

So, when you get back from that vacation, not only are you rested and rejuvenated, you are also more inspired, creative and motivated. All of these factors contribute to more productive work days.

10. Traveling Makes You A Better and Happier Person

This consequence is a combination of all the nine factors we just talked about. When you have an open mind and have broken out of your filter bubble, you tend to be less judgemental about people around you making it easier to deal with people who are different than you. And aren’t most people around you, different than you? Getting an opportunity to interact with people from different parts of the world, you feel connected and tasting all the different kinds of food is an unique experience and gives you an insight into the local history.

Making new friends across the globe improves your social life and when you face your fears while traveling, it improves your self-confidence and self-esteem. When you experience so many new things, you never run out of things to talk about. When you start appreciating your routine, life automatically becomes better and who doesn’t want to be more productive? All of these factors together make you a better and happier person.

Traveling adds a lot of aspects towards improving your Life Résumé. It is one of the most enjoyable and enriching experiences that you can give yourself. And we are surrounded by so many wonderful things on this beautiful planet, that there will never be a dearth of places to visit and new things to do. Hope you are planning you next trip soon!

In the comments let me know what other benefits of traveling have you experienced? Are there any memorable stories that you have come out with? Until then, keep learning, keep growing!

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash