Five Reasons Why Travelling Promotes Mental Health and Emotional Well Being: Every year, more people are forfeiting their vacation days to continue working. Despite the anxiety, stress and the amount of pressure a person undertakes while working day in and day out, it’s really difficult to admit that the decisions to overwork has led to many negative health effects like anxiety, depression and burnout.
According to one report US employees are only taking 16 vacation days per year. In fact, a decade before that, Americans took an average of 20 vacation days. This findings tell us that people are taking less time off every single year.
Vacations offer individuals a chance to relax. Taking a simple hiatus from the hustle and bustle of the city and simply finding peace once in a while can restore overall well-being. Travelling allows you to immerse into different cultures and surroundings boosting your brainpower with all the different experiences you are about to encounter.
Below are the five reasons why travelling promotes mental health and emotional well-being.
Makes You Healthier By Decreasing Heart Problems
Traveling does not just improve your mental well-being, it also improves the physical state of your heart. There was a recent study published by the US Travel Association in accord with Global Commision on Aging and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies that found that men who fail to take yearly vacations are 30% more at risk of developing a coronary condition and have a 20% risk of dying at an early age .
For women, vacationing at least twice a year lowers their risk of getting heart conditions. This means that traveling can possibly be as good as the effects of taking fish oil pills in preventing coronary diseases.
Recharges Your Emotions And Increases Your Empathy
Wallace J. Nichols, the author of “Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, I, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do” tells us that vacations near water sceneries can help increase compassion and reset your emotions. Being at a new location such as this – a beach, lake, river or spring, will help you reflect deeper. There is this characteristic that the sound of water gives calm to an overloaded mind.
Gets You Back In Shape
Working can sometimes have you behind the desk for eight to ten hours straight, leaving no time to move your body around to get your muscles much of a warm up. Though some individual’s perception of vacation is not really about fitness, exercising and moving around is inevitable if you have planned to visit a new location. As you travel from one place to another, seeing different sites every single day, you actually move your body more actively than usual.
Vacations like camping, hiking, mountain climbing are activities that are calming but are also fitness-centric. Traveling allows you to get up from your desk and try different activities such as paddle boarding, swimming and surfing.
Seeing A Different Surrounding Reduces Stress
Dr. Margaret J. King, the director of the Center For Cultural Studies and Analysis says that there are numerous psychological benefits in changing a person’s venue. The various of activities performed while travelling allow people to go from one place to another, reduce stress and free up the complexities that people are experiencing with work-related projects and relationship with colleagues.
This is why many workers thrive to travel offers and incentives – they get to see new places, meet new people and experience new activities that are totally different from their daily routine.
Provides Opportunities to Sleep Better
A stressful environment combined with lack of sleep results to irritability. the consequences of such an environment to an individual’s cognitive function can be dire. As Max Hirshkowitz, the chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), says that vacations are great opportunities to catch up on your sleep. This is why the term “staycation” was coined – you simply stay at home and sleep all day. For adults, it’s recommended by the NSF to get at least seven hours of sleep.
If you’re struggling with your mental health on the road and need someone to talk to you can learn more about online therapy.
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Five Reasons Why Travelling Promotes Mental health and Emotional Well Being
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