Travel Therapy: Let’s Explore The Unexplored For Betterment Of Mental Health

Someone on the internet quoted, “Travel brings power and love back into your life.” but I say, “Travel not only brings power and love but it also brings a healthy and positive transformation within.”

Having said that, do you love traveling? For what reasons do you love traveling?

To explore the unexplored, to find peace, to wanderlust, to explore a different culture, to fulfill your desire, or to meet new people!

Well, whatever the reason behind your traveling, have you ever observed that all these reasons are connected and consecutively help in improving our mental health? If you don’t believe this, there is a new study that proves that traveling improves mental health!

In this blog, we are going to discover how mental health can be improved while traveling based on the newly published study by Tourism Management.

About the Study

This study was recently published by Tourism Management. This study stated that experiencing a vacation is beneficial for people with dementia. This study also shows that tourism can have overall mental health improvement. This study shows that other mental health issues can also be solved with the help of travel therapy.

We all know how the pandemic disrupted our quality of life. After a long period of the pandemic, this time can be worthwhile to consider traveling especially for people with mental health issues.

In this study, researchers focused on traveling and the mental health benefits that come along. Thinking, feeling, doing, and sensually experiencing the places, location, and views can help in developing the framework based on the interventions of positive psychology.

Traveling to a beach, theme park, or family trip has more mental health benefits than others. This research is the only study that has explored the connection between mental health and tourism. This study provided a positive lens for traveling, savouring the moment, thinking about positivity, and feeling gratitude.

Travel Therapy: Helps in Restructuring your Mind

The study’s researchers supported the idea of traveling to improve mental health because it helps in restructuring the mind. This not only improves mental health but also improves the stimuli and helps in bringing positive change onwards.

According to psychology, cognitive and sensory stimulation are important for improving mental health. When we plan or go on a vacation, we explore a different culture, environment, and people which give us refreshment and in return improve our mental health. Additionally, researchers also focused on the part that if you are traveling to a place, you must complete your research so that you can choose a place that fits your overall needs.

In relation to this study, psychotherapist Taish Malone stated that “Motivators range from those seeking mental reprieve to exposure and connection of either their own or another culture. The intention behind a person’s travel plans will determine the expectation they may have of the trip and if it can be perceived as beneficial. No matter the reason behind traveling, the mind-set should always embrace the best the experience has to offer.”

During therapy sessions, Malone has asked her clients to greatly determine their outlooks and expectations from the traveling instead of focusing on where they are going and what they are going to do there. And many of her clients have benefited from this idea. And they have truly returned to the daily grind with a new perspective and positive transformation.

Other Mental Health Benefits of Traveling

Not only does traveling helps in recovering from dementia, but it has a lot of other psychological benefits like:

• Helps in gaining a new perspective
• Reduces stress
• Improves human interaction
• treats you unexpected with unexpected challenges
• reduces the risk of seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
• improves confidence and creativity
• Enhances the quality of life

Planning a Trip for Mental Health

From the above, we could conclude that traveling offers an emotional and social experience that helps boost happiness hormones, transforming our perspectives and restructuring our minds. While you’re planning to travel, you need to think about how important it is to unwind your mind after having such a hectic schedule and how important it is to escape because our brain always seeks a way to re-establish our emotions. This phenomenon helps in finding a balance.

An emotional escape should be unexplored and challenging so that we can really keep the problems at home and shift our perspective. If you’re traveling or planning to travel, always remember that happiness can never be determined by wealth or materialistic possessions. It’s actually within you!

So, keep finding that catalyst and keep exploring the unexplored with travel therapy.

Also remember, travel is not a luxury but it’s a necessity. It’s the only time wherein we stop and look at the beauty of this world.

I hope this blog helps you understand how mental health can be improved by traveling and all you need to know about travel therapy. Comment down and share your views on travel therapy. For more such content, connect with us on all social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!