How Travel Can Improve Our Overall Wellbeing
People of all ages, not just millennials, are more health-conscious now than ever before. Everyone is looking for the latest and greatest health trend, including turning to travel for wellness. The difference is, traveling for wellness isn’t just a trend unlike many other fads.
The wellness industry soared to $4.2 trillion market keeps growing at a rapid pace, with travel wellness taking a big chunk of it (Global Wellness Institute)
Travel activities are vehicles that reinforce physical and mental activity and is a restorative behavior with positive effects on overall well-being. Just like eating healthy and going to the gym, travel is a healthy decision.
People are seeking a multi-chapter wellness journey
Mental and Physical Health Benefits of Travel
- Improved brain health and cognitive abilities
- Significantly lowers stress levels
- Increased energy and quality of life
- Immediate and long-lasting restorative physical, mental, and physiological effects
- Allows time for rest, relaxing, and tension release
- Healing properties which keeps your mind healthy, your body active, and your spirit youthful
- Helps to take a breather, focus on yourself, and focus on the bigger picture of life
- Realign with your inner self
- Broadens the mind and sparks creativity
- Build and maintain mindful lifestyles and globally conscious mindsets
- Health promoting behaviors
- Story-steeped experiences and transformative journeys
- Strengthen relationships and deepens human connection
- Increase happiness and boosts mood
The health and wellness benefits of travel can have a great impact on a person’s personal and work life
Travel wellness benefits aren’t based on general or anecdotal evidence but rather scientific studies stretching over the past several decades
Physical Health Benefits of Travel
In addition to mental and physical stressors, long periods of work without vacation can lead to reduced productivity, diminished creativity, and strained relationships. Americans seem to believe that logging more hours leads to increased output, but respite deprivation can actually increase mistakes and workplace animosity—in addition to prompting or exacerbating stress-related illnesses.
Dr. Kathleen Potempa, Dean of University of Michigan’s School of Nursing
American travelers shows that 93% feel happier after a vacation, 77% believe that their health improves after a vacation and roughly 80% believe that vacations and the activities under-taken on vacations result in greater productivity, energy and focus. (Heart+Mind Strategies survey)
Boost Immunity
Travel exposes you to different environments which creates strong antibodies and boost your immune system significantly (Matador Network)
Leads to human bodies creating more antibodies (or proteins that fight against foreign bodies and protect you from the illnesses they can cause). These antibodies make your body stronger over time and protect you from similar illnesses in the future (Well-beingsecrets.com)
“The more you travel to new locations with new food, climates, and environmental flora and fauna, the more exposed you are to different antigens, and your body can stock up antibodies against them.” (Well-beingsecrets.com)
Lowering stress helps our gut which affects your immune system since about 80% of our immune system lives in our gut (The Institute of Health Sciences)
Increases Iodine Levels
Iodine is important for thyroid function which directly regulates hormone balance and metabolism (US Library of Medicine)
Iodine can improve immunity, aid in apoptosis (programmed cell death that destroyed malignant and destroyed cells before they multiply) (apoptosis of carcinoma cells prevention), sufficient iodine can prevent certain cancers (Journal of Biological Chemistry)
Some ways that traveling helps you increase your iodine levels are by exposing yourself to the salty sea air, swimming in sea water, and eating fresh marine plants and seafood
Helps your Muscles and Joints
Sitting for long-periods of time consistently can tighten the muscles along the hips, causing spinal deterioration and pain.
Loosens your muscles and keep your joints moving with mild forms of physical activity while traveling like snorkeling in the ocean and walking throughout a local market
The salty sea water can help alleviate sore and achy muscles and alleviate arthritis issues by reducing inflammation of the joints (US Library of Medicine)
Lowers Risk for Heart Disease
Keep your heart strong and fit with the physical activity and moving around that you do while traveling
Lowers stress and anxiety
Men and women who traveled annually were less likely to suffer a heart attack or develop heart disease (Framinghan Heart Study)
Women who vacationed every 6 years or less had a significantly higher risk of developing a heart attack or coronary death compared with women who vacationed at least 2 times a year. (Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the U.S Travel Association)
Men who do not indulge in a yearly vacation are at a 20% higher sudden death risk and display a 30% elevated risk of contracting heart disease (Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the U.S Travel Association)
Men do not take a vacation from work for several years are much more likely than others to suffer from heart attacks (A 9-year study from University of Massachusetts)
There is an association between infrequent vacationing and increased incidence of heart problems or death due to coronary causes during a 20 year follow up of women participants (The Framingham Heart)
Stress can be a huge factor in heart disease since it can lead to higher blood pressure and blood-sugar levels that gradually weaken the circulatory system (Well-beingsecrets.com)
Many other factors can cause heart disease, so staving it off requires a balance of healthy eating, mild exercise, and the avoidance of harmful toxins and risky habits, all things that travel has the potential to do.
Longer Life Expectancy
Travel increases the chance of living longer and having more fun doing it!
Keeps You Fit
Can aid in weightloss
Yes, travel can mean indulging but it can also expose you to new fruits and vegetables that you may not have access to or are too costly where you live
Keeps your body moving and active instead of sitting in an office day in and day out
Very little jobs involve physical activity to the extent of adequately burn excess calories
Visiting a high-altitude destination without exercising can lead to weight loss in just one week (a study on obese people by the U.S National Library of Medicine)
Changes in altitude and climate increases metabolic and satiety levels while decreasing hunger
Traveling to cold climates can help burn calories and ‘brown fat,’ which in turn escalates the burning of ‘white fat’ (Journal of Clinical Investigation)
If you already live in a cold climate, traveling to a warmer climate can encourage more physical activity
Physical inactivity accounts for more than 3 million deaths per year (The Lancet)
Keeps You Young
Travel is a path to healthy ageing
Protects resilience in the elderly and aging
Keeps your mind healthy, your body active, and your spirit youthful
Sparks vitality
Lowering stress can lower the hormone cortisol which is known to speed up the ageing process (Mayo Clinic)
60% of retirees have an urge to travel (Aegon’s Retirement Readiness Survey)
Travel, with or without its association with health, holds incredible value for individuals who are thinking about how they will invest their time and money across the longer lifespan (Global Coalition on Aging)
Travel can be a game changer in terms of how people approach the aging process and determine their paths to healthy aging across all stages of their life
Multi-generational travel benefits grandchildren as well as grandparents, who cite valuing the opportunity to travel with their grandchildren to help them feel and stay more youthful (U.S Travel Association)
Healing Properties that Keeps you Healthy Both Inside and Out
Gain access to new superfoods, unique fresh fruits and vegetables, and healing products like soursop, bitter melon, ancient teas, birds nest soup, and mineral-rich mud masks
Detoxes you mentally, emotionally, and physically
Helps your body filter out toxins and wastes, leaving you feeling reinvigorated and healthy
Healing properties of places that you wouldn’t otherwise have access too. For example: mineral-rich hot springs like in Turkey, Costa Rica, and Iceland, rejuvenating places where the Earth’s powers converge to heal, uplift like Stonehenge, pyramids of Egypt, vortexes in Sedona, Arizona and Mount Desert Island in Maine
Western medicine experiences that many can’t usually afford such as massages ($3-$20 in places like Thailand, Costa Rica, Peru, and the Philippines), homeopathic remedies, Chinese medicines, ancient herbals and teas, yoga sessions in India and Bali, or meditation sessions in temples
Visiting new places, eating new foods, doing new things can help you put the past in the past and open doors to a new phase in your life
Improve Bone Health
Get more vitamin D from sunny destinations, which cannot be done through diet alone
Vitamin D assists your body with the absorption of Calcium and Phosphorus in the digestive tract and mobilizes bone calcium (US Library of Medicine)
Vitamin D3 has also been directly linked to bone health since research has indicated that there is a definite correlation between vitamin D intake and decreased bone-density loss.
Important for preventing osteoporosis, especially in women over the age of 35
Improve PMS Symptoms
Millions of women suffer from debilitating PMS symptoms which can take a huge toll on work performance, mindset, and attendance
Vitamin D, stress relief, and mild exercise that improves your circulation are known methods to greatly reduce the painful and annoying symptoms of PMS like cramps and bloating
Stress-relief and the endorphins released during travel can help prevent fatigue, irritability, and irregularities
Improves Respiration
Breathing in fresh beach air and surfing has healing powers like thinning lung mucus, ease sinus pressure, reduce coughing, and improve lung health (WallStreetJournal.com)
The salty sea air can improve the lung function and break up mucus in the lungs of those suffering from cystic fibrosis (The New England Journal of Medicine)
Travel can take you to less polluted places in nature, wide open fresh air, and away from polluted city centers
Lowering Stress Can Improve Digestive Health
Digestion is controlled by the enteric nervous system which gets directly affected by stress
Stress can cause digestive issues like nausea, diarrhea, esophageal spasms, constipation, and other gastrointestinal issues
Lowering Stress Can Improve Your Skin Health
Stress can increase cortisol levels which can lead to more sebum, oily skin, which can cause skin breakouts
It an alleviate other skin issues like psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea
If you travel to a beach, the quality of your skin might improve, thanks to the exfoliating quality of sand and sea salts, along with the ability of saltwater and iodine to detoxify your skin and get rid of breakouts that cause bacteria and fungi. (Well-beingsecrets.com)
Swimming in the magnesium-rich ocean water can hydrate your skin much better than tap water while also reducing skin roughness and inflammation. (Well-beingsecrets.com)
Getting away and detoxing from polluted air helps the skin
Particles in the air caused by traffic and fumes (such as nitrogen dioxide and smoke) can set off extrinsic skin aging and spotting, and it can clog up pores and increase bacterial buildup (Journal of Investigative Dermatology)
Lowering Stress Can Improve Fertility
Stress can increase infertility (US National Library of Medicine)
Work and life stress can degrade sperm count, quality, and mobility (US National Library of Medicine)
Stress can put a damper on people’s stress drive and satisfaction (US National Library of Medicine)
Traveling can improve libido, according to a million respondents of a survey
Traveling helps your body relax and rebalance your hormones
Physiological Health Benefits of Travel
Vacation offers the opportunity for freedom, intrinsic motivation, creativity, and self-determining factors, which ultimately results in psychological benefits.
Wisconsin Medical Journal
“A growing body of research suggest that vacation reduces stress by removing ongoing stressors and providing a unique opportunity for behaviors that have restorative effects on anabolic physiological processes, such as social contact with family and friends and physical activity in the context of reduction of stress-initiated catabolic effects.” (Wisconsin Medical Journal)
Lowers Stress Levels
Stress-reduction habits and stress management
91% saying that having an unmanageable amount of stress negatively impacted the quality of their work (Deloitte, 2018)
64% of U.S. professionals frequently feel stressed or frustrated at their job (Deloitte, 2018)
When you don’t take a break from the everyday stressors, the stress hormone cortisol can elevate which speeds up the aging process and increases blood sugar levels. (Well-beingsecrets.com)
Stress-relieving activities like cultivating gratitude and generosity, resilience, meditation and breathing techniques, and hikes and other slow-paced activities in nature are all things that travel brings
People bring home-life issues to work with them. Travel helps relieve stress and deal with those issues (relationship problems, a traumatic life experience, death, PTSD, marriage issues)
Women who go on a vacation at least 2 times a year are less prone to chronic stress and depression, as opposed to women who go on a vacation less than once every 2 years (The Wisconsin Rural Women’s Health Study)
Helps Manage Anxiety
Although traveling can put your anxiety to the test, it can also teach you new ways to cope and learn about your limits and triggers
Boosting your self-confidence can lower your anxiety levels such as learning how to navigate new cities and airports, solving problems on your own, and being more independent in foreign places
Mental Health Benefits of Travel and Experiences
Psychologists and neuroscientists have been studying and finding that travel has the potential to affect mental change
Increases mindfulness
A 5-year study showed that the odds of depression and tension were higher among women who took vacations only once in 2 years or once in 6 years compared to women who traveled 2 times or more each year. (Wisconsin Medical Journal)
Studies show a connection between travel and creativity, a deeper sense of cultural awareness and personal growth
Decreases Depression
Depression is “the principal source of workplace disability” (Bill Wilkerson, chairman for Target Depression in the Workplace)
Although depression is greatly misunderstood and is a complex issue, leading a healthy and heightened wellness lifestyle can definitely help with controlling and dealing with it.
Traveling can help you take a breather and focus on yourself, your emotions, realign with your inner self, spark inspiration, and boost motivation
Therapeutic landscapes like forests, mountains, and calming sea sides may help to decrease the risk of psychosocial stress-related diseases (US National Library of Medicine)
Warm climates, sunlight, and Vitamin D have a positive effect on depression (especially seasonal-affective depression), since light can regulate melatonin and hormones, such as dopamine and serotonin (International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences)
Women who do not take vacations are twice as likely to suffer from depression than women who do choose to go on a vacation
Global Coalition on Aging
Women who took vacations were much less likely to suffer from depression and other mental health issues, so they subsequently enjoyed a higher quality of life
Wisconsin Medical Journal
Increases Happiness and Boosts Mood
Travel increases our happy hormones (dopamine and serotonin) and keeps them flowing
“One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,” says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.”
Unlike shopping and a redundant work routine, travel shakes things up by keeping life interesting with new experiences, places, and people
Travel Planning Can Boost Happiness
The anticipation of a trip can increase happiness and emotional equilibrium
Travel planning is an easy way to dramatically boost your personal happiness.
Planners are happier than non-planners in personal relationships, their job, their company, physical health and well-being, and happier with how they spend their time off
People who travel or study abroad tend to be more open and emotionally stable (the Journal of Personal and Social Psychology)
Strengthens Emotional Equilibrium
Traveling builds an emotional preparedness to be receptive of others
Deepens compassion and cultural understanding
Exposure to cultures and places that are distant from yours can have a big effects on your ability to emphasize
Women who take vacations frequently are less likely to become tense, depressed, or tired, and are more satisfied with their marriage (Wisconsin Medial Journal)
Improves Self-Esteem and Confidence
Proves that you can face and deal with unpredictable situations
Become a great problem-solver
Become a storyteller and have unique stories to share
Feel like a well-rounded and more interesting person
Increase self-worth, self-healing, self-reflecting, and promote self-care
Foster personal identity
Establish personal core values and beliefs
Strengthen your character
Reconnect with yourself and get back to feeling your best
Feel appreciated, valued, and worthy
Improves your Brain Health
Travel is good medicine. Because it challenges the brain with new and different experiences and environments, it is an important behavior that promotes brain health and builds brain resilience across the lifespan.
Dr. Paul D. Nussbaum, Ph.D., ABPP, a clinical neuropsychologist and Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Travel expands the mind by meeting new people, adjusting to new situations, learning new skills, exercising your thought process, trying new foods, and becoming more globally and culturally aware
New experiences increase cognitive flexibility and keeps the mind sharp
Recent studies show that the beach is one of the best places to alleviate stress and heal your brain (Inc.com)
Travel experiences and knowledge will help your brain build resilience against degenerative diseases, such as alzheimer’s and dementia, at a cellular level as you age (Global Coalition on Aging)
“Stress decreases and happiness improves when we rest the mind with wellness breaks” (Sean Brecker, CEO of Headspace)
Encountering novel stimuli, which you do a lot during travel, will, therefore, keep your mind young and improve your memory and concentration
Global Coalition on Aging
Enhance Cognitive Ability
Cognitive flexibility is the mind’s ability to jump between different ideas, a key component of creativity (Adam Galinsky, Columbia Business School Professor)
Mental activity and cognitive stimulation, which can be achieved through various activities associated with travel
Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms (Adam Galinsky, Columbia Business School Professor)
Breaks your daily mental routine
Boosts cognitive stimulation with absorbing new information, reading new signs, learning about new ways of life, exploring new places, making new decisions, problem-solving, navigating, hearing foreign languages, and other travel-related activities
Improves your Sleep
Lower stress helps you sleep better
More physical and mental activity and exposure to the sun helps you sleep better
You are less likely to be on your devices for long periods of time when traveling in which the light from them can cause melatonin depression
Better sleep habits help to decrease the effects of mental health issues like anxiety and depression
Immediate and Long-Lasting Effects
A study found that after just 3 days of vacation, someone already feels less anxious, had increased quality of sleep and less physical complaints and these feelings were present 5 weeks after returning home, especially in those who had more personal time and overall satisfaction during their vacation
The benefits of travel are almost immediate. After only a day or two, 89% of respondents saw significant drops in stress.
Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and U.S Travel Association
A 4-day “long weekend” vacation had positive effects on well-being, recovery, strain, and perceived stress for as long as 45 days (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health study)
After being on vacation for only a day or two, 89 percent of people are able to leave the stressors of work behind and relax (Expedia Vacation Deprivation Study)
Benefits of travel can take effect before, during, and long after a trip. It can also lead to contentment over the long term
