Travel is important because it fundamentally transforms us. This experience of waking up to the power of your own transformation fires you up to “be the change you want to see in the world,” as Gandhi puts it.
By taking a break from your daily life, unplugging from the pulls and pushes of technology and engaging in new activities in new places, you have an easier opportunity to release unwanted habits. Also, it is empowering to surround yourself with people who don’t know the encyclopedia of your past. It reinforces your willingness to broaden your horizons, to get unstuck and to move in new directions.
Here are my top 10 reasons why travel is important:
1. Provides learning and education about places and history
2. Connects us to other cultures and people
3. Slows us down: Gives us a break from our fast-paced lives
4. Expands our awareness and introduces us to greater diversity
5. Helps us break habits: mentally, physically, and emotionally
6. Gives us time to heal, reduces stress and helps us regain enthusiasm for life
7. Stokes curiosity and awakens our inner child by offering us new, “first-time” experiences
8. Promotes patience by releasing heavy expectations of the “one right way” mentality thereby allowing life to flow more organically
9. Invites the opportunity to get lost and face one’s fears of the unknown
10. Helps you get to know yourself better: the true you is rediscovered