Why is travelling good for your mental health?

It's no news that travel is good for your physical wellbeing, but a significant amount of scientific research suggests that exploring a new place can do wonders for your mental and emotional health as well.

Here are five evidence-backed ways traveling makes your mind happy and healthy:

1. It’s a great stress buster. Traveling promotes happiness and helps you take your mind off stressful situations. This leads to lower cortisol levels, making you feel calm and content.
2. It helps you reinvent yourself. Experiential traveling, particularly to a foreign country, can help you re-evaluate and reinvent your life. If you allow it, travel has the ability to expand your mind in a way you never realized was possible. Moreover, the valuable lessons that you learn along the way broaden your perspective, making you more aware and open to new things.
3. It boosts happiness and satisfaction. Apart from the obvious fact that you don't have to go to work (and can legit eat pizza for breakfast), traveling gives you the opportunity to step away from the daily grind. The new events and experiences help rewire your brain, hence boosting your mood and self-confidence.
4. It makes you mentally resilient. Going and living somewhere where you feel excited and intimidated at the same time can help you toughen up mentally and emotionally. Also, facing difficulties in an unfamiliar environment, among new people, forces you to learn and adapt to a life that's out of your comfort zone. This makes you more flexible, patient and emotionally strong.
5. It enhances creativity. Visiting a foreign place and immersing yourself in their local environment, increases your cognitive flexibility. It also enhances "depth and integrativeness of thought," consequently giving a boost to your creativity.
 

Sources: Forbes