What Travelling Can Do To You

It’s true, there are times when travelling that you’ll feel worn out, overwhelmed, maybe even sick, tired and frustrated, but don’t let that put you off as there are some majorly beautiful and wonderful things on offfer too.

Get your brain in shape

Nothing like trying to work out the local buses for giving your brain a workout…

When you travel, you have to increase your critical thinking skills to try to work out what on earth is going on and what the best thing to do might be.

Your brain will be doing overtime having to find solutions, process information, but not in a stressed out office job kind of way.

Every day that we travel, we have to constantly come to terms with all the new sights smells and sounds surrounding us and our brains feel seriously alive.

See the world in a different light

See the world in a whole new light

When you travel, your world becomes full of new experiences; they’ll smack you right in your face (whether you’re looking for them or not).

There are some experiences that will be planned, perhaps the whole reason you have travelled to a place, but there will be many, many new things that will present themselves.

If you let them, these new things that will force your mind wide open to see the world in a different light.

Open your heart and become more compassionate

Let your heart be filled with the beauty of a sunset

When you travel, you see many beautiful things

Sunrises, sunsets, pristine beaches, temples, churches, festivals, mountains, rivers, nature, architecture; things you’ve read about in books or seen on screen, now right in front of you in your daily life.

But when you travel you’ll also see things that make you rage with injustice, cry tears of sadness or make you want to explode with frustration. We’ve seen cruelty, poverty, prejudice, discrimination, pollution, waste, exploitation and corruption as we travel to different places.

Because we’re not used to what we see, it has a huge impact on us.

Yes, it’s (sadly) true that you can see all this at home (wherever you live) but when you travel, perhaps because everything seems different, it can have a huge impact on you.

We now see both the beauty and ugliness of life on planet Earth on such a global scale as we can’t ignore the fact it’s not just at home, it seems to be in every town we visit.

Being more in touch with this reality has definitely made us more compassionate people.

Increase your address book

Our wonderful Thai friends, who’ve we’ve had the pleasure of knowing since our first visit to Thailand in 2002

It’s virtually impossible not to meet like-minded people when you are travelling

The law of attraction always seems to be working well when we travel and the longer we’re on the road the more new friends we make.

One of the best things about meeting all these new people is that they aren’t always people we would have easily run into during our old lives.

We meet people from all walks of life, of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, some for just a brief moment, but others who have become lifelong friends.

There’s nothing strange about striking up a conversation with a stranger when you are travelling as there seems to be an understanding that you have some common interests or shared experiences at least.

We love the variety of people we meet on the road; from beekeepers to architects, old or young people on short holidays or those travelling endlessly; it’s made our life incredibly rich.

Become a bit more educated, perhaps a bit wiser

Take a bit of time to contemplate the world

The things we’ve learnt through travel have been immense

We’ve learned to live with less; to recognise what’s really important to us; to accept gifts from others (graciously we hope).

We’ve learnt more about the environment (as we spend much more time outside surrounded by new animals, new landscapes and the sometimes breathtaking beauty of our planet) and we’re learning more about human nature, culture, history and behaviour (including our own) every day.

The catch…

What adventures will your travelling feet take you on, if you let them?

We’re absolutely convinced that when you travel, all of the above is within your reach if you want it.

And there’s the catch, you have to let the change happen; travelling will definitely give you the opportunity, but it’s you that has to make the most of it.

What else will travelling do to you, if you let it?