Travel Yourself Happy this Mental Health Awareness Day

Now, here at Klook, we’re all travel mad, so you might think we’re biased, but new experiences are a great self-reward, and travel is proven to help promote positive mental health.

Now we all know that travel is great for mental health, right? Right. But we’re properly into this sort of stuff so we’ve done some totally scientific research into exactly how travel works to help people feel happier, calmer and more positive.

Ready? Then away we go!

The stress of everyday routines can feel so overwhelming that it can start to distract us from what we actually want to be doing and how we want to be spending our time. Taking a break to free yourself from the pressures of your day to day routine can help you reconnect with what really gets you’re fire roaring, and you’ll come back refreshed, recharged and reconnected with what you want to be doing, and how you want to do it.

It’s a proven fact (we’re full of sciencey stuff today!) that new experiences help develop the neuroplasticity in your brain (that’s fancy talk for increasing your brain’s ability to create new neural pathways, which basically means forming new ways of thinking - see, smart huh?). So when you experience new places, things and cultures, especially in an interactive and immersive way - like when you’re exploring a new neighbourhood or city - you’re actually growing your brain’s ability to think differently. Perfect if you’re looking for a refreshed perspective or fancy mixing things up a bit!

Most people know that exercise is good for physical and mental health. It gets the blood pumping around the body which means we feel more energised, and it also fills us with endorphins (which are basically a chemical that our body produces to make us feel goooooood!. And it just so happens that when we’re travelling, we spend more time physically doing stuff like walking around and exploring, hiking for those epic #wishyouwerehere ‘grams or just more time swimming in the hotel pool! All this gets you active and feeling good, which is exactly what we’re all after from a holiday, right?

OK, so first of all, despite what Instagram might suggest, we know that travel isn’t always infinity pools, beach sunsets and endless cocktails, and that sometimes it can be a mixed bag of delayed flights, dodgy taxi drivers and arm wrestling for sun loungers! 

But that’s exactly the point! Travelling to somewhere new makes us feel good about ourselves because it gives us stories to share, and things to talk about with our friends and family, which gives our self-esteem a boost! 

Also, when we’re on holiday and things don’t go according to plan, we’re forced to deal with them then and there. Whether it’s learning to communicate with someone in a different language, finding your own way back to the hotel when your taxi driver doesn’t show up, or having to haggle to buy a new wardrobe because your suitcase got sent to Nairobi and you’re in Cape Town, you deal with it and you find your way through. Finding ways to deal with this kind of obstacle gives us confidence in getting us to think “what else can we do?” I mean, if you can haggle in a Cape Town market, then you have officially completed the game of travel!

Travelling puts us in situations where we need to interact with more people - new people! - than we normally would in everyday life. This can feel daunting, but connecting with people, even if it’s just a quick chat with one of the staff in the hotel lobby, or a chatty bartender or even a random passer-by who asks the time when you’re sat by the pool, these are small interactions that can help us feel like the world isn’t as daunting a place as it can seem when you’re stuck on the No.27 bus on a cold Tuesday waiting to get to work.

What we also have to remember, is that people are people, and everyone’s on their own path dealing with their own hang-ups. So even these small interactions can be good for you, and for them too. 

But when it comes to taking practical steps you might be thinking what can I do? Well there are multiple research studies that have identified a link between access to green space and an improved mood, increased life satisfaction all of which lead to a reduced risk of mental health problems, so if you fancy getting out into one of the most magnificent green spaces the UK has to offer, then Kew is waiting for you... 🌱

OK, we could go on forever about this! But forever’s a really long time and we want you guys to talk to us rather than us talking at you! 

So there you have it - those are our top five, but we’d love to hear from you about how travel has helped you in your mental health journey, so drop us a note on Facebook or Instagram and let’s keep the conversation going…