1. Broadens your horizons
Stepping out of your comfort zone, even if it's for a holiday, is always a good thing. You see the world outside of your own world. After you travel and come back, your life is never the same. You see things differently, even the routine mundane tasks are viewed from a different perspective. Travel opens up a whole new range of possibilities for you. It sensitizes you to different people and their culture, their food, their way of living. It sometimes makes you appreciate the luxuries you have a whole lot more. It sometimes makes you set higher goals for yourself to reach. Travel changes you. And your life.
2. Recharges you
Have you ever gone on a holiday, preferably without much access to technology, and reconnected with your soul and self? Ever felt like taking that time off from work and the monotony that life throws at you, was the best decision you've made in a long time. Yup, that's travel for you. Travel, even for short spans of time, makes you feel alive again. And this is not just because you're 'getting away' from things, but it's more to do with introducing your sensory organs to a whole new range of experiences - from different environment to different foods, to different people, to different cultures, it's all just one overwhelming experience for the sensory organs that there's not much time left to think about the boring stuff.
3. Makes you greedy :P
Well, it's not really how it sounds. But we all travel lovers are familiar with that feeling we get after we're back from a holiday. That feeling which makes you start planning your next trip. That feeling which leaves you in withdrawal mode for a few days. That feeling which makes you want to have a job that lets you travel and get paid for it? It's called the traveling itch. Or getting bit by a travel bug, or something. But travel always leaves you yearning for more. Once you start traveling, you can't seem to stop. Because someone wise once said - traveling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.
4. Gives you time to reflect
With the onset of the wide popularity of yoga centers in quaint, peaceful locations all over, they are quickly becoming what I call 'reflecting stations'. Getting away for a yoga retreat gives you the time to reflect and ponder, on life, it's possibilities, on your dreams and desires, and all things beautiful. It gives you your 'quiet time' which might be hard to find in the bustling lives we live today. Travel gives you the opportunity to weigh what's important and what's not, and helps you find that balance you felt missing.
5. Gives you memories to last a lifetime
I once read in an article not very long ago that people who spend their money on new experiences are far more satisfied than people who spend money on materialistic things. And I don't think this is very far from the truth. Yes we all like indulging in our own fetishes, be it a fancy new car or technology or for women, diamonds. Ahem. But let's be honest, this does fade away after a while. A new car becomes an old one, new technology very rapidly in today's times becomes old, and diamonds will be replaced with rubies and emeralds. But with travel, that feeling you get, does not really fade away. That smile that comes to your face when you think of a great trip you took, does not go away instantly. We've all heard our parents and older uncles & aunts talk about some great memories from their 'younger days'. But how many times do we really hear someone talk about their fancy new gadgets with the same amount of warmth and contentedness? Quite rarely, I would say.
Travel does that to you. Changes your whole world, opens up a whole new world for you, puts your world upside down, but all in a good way. Because at the end of a great travel, you feel alive again. And there's a reason Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "Life is a journey, not a destination". For travel lovers maybe,
life = travel?
