If you have ever come back from a wonderful vacation thinking of radically changing your life, you should know that you are not alone. Some argue that it simply depends on the emotion of the moment and are convinced that this effect will pass very soon. However, studies in psychology suggest that traveling can change us profoundly, and researchers at the University of Jena have analyzed the psychological effects of travel. They worked with a group of German students, half of whom were preparing to go to study abroad, while the other half would attend university in their home country. All students completed a personality test which was repeated at the end of the semester. The results leave no doubt. travel it changes our personality, influencing five key aspects: emotions, extroversion, kindness, responsibility and openness to new experiences.Traveling changes you forever
1. It transforms you into a person who is more open to new experiences. Anyone who has traveled can confirm that things don't always go as planned. Flight delays, bad weather or any other inconvenience may force us to change our plans. Therefore, frequent travelers are often aware that what really matters is not the situation itself, but how you react to it. For this reason these people remain open to new experiences and take a more flexible and spontaneous attitude, they learn to flow with life.2. Makes you judge others less. People usually don't like what they don't understand, and they criticize it harshly. But when we travel we are exposed to different cultures and ways of thinking that end up changing our worldview and erasing our stereotypes. Referring to this effect, Mark Twain once said: "travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness." But this change only occurs when we truly try to understand the local culture, when we put ourselves in others' shoes.
3. Boost your extroversion. Traveling means having to talk to a lot of people you don't know, from flight attendants and the hotel concierge to the bus driver or fellow countryman met in the foreign country. In a way, traveling forces us to expose our more outgoing side, so gradually we will realize that we feel more and more comfortable talking to strangers. This way we end up making new friends and improving our social skills.
4. Your comfort zone expands dramatically. The more we travel, the farther we are willing to go and discover different things. In this way we will gradually expand our comfort zone, until one day we realize that we feel comfortable in situations that were previously unthinkable. This is because our brain gradually realizes that there is nothing wrong or dangerous in venturing beyond the places we know or away from our habits and customs. By doing this we develop a solid self-confidence that will be very useful in everyday life.
5. Develop creativity. There is nothing like travel, a new landscape, a different architecture or even new flavors to enhance creativity. Therefore, people who do creative work need to travel often and find new sources of inspiration in these journeys. In fact, traveling pushes us to think outside the established limits and reveals new ways of doing things. In this regard, a study carried out at INSEAD in Fontainebleau revealed that people who spend time in foreign countries to explore other cultures are not only faster at solving problems, but also find more creative solutions.
6. It makes you value what you have more. Those who travel with their eyes wide open often return home feeling very grateful. In fact, moving away from the everyday routine allows us to appreciate the little things that we normally take for granted, but are not. We stop complaining about what we don't have, to start being grateful for what we have. This is a huge change of perspective that will make us much happier, because we will realize that those who have more are no longer happy, but those who need less.
7. It makes you take your share of responsibility. When we travel, especially if we embark on these adventures alone, we realize that each of our actions has consequences. If we are late they will not delay the flight for us and if we stay in bed in the morning at the hotel it is likely that we will miss the chance to have breakfast. In addition to these little daily annoyances, we must learn to manage our life in a foreign country, probably with different languages ​​and customs. Without a doubt, these experiences will make us grow and make us more responsible people. Finally, remember that you do not have to travel to escape life, but so that life does not slip away.
