5 Unexpected Benefits of Travel

Travel is an exotic luxury that is aspirational for almost everyone. Just think of all the game shows that gave away expensive trips as the big prize. Who wouldn’t want to take a trip to Honolulu? There are many things to do besides gasp in awe at all the natural beauty in every direction. While it is a part of the United States, it is like a whole other world. 

It is also a very expensive vacation. If you are thinking about going, you need to start saving up for it. For many people, a trip to Hawaii is a once in a lifetime event. If you are going to do it, you are going to want to do it right. Thankfully, not every destination will cost you 6 months of paycheck to do. No matter where you choose to go, there are always many lessons to be learned. Travel has many surprising benefits. Here are five:

Health Tips That Really Work

Western medicine has proven to be undeniably successful. But it did not come to exist in a vacuum. There are centuries of healing wisdom that preceded it from all over the world. A natural remedy like activated coconut charcoal could have been developed anywhere in the world from almost any time period. America was not the first place where people had the idea that a good cleanse might be good for you. 

We casually add toxins into our bodies as if it was of no consequence. Every gastroenterologist would attest to the fact that the consequences are real and tragic. Many people end up suffering a great deal and even having dangerous surgeries when a regimen of detoxification would have made all the difference. When you travel, you encounter a lot of health tips and tricks that actually work. 

Cultural Diversity

One of the best features of travel is the way it expands our preconceptions about what we think we know. It is only obvious that one should drive on the right-hand side of the street until one finds themselves in a place where everyone drives on the left. We come to realize that it is not wrong, just different. That is the thought technology that enables us to experience cultural diversity as a positive rather than a negative thing. Once we are open to differences, we can learn a lot more about life than we would have known without that experience.

A Different Way to Eat

Have you ever considered becoming an anteater? No, really. There are many health benefits to eating ants and other insects. This is the sort of dietary insight you might only get from traveling beyond the shores of the 50 contiguous states. Sometimes, Westerners behave as if we invented food. Everyone knows that was the French. Americans also didn’t invent diabetes. But we quickly cornered the market. Travel gives us some insight into why it is such a big problem for us as opposed to the rest of the world.

Bigger Doesn’t Mean Better

Many people believe that bigger automatically means better. It most certainly does not. This becomes apparent when you have a chance to travel abroad and notice that people are happy living in smaller houses and driving smaller vehicles. You don’t need a McMansion and a three-hummer garage. This applies to meal portions as well. More often than not, bigger is not better. It is just more wasteful.

We Can Live in Harmony with Nature

It seems almost cliche to say that other cultures have led the way when it comes to living harmoniously with nature. Some of us are just starting to wake up to the reality that natural resources are limited and fragile. It is hard to draw back from the brink that modernization and industrialization have led us. There is a way of living that is more harmonious with nature. But to discover it, we have to travel. When we do, we can see how other people live a greener life. From there, we will have to make hard decisions about what kind of life we want to build for our children, and what sacrifices we are willing to make to get it.

Travel is a life-expanding luxury that is worth every penny. If you get a chance to travel, make note of how it provides health tips that work, cultural diversity, a different way to eat, the value that bigger is not always better, and examples of living more harmoniously with nature.

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