Why Travelling and Exploring makes us Happy ?

Most of us have noticed that we feel the joy in travelling, camping, trekking, visiting religious places, watching historical monuments, going to museums, or just even going to meet some friends or relatives. You might like just one or two of the above listed things or you might love all of them, but one thing is for sure that you like to go outdoor and explore the outer world. It doesn't matter if you are living in a simple home or with 5-star facilities, travelling and exploring gives us more happiness than anything else. Have you ever tried to find the actual reason behind this happiness ? Here betterhealthfacts.com will tell you some secrets about your brain, body and mind that will help you in understanding the actual reason behind happiness.

Earlier i used to think that the experience of hotels and restaurants generates the feeling of joy and happiness, but later i found that there is something more. Here i will share these secrets.

Our Sensory Input : Our brain gets bored with the same sensory input everyday. Travelling and Exploring gives it some new input to experience and our body no longer works on reflexes, as it does everyday. Just like we get bored by some repetitive task, our brain also gets bored by same life everyday. Giving some new sensory input to our brain makes it alive and happy again. 

It rewires our brain : new experiences generated by new sensory input creates new neural pathways in our brain. These new connections in our brain makes us more creative and open to new ideas. In ancient world, travelers were considered as most knowledgeable people. 

Travelling makes us broadminded : Through travelling we know the world. We no longer judge, but experience and gather the information about monuments, history, culture, people. Either a person makes a written record of his travel and exploration or not, but the experience teaches him/her a lot and opens our mind even beyond our imagination. Most of the ancient teachers of different religions were travelers.  

• Gautam Buddha (563BC - 483BC) who was a prince left his kingdom when he was 29. It is believed that he was a well educated young man, trained in martial arts. He attained enlightenment after travelling in Nepal and India at the age of 35 and spent rest of his life in travelling and spreading his teachings.
• Jesus : According to a conservative estimate Jesus, the founder of Christianity, traveled more than 21000 miles in his lifetime. According to Gospels,Jesus visited modern-day Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon.
• Guru Nanak (1469-1539) : He is regarded as founder of Sikh faith. During the period from 1500 to 1524, he traveled more than 28000 km and visited different places in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Mecca, Iraq, Turkey and Vatican City.
• Ram : King Ram is considered as one of the most worshiped deity of Hindu religion. He traveled for 14 years in different parts of India and Sri Lanka, where he met all kinds of beings present on the planet and also attained knowledge from various sages. The story of his life "Ramayana" is one of the most sacred Hindu texts, which guides people through good and bad phases of life. 
• Apart from them there were a number of authors whole traveled the world and wrote their experiences in the form of diaries or best-selling novels. British James Cook’s diaries (1784), Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and Jules Vernes's 'The journey around the world in 80 days' were some of them.
• Ibn Battuta : He was Moroccan Muslim scholar and recognized as one of the greatest travelers. He published details of his journey in "The Rihla".

Improves Relationships : Travelling not just increases the number of your connections but also improves your relationship with your travel partner. The concept of going on a "Honeymoon" is its best example, as it not just leaves the couple undisturbed but also provides the opportunity to travel with each other.

Experience is more valuable than our possessions :  We value our experiences more than our materialistic possessions. New experiences are food for our brain and it makes us happier from inside. When we travel our material world is left behind and we enter a new world of experiencing. The "new-sensory-input" gives us more pleasure than the things we have collected.

Travelers tell great stories: Travel memories make great stories, and travelers are often a good story teller. Remembering or telling about your old travel story makes you happy. Even if you experienced something bad on a trip, such as food-poisoning, you will forget it in few years and you will remember only the better part.

Traveling experiences are incomparable : Every travel experience is different and can't be compared to other one. It is not like the size of TV, that you compare with your neighbor (off-course in your mind), which always leads to unhappiness. Our experience of this world increases our happiness. It doesn't matter weather you traveled to some other country or a nearby city, every experience matters and increases your happiness. Here you must know that increase in the distance traveled might not guarantee more happiness, but it guarantees more experience and more stories.

Forget your problems: Everybody have some problems in his day-to-day life. Traveling makes us forget those problems and our stress level decreases. Lesser stress means more happiness and better health. 

Some people like to travel alone, some with some special one, some with family, some with friends, and some like to be a part of large tourist groups. It is your personal choice what you prefer, but travelling and exploring is the oldest and best experience that gives us happiness.

Holidays are not meant to just rest at home. Apart from resting our brain, body and mind also desires something more to make it feel alive. So don't act like machines, be human. Travel and explore the world, as it is meant to be seen. Don't waste the creation of god by not exploring it.