Travel and Mental Health

At a time of uncertainty and concern, how do you replace something like travel that has proven to be a key component in mental health stability?

We travel to relieve stress, to reinvent ourselves, to educate and expand our knowledge of people and places, to boost our creativity and the end result is to create memories that will sustain our mental health until we can travel again.

And yet, as a result of Covid-19, travel is unsafe to our physical health and being quarantined at home with the unknown of how long is exasperating our mental health.

Although not a replacement for travel, dreaming about your next vacation and taking initial steps for planning your next experience can provide hope that you will be embarking on your next vacation.

Research where to travel to, explore the visitors website for that location, order travel guides or download an ebrochure for a supplier who travels there. Travel experts who specializes in that area can assist in gathering information with the hopes to get there someday. Relationships may be forged that offers future value and/or bonuses and of course they will provide their most valuable asset, knowledge.

Sharing pictures of the destination on social media and asking friends and/or followers if they have been, to share their experiences so it will help guide us. Joining travel groups on preferred media outlets. Decide when (in a perfect world) is the best time to go, how long to stay, how much will it cost and a plan for how to make it a reality.

Creating a plan is like forming a contract with ourself and when we are free to once again move about the world, we will be closer to our reality. But most of all, that need to relieve stress, reinvent, educate and boost creativity will all be activated and our mental health, at a time when we need it most, will thank us.