You are finally going on that trip you have dreamed of, but will it change your perspective on anything? Can visiting places you have never been affect the way you think about things? Or will you still feel the same as before going on your trip?
In general, traveling can change your perspective on various subjects by allowing you to see them from a different viewpoint than before you went on your trip. When you look at things through other people’s lenses, you gain new insights into why they do the things they do or think the way they do.
To learn more about the ways traveling can change your perspective, read below. When you travel, you can see why people in other situations have the opinions and attitudes they have about important issues and ideas.
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Why Does Travel Change Your Perspective
We have all heard people say, “unless you have walked a mile in my shoes, then don’t judge me” before, and perhaps nothing explains better why traveling can change our perspective on some issues. As we see things from someone else’s viewpoint, we begin to understand better why they feel the way they do. Often this can mean changing a negative attitude to a positive one which can help us not be so self-limiting or defeated.
When you travel, you see for yourself things you might never know before. You can listen to family and other people in your life explain in person the reasons they do things the ways they do. It can help clarify whether your thoughts line up with the truth about other cultures and their traditions. You gain a new perspective about life. You meet people you would have never met otherwise and learn why they live the way they do.
What Does It Mean to Have a Change in Perspective?
Often having a change of perspective is as simple as changing our focus. Sometimes we can focus only on the negatives while ignoring any positive side. If we can change our direction to see the issue positively, it can change our quality of life. Removing our thoughts to what is good about things from what’s wrong can give us a better perspective in life.
It is like finding things to be grateful for instead of looking at all that is wrong or bad about something. For instance, if you are so focused on what you dislike about your spouse that you do not see what they do right soon, you will want a divorce. However, if you look at what your spouse does right instead of the negatives, you will see yourself as blessed compared to how you felt while focusing on the negatives.
5 Ways Travel Changes Your Perspective
Although traveling certainly can change your perspective in more than five ways, the ones discussed below are very compelling reasons why everyone should consider traveling when possible. Having a change of perspective can change certain aspects of your life for the better that will add quality to your life from now on.
Traveling Changes Your Perspective About Other Cultures and Their Ways of Thinking
Most people form opinions about things based on what we were taught growing up or something we have heard repeatedly on television and through social media. When getting out in the world by traveling, we often find out that what we thought about certain people and things was wrong. When we visit and learn first-hand about other cultures and people, we soon see what we were incorrect about.
We all have certain things we need as people and the people we encounter traveling have many of those same needs. Sometimes traveling helps us find compassion for groups of people we previously felt differently about before our travels. When our thinking about people or groups changes, it can allow us to see the world through their eyes instead of our own.
We may learn to sympathize with them and share other emotions with them. When people feel accepted, it helps them to move past things that hold them back in society. Everyone needs food and shelter, but we do better when we have the following:
- Someone who cares about us, and we can care about them back.
- Who comforts us, and we can comfort.
- When we can grow as a person and watch others grow.
- Have and give empathy.
- To see the best in others and have our best seen by others.
As your perspective changes as you meet new people and experience new things, you can connect with others and share these things meeting your own needs and theirs.
We can form connections with people we might never have made before we traveled. Some of those new relationships will likely totally surprise you and redefine your perspective for the future.
Traveling Changes Your Perspective by Teaching You to Live in the Moment
How much of your daily life do you spend doing things for the future and thinking about the future? How much time do you spend dwelling in the past? Sometimes, you can get so caught up by what should have been or what you have lost and no longer have that you forget to enjoy the present. How often do those thoughts make you anxious and sick physically or mentally? Are you overly emotional?
While everyone has to work to pay for the things they need before taking time off, traveling sometimes helps you realize how much you are missing by not living in the present. Would you need that big house if you did not have a family to share it with?
Living in the moment lets you enjoy where you are and enjoy the beauty and culture you are experiencing. Traveling may give you the ability or desire to see things for the first time and truly appreciate them.
Or even better, maybe because you are experiencing the view right now, it will make you want to live in the moment more often and open more opportunities for you in the future. Traveling can help you take a step back and look at what you have been missing!
Traveling Changes Your Perspective by Teaching You to Be More Self-Sufficient
You can get so comfortable in your daily life that everything falls into place because you have been doing it so long. Travel can make you more self-sufficient. When you go to a place you have never been before, you challenge yourself in ways you have never had to do before. Maybe you have always relied on GPS to tell you how to get everywhere you live, and you find yourself in a place where GPS no longer works. You might have to use a map for the first time.
Perhaps you will find yourself on a camping trip where the food you eat will depend on whether you catch a fish and cook it. Maybe you will find yourself in a country you have never visited before and have to learn all about the culture there. Perhaps you will find yourself learning a new skill while traveling.
Maybe you are someone that has never gone anywhere by yourself, and stepping on an airplane for the first time will encourage you to do more and more this by yourself. Doing new things makes you stronger and gives you the confidence that you can do even more.
Traveling Changes Your Perspective by Helping You Value Experience Over Things
Perhaps you have always placed a lot of value on what you own and paid little attention to the world around you. Travel can help you see new places and appreciate them for the first time. Maybe visiting some developing country and seeing how little others have compared to you will help you realize how valuable an experience can be over your possessions.
While living in a small cabin where you can enjoy spending time with your kids may seem much more appealing than working fourteen or fifteen hour days to pay for that large house once you understand how much more valuable time with your kids is compared to owning a lot of things.
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Traveling Changes Your Perspective by Getting You Out of Your Comfort Zone
Do you tend to eat the same foods over and over? Or do the same things every day? Traveling can change your perspective and force you to try new food and even ideas s or activities, Maybe you have never eaten sushi, but while traveling to Asia, you tried it and now know you like it. Perhaps you have never snorkeled, and now you find yourself underwater with a camera in your hand snapping pictures of all the beautiful sea creatures off the coast of Florida.
Perhaps you have always stayed in a nice hotel, but you find yourself staying in a clean but small hut with the bare necessities while traveling. It is not something you would have ever intentionally reserved to stay in while on vacation. Now you appreciate the simplicity of not having a television, Wi-Fi, and cell service. You find it peaceful and enjoyable not to have distractions from home.
Trying things you would never usually do may help you appreciate what you have more. Or, you may find yourself wanting to get rid of some of your possessions to enjoy a simpler lifestyle when you return home.
Maybe you have always thought of yourself as to shy to talk to strangers, but while on a recent trip, you found yourself having conversation after conversation with strangers.
Getting out of your comfort zone helps you gain confidence in yourself that you might not have found before. For example, sometimes it is easier to talk to people you think you will never see again. Often you are not as worried about what they will think of you as you are about the person sharing the cubical next to you at work.
To Conclude
Traveling helps you gain critical new perspectives you might never have experienced if you had stayed at home. You often learn the ideas you had about other people and their cultures were not true. You learn to be more self-sufficient as you are forced to do things on your own.
Traveling encourages you to get out of your comfort zone and try new things. Traveling can help you appreciate things you never thought you would like and live in the moment. Travel can help you see perspectives you would never have probably found otherwise. Traveling helps change your mind about many things and see truths you might not have ever encountered before while allowing you to enjoy new things and life.