Travel seems like a topic frequently seen on social media or a good starting point for conversation. Some people say that through frequent travel, they can gain practical knowledge not taught in the school curriculum. Perhaps they might also describe frequent travel as the only way to shortly depart from their busy lifestyle. However, by adding the word ‘frequent’ to travelling, does it really broaden people’s minds by exposing them to numerous new ideas, or just pull them apart from what is demanding? In this essay, the controversy surrounding “frequent travel” will be discussed.
To begin with, frequent travel enables people to relieve stress as it can decompress them from daily pressure such as tremendous work and imbalance in rest. A study released by the American Psychological Association in 2018 has concluded that taking time off in which travelling is one of the kind is able to remove workers from the environments or events that are associated with stress. This statement is supported by positive responses from workers in the US that they are able to raise their energy and productivity after taking vacation time. Recovery from anxiety or prevention of stress can all be done by taking time off for a trip. Moreover, research done by the NIH has found out that the frequency of leisure travel enhances psychological wellness through a sequential mediation. It first reduces emotional constraints on interpersonal engagement and replenishes the readiness for social interactions by the detachment from the high stress atmosphere. The social support gained from frequent travel could lead to greater emotional resilience and engagement from exposure to culture, natural beauty and mindset enriching programs. The emotions such as joy or awe foster internal recovery to the person by forming an external supportive relationship. The instant relaxation mitigates the pressure from deleterious workload. By these means, it introduces escapism that human beings are seeking to momentarily disengage from the overwhelming reality to a more pleasant one. Frequent travel is a habit that most people have chosen to facilitate escapism, thereby allowing people to take a mental break from their occupational responsibilities through discovering an unknown place or understanding various cultures. Therefore, frequent travel is beneficial as it brings a temporary mediation and recharge to people living in the tense reality.
Besides acting as a temporary break, frequent travel broadens minds during the process of exploring diverse viewpoints. Broadening minds might be a concept that is too ambiguous. Hence, it can be illustrated psychologically through the Broaden-and-Build Theory by Barbara Fredrickson. When people move rooms from their familiar place to an unknown place, it introduces them to fascinating beliefs and lifestyles that they have never come across. People usually feel excited before going on a trip to an unknown place or are amazed by the natural scenery, whereas the interest, joy or awe during the trip can be categorised as positive emotions. “How can those broaden our minds?” people might have asked. The effect of positive emotions on our minds cannot be physically presented as it is a change in our way of thinking and our behaviors. For instance, a person who recognizes that the gestures of some citizens in the country to show politeness are undermined in its country. From the discovery of a new tradition, the person might be amazed by that culture and reflect on its own self. The amazement from exposure to new places with their norms proposes a simple yet rare concept for travelling and the awe aroused is exactly what positive emotion is. Whereas the point of broadening one’s mind is based on whether the person learns the culture cognitively and how their thoughts can be altered by those unfamiliar ideas. Hence, frequent travel provides the opportunity to improve our cognition since we are discovering the globe bit by bit. The more information they obtain, the more creative and unusual their thoughts will be. This is due to the accentuation of their horizons, they are allowed to elicit different perspectives and combine them into one. As a result, creativity can be strengthened and this could lead to a continuous cycle between learning new items and their utilisation as if it is fascinating to the person, thus creating satisfaction alongside various positive emotions. Therefore, positive emotions produced in frequent travel can broaden minds by forming unique viewpoints from unprecedented knowledge, letting people thrive with the ability to employ their curiosity and creativity.
Besides broadening minds through raising creativity and deploying people’s ideas during or after frequent travel; it influences people’s behaviors enduringly hence building up essential wellbeing for people when encountering obstacles. Refer back to the theory above, instead of being more creative while experiencing positive emotions, holding more positive emotionality can also fuel resilience. To illustrate this point, there could be many unexpected events happening during the trip. As people would not prepare for nonoccurring accidents, it instantly forces them to think on their feet. The urgency to resolve adversities can build up anxiety or stress in people. Yet, studies by professionals revealed that people who possess positive emotionalities would recover from the pressure and maintain mental stability. People who hold an energetic or optimistic approach towards setbacks could then construct psychological resilience and acceptance to challenges throughout the process. This is perhaps due to how they perceive the issues as a practical lesson rather than a time for them to panic. Hence, through frequent travel, people are able to experience positive emotions, thereupon learning how to deal with adversities every time from the obstacles they come across amid the trip. By then, the way people treat difficulties as a learning opportunity during their travels, their resilience is being strengthened and it has a long-lasting effect instead of a fleeting state of mind. For this reason, the impact brought by frequent travel is not the temporary enjoyment but rather the resilience that can help them to fight against hardships.
However, frequent travel may lead to people avoiding reality and challenges. From the psychological idea of escapism, it could in some way produce a mental break for people suffering from intense pressure contributed by their reality. Conversely, people’s minds towards novel experiences throughout the trip have been examined by scientists. They concluded that dopamine is able to boost our expectation towards the experience and the heavy load from reality will then fade away due to an increase in joy. Because of frequent tourism, it relieves people and enriches them by experiencing positive emotions and obtaining diverse viewpoints. However, the joy and excitement gained from travelling in comparison makes regular life seem mundane. Studies have demonstrated that people tend to constantly seek another trip while working when they have a good impression towards frequent travelling. The novel environment and unexpected experiences could cause people’s addiction to frequent tourism thus developing inertia in order to escape from the dull and unsettling reality. The consequence of the exaggeration of escapism and addiction to tourism is the fear of obstacles in daily life and the inhibition of people’s resilience which can be obtained originally from dealing with daily or travelling issues. Escapism is overdosed by people, by then they conceive travelling as a tool to avoid challenges. This way of thinking can lead to further possession of stress as it won’t diminish or be eliminated. As a result, the more you evade, the more stress you get afterwards. Therefore, frequent travel could bring tremendous pressure to people if they cannot resist the temptation from the increase in dopamine and momentary stress relief during tourism.
Despite tempting people to avoid their daily work by staying up for every time of travelling. Frequent travel interrupts people’s daily routine. Since tourism requires planning beforehand, the process of scheduling the trip takes up people’s spare time or even working hours to organise. Apart from reducing the time for people to rest due to planning schedules for the trip, frequent tourism requires people to cope with the repeatedly rapid change in time zone. This can eventually increase the occurrence of psychiatric disorder to people who are enjoying frequent travel because their sleep schedules are being disturbed too severely. While people are returning to their work or studies, their minds are still concerned or dealing with the mental morbidity. With a disruptive factor concurring inside the brain, people lose focus on where they should be responsible for. The severe distractibility brought by constant travel lessens people’s productivity since they put most of their energy in coping with jet lag instead of finishing their jobs. Accordingly, frequent travel brings people apart from their daily reality by adding mental workload after the trip.
Upon consideration, whether frequent travel brings the impact of distracting people from daily reality is unpleasant or appropriate depends on the person’s willingness to face difficulties in life. There isn’t an exact stance for frequent travel as it brings both negative and positive impacts to people. However, If a person is drowning in traveling and neglecting their responsibilities for their assigned tasks, frequent travel would only tighten their stress more. On the other hand, if a person can hold back their anticipation for another trip, traveling as a way to take a break would be a beneficial approach to pressure and stress. Therefore, finding a balance between leisure and work is a must and frequent travel should be a mindful approach to stress rather than an excuse for responsibilities and obstacles.
By: Wong Sum Yu
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