Tyler Wittkofsky – I had a nice corporate job that paid well and offered good benefits. With great coworkers and an amazing boss, that seemed to be my dream job. Except, I wasn’t happy.
Why wasn’t I happy?
Because I felt stuck.
So, what did I do? I quit my corporate job, bought an RV, and decided to travel so I could spend more time with my family.
Suffering with bipolar disorder and a slew of other mental illnesses makes it difficult for me to be happy at times. I have found through my years of trying to find coping mechanisms that they are few and far between. However, one of the tools I have found to really work for me is travel.
As I ponder sharing my journeys, there are five reasons that travel really helps improve my mental health and here they are:
- Hit the Reset Button
Traveling is good for me because it allows me to escape the reality I’m living in at the time.
Travel has been known to be a stress reliever for many people and I am no exception. Whatever is going on in my life, being able to step away from it whether it be for a few days or a few weeks helps me to break free from that stressor.
Sometimes all we need is a reset.
- Experience New Cultures
Being able to explore the world and learn about new cultures helps me to better understand the world around me.
Exploring new places, learning the local dialect, tasting the local food, and finding hidden gems helps me to see things more clearly.
Sometimes we get so caught up in our own ways of doing things, that we forget there are countless other ways to look at things. This serves as a gentle reminder to be open to new ideas and pathways.
- Building Meaningful Memories
As I mentioned earlier, one of my big motivations for leaving my corporate job was for me to spend more time with my family and travel.
Recently, we explored Raleigh, North Carolina and tried different local eateries and breweries.
I don’t have a lot of good memories from my childhood. So, I want to redefine and create new memories. As a result, travel helps me to create new memories and I’m working on building as many good ones as I can.
I want to be able to look back on a lifetime full of living, not one full of simply being alive.
- Embrace Your Creativity
Learning about other cultures broadens my perspective, makes me more attuned to my environment, and lessens my tendency toward rigidity, all of which have been linked to an increase in creative output. Because you’ll need to use alternative strategies to deal with unique situations that come with traveling, I find that I become more inventive after engaging in these novel activities.
- Becoming a Better Person
Overall, traveling helps me to become a better person. The previous four reasons ultimately lead to this: in order to be a better person, you must embrace differences and understand yourself. Engulfing yourself in new adventures and cultures helps you to become a more well-rounded person.
Take the time to enjoy who you are with and where you are at.
Overall, traveling is good for a multitude of reasons. It is one of the few stress relievers that I’ve managed to find over my last fifteen years of searching. Whether I’m an hour away from home or a week away from home, as long as I’m making good memories, I feel like I’m healing.
Tyler Wittkofsky is a business owner, award-winning marketing and communications professional, multi-genre author, travel blogger, and podcast host from the southeastern coast of North Carolina. He is the owner of Tea With Coffee Media, co-host on the Back Porch Parley and Cook the Books podcasts, and a travel blogger at Adventure with Coffee who sends most of his free time with his wife Grace and Dogs Dutch and Belle.
