*this post contains amazon associated links as well as links to free resources

As we head towards summer travel, lets look at the ways that vacations can impact our mental health. Numerous studies have shown that when we travel we have the opportunity to see a reduction in our overall stress and depression levels. I stress opportunity because travel can also have the ability to increase our stress loads depending on our approaches to it. So how you prepare for vacations and the mental approaches you take to planning for them and experiencing them can affect their overall impact on you. This first blog in my travel series will look at the positive impacts of vacations, while the subsequent two will focus on how to mitigate the stress loads that can come with traveling and particularly with traveling with children.

Traveling can offer a very important break from the constant hustle or workload of our daily lives. It can also offer increased productivity after we return from vacations, even during those first initial days of longing for your return trip. After only a day or two of being on a vacation, our cortisol levels can drop and our overall feelings of stress can reduce. Traveling to unique destinations where we can interact more with other cultures has also been shown to increase our creativity, mental openness, and empathy. The more of a variety of trips that we take, the greater the positive impacts that are seen on our hippocampus and striatum. The hippocampus impacts our memory and learning and the striatum is part of our movement and rewards systems. These opportunities for new experiences in new areas help increase our cognitive flexibility, promoting neuroplasticity and aiding against cognitive decline says Dr. Michael Merzenich, an expert in neuroplasticity. These new environments force our brains to focus on smaller details and planning like figuring out directions, interacting with differences in the food, language, or customs, planning for daily weather changes, learning attraction hours, locations, etc. This takes our brain out of the autopilot mode that our typical routine can find us in at times.

These actions can promote new brain growth as well as reinforce skills that can be at risk of deteriorating as we age. This means though, that if you typically rely on someone else to do all the planning or decision-making on your trips, you may not be getting these specific cognitive benefits. Instead, split some of the planning responsibilities before and during your trip. It can promote cognitive flexibility for you while also helping to reduce the work-load of your travel partner. This may mean a more relaxed and happier travel partner then, which can also increase your overall experience.

When we travel we are also exposing ourselves to new visual and sensory stimuli, which can increase dopamine responses in our brain the same way new purchases can increase dopamine responses- the difference is that these responses have the opportunity to last longer, even after our return from trips, whereas the ‘high’ of a new purchase can fade much more quickly. It can be normal for the positive impacts on our mood to last a month after returning from traveling. Those who travel regularly, though, can see the mood boosts last even longer. Regular travel has even better impacts than one larger yearly trip because it’s more consistent exposure to new stimuli as well as more frequent breaks from our work and stress loads. We are also closer to planning and visualizing ourselves on our next trip, which also increases our dopamine responses and feelings of overall happiness.

We can also hold on to our positive experiences by building them into our lives after we return. Listening to music that reminds you of your trip, taking cooking classes or going to restaurants to replicate some of your favorite new meals, making photo albums/posting pictures, or buying candles that remind you of the scents you encountered on your trip are all good ways to prolong the benefits of travel.

When we are able to plan effectively for some of the impacts on our stress loads (as you’ll see in my next blog) we can use traveling as a positive way to address our overall anxiety. Getting out of our comfort zones in planned ways can boost our self confidence in our abilities and help us address our anxious responses more actively. While traveling can have many positive impacts on stress, anxiety, and depression levels, it should not be relied upon as a replacement for therapy or treatment of mental illnesses. Instead use it as a compass for positive behavioral changes to make upon returning. What did you do differently on your trip that seemed to make you feel more relaxed and satisfied? Were you more active, outside more, eating smaller meals throughout the day, having breakfast consistently, waking up earlier, etc.? How can you work to build those behaviors into your routine back home?

Also, it’s not the cost of the trip or how exotic the location is that increases its impact on you. Camping for a weekend can have significant impacts on your brain because it can be an exotic location compared to the typical stimuli and interactions that your brain engages in on your normal daily routine. Living in cities can increase one’s risk for anxiety and depression. Spending time in nature whenever we’re able can improve our mental health. Outdoor physical activity, like hiking, has a greater positive impact on our body system than physical activity alone. Spending time outside in nature can improve our working memory and attention, increase cognitive flexibility, help regulate our blood pressure, improve sleep quality, and decrease activity in our amygdala, where our stress and fear responses are initiated.

So as you approach your summer planning, if a mini getaway is a possibility for you, focus on ways that you can boost your mental health through your approach. How can you stimulate your senses with new experiences? How can you build up the excitement in the days leading up to your trip? How can you reduce stress while on your trip? Remember, free visual experiences can be the most beneficial, so it’s not the cost of a trip or the distance away that matters. Get yourself outside and checking out some new views, even if they’re 30 minutes away. If you get stressed by the idea of planning a vacation, check out the next blogs in this series on reducing your planning stressors, strategies for travel anxiety, and tools for vacationing with kids.