For A More Creative Brain, Travel

For A More Creative Brain, Travel

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The magic of traveling conquers all hearts, regardless of age, nationality or religion. The idea of meeting new landscapes and interact with other cultures will always be attractive to both students and professionals who find travel the perfect escape from the routine and unwind from the daily grind.

It has recently been discovered that traveling has more benefits than previously understood. In addition to relieving stress and improving emotional health, travel helps to maintain healthy brain and enhance your creative abilities.

Traveling not only stimulates learning, but also allows us to enjoy free time to perform other tasks beneficial for the body.

In a recent article in The Atlantic website, it was stated that creativity is related to brain connections where neural pathways would be influenced by the environment and habit, making them sensitive to changes. That is, experience new sensations, taste exotic flavors, speaking a strange language and listen to unfamiliar sounds and see different places, have the power to revitalize the mind.

The Research

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Columbia professor and author Adam Galinsky, said international experiences increase cognitive flexibility or the ability of the mind to connect scattered ideas, a key point of creativity. This experience should be a process where you commit yourself, immerse yourself and you adapt to the new culture.

In its latest study, Galinsky researched for 11 years the connections between creative directors of 270 haute couture houses and their experiences working abroad. The degree of creativity of the final product was described by a group of independent journalists and buyers. The creative directors who worked in other countries and traveled abroad frequently were given the highest marks.

However, this does not mean traveling to more places will automatically make you more creative, it means reducing your amount of time in any given place. This can be smaller scale from office to coffee shop, or from city to city. What happens is that a deeper understanding of each culture allows us to have higher levels of creative knowledge.

Another benefit of traveling was confirmed by the psychologist and professor, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, who said various studies show that the ability to get out of your comfort zone social comfort and connect with different people helps you have a stronger idea of yourself.

Culture and Experience

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How different the culture is to their own may also play a role. Galinsky and his team discovered that living in a place with great cultural differences to their own often leads to more creativity than traveling to similar cultures. The reason, experts say is that an exaggeratedly different society forces people to adapt to the world around them.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, associate professor of education and psychology at the University of Southern California, said that inter cultural experiences have the potential to strengthen the sense of self of an individual.

In short, make friends, learn about other cultures, religions, new stories and adventures are the seed of our creativity.

Steemians, would love to hear about a travel experience (or lack of) that has changed you!