| The Psychological Advantages of International Travel | | Print | |
| Thursday, 29 April 2010 02:30 |
Travel…Inspires Creativity The wild imaginings of the “inner child” go remarkably unexplored in the lives of most adults. We become stuck because we are looking without imagination. Experiencing negative stress in a too- hectic environment is a sure obstacle to creativity. Travel brings creative recovery that can open blocks that have prevented us from seeing possibilities.When you’re relaxed and in a new stimulating environment, you can visualize possibilities. The muse shows up and magically you begin to see the world dance from a new lens. As you surround yourself with diverse and ever changing stimuli your world will change. The abandoned creative child in you can come out with fresh energized ideas and insatiable curiosity. Travel exercises your creative ability and jolts you from the routine rut you were in. When we stay too long in one environment we find that nothing feeds our senses and we become blind to the amazing around us. For example, as we speak, I have piles of work projects on the floor of my office. You’d think they were invisible, as my eyes barely notice and my brain has long forgotten what’s stashed there. My mind had become numb in this habitual environment by no longer sparking my senses. An interesting form of creativity is inventing new ways to use your body language to communicate. Let’s say that you’re in Greece, you’re lost and you don’t know the language. You really need help and your partner is still spitting at the map. You quickly realize that you’ll need to use your improvisational skills. Smiling, you pull out your Greek for Beginners book and perfectly as you please you begin to pro-nun-ci-ate. Alas, you notice the right eye brow on the face of your new Greek friend go up and that dear in the headlight stare appear on his face. Oh, the challenge and oh the trying! You have been given your imagination to create things. Creativity expert Paul Torrance said that: “Truly creative people do not overwork because of power or money…the creative individual is unable to stop working because he can’t stop thinking. To him, there is nothing more enjoyable than work in which he can use his creative powers.” Imagination is therapy because people who stay enchanted with life do not burn out. When you travel you’re five times more likely to observe synchronistic events. You’re in the flow and surprised to discover that even a third world country can offer you a genius idea. For me, it feels like the muse has plugged me into an electrical socket. By expanding perspective and moving out of our habitual life, we naturally become more creative. What’s more, greater creativity breed’s greater happiness. We’re in the flow. Travel offers you a brand new portfolio of full-color images, not only for freshly inspired designs, but for the enhancement of the unique way you see beauty in the world. The textures, sounds, images and passion in your brains portfolio is growing, and what is recovered is a sense of possibility. Did you see that? Wow, we could do that! This same flow can solve problems and wake us up to an exciting new direction for ourselves- allowing us to grow beyond what we already know. A Stroke of Genius! A Revolutionary Idea! |