Forget about lazy holidays: adventure is what your brain really needs

Kasper Desmet
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Chances are you’re reading this on a faraway island, shaded with palm trees, you yourself splayed atop a red-and-white striped beach mat. This could mean either of two things.

  1. You’re recompensing yourself for a year’s worth of to do lists and meetings with a well-deserved time-out. You love islands. You will go home bearing tan lines and souvenirs. But most importantly, you will go home relaxed. Good. Go and have another strawberry daiquiri. We’re proud of you.
  2. So why are you spending your lazing days in the sun reading this here blog post? Are you having a hard time saying goodbye to your screen? Are you ‘reading some email, real quick’ before breakfast? You know, ‘just so you’re not completely out of touch’. Basically you’re dreading the thought of coming home and having to spend your entire Monday morning scrolling through emails, therefore annihilating any feelings of post-holiday zen-ness within 24 hours after touch-down. ‘How was your holiday?’ ‘Mostly lacking long-term effect.’

Vacation hormones?

Yes, Summer holidays are for barbecuing and snorkelling, fifty shades of sunburn, maybe a tiny tourist trap and, well, maybe a little too much time defined as cocktail o’clock. In short, vacations are for fun — you might even say happiness. You wouldn’t be mistaken: in a 2009 study, Canadian researchers Joudrey and Wallace reported that ‘active’ leisure vacationing helps to buffer or ameliorate job stress among a sample of almost 900 lawyers.

But that’s ‘active vacationing’ we are talking about. So no vegging out lizard-style in order to approximate a leather-like tan? Well, no. Research shows that immersing yourself in new cultures and discovering new places makes your brain fizz with enthusiasm. Leaving your comfort zone and diving head-first into the unknown makes your brain sharp as a tack: these new impulses create new synapses, which count as physical proof of the experiences you’ve had and the people you’ve bonded with. In turn, this releases serotonin, also know as the ‘happiness hormone’.

Creativity boost

The benefits of going on a bit of an adventure instead of just being glued to your beach chair, go well beyond the fuzzy warm feelings of happiness, though. Adam Galinsky, professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, has found that being away from your daily humdrum sparks creativity. “Not just taking time off from work, but actually getting away from where you live is really important, because that’s the only way that you can achieve perspective.” Galinsky said. Just like when you can’t wrap your head around a problem, it’s often helpful to ask a friend for advice. Having some distance to the situation provides clarity and creates room for new sorts of solutions.

In a similar way, being abroad sharpens your self-image. William Maddux, who conducted the research alongside Galinsky, found that “traveling makes people have a more nuanced understanding of themselves, while at the same time they also have a better sense of who they are.” Things become even more interesting for people living abroad, the research shows. “People walking around with two types of cultures in their heads approach solutions more creatively,” Maddux states. However, no need to move to another continent.

“If you want to get the benefits of living abroad while vacationing, the key is to try to understand the world through the locals’ perspective,” he says.

Go ahead, take action

So here’s something to think about: what to do with your holidays that could surpass pure relaxation and recharge your brain with some energy that will last. It doesn’t have to be much. Wander into an unknown side-street. Buy a local a drink. Or stay by the pool and do some more thinking while watching Stefan Stagmeister explain why he trades in his New York studio for a sabbatical year — every seven years. Next, ask yourself why your next holiday wouldn’t take the shape of a week-long retreat in Colombia, making your synapses sizzle.

Care to take a breather? Reload and power up?

Read more about Re-Treated in Colombia

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