"Surely traveling is more than just sightseeing, it's a profound and permanent change on how to live" - Miriam Beard.
Man from birth, we can say he is a traveler. The most important journey that man does with the body, the mind and the soul is life itself.
Ever since ancient times, man has migrated. The underlying needs of migration were those of survival dictated by the need for food and the avoidance of dangers (war, slavery, natural disasters). With the discovery of the means of transport, man crossed the air, the sea and the dry land, in the desire to discover new territories, cultures and civilizations.
From the thematic expeditions, business and knowledge trips to today's tourism was just one step. As travel becomes more efficient, how to travel has become easier, accessible and enjoyable to people.
When people travel freely to move, think, act, give the right to renounce old patterns and open up new opportunities for understanding and knowledge.
Emotional targets of the traveler
To dream of a trip, people have certain emotional needs, motivations and expectations. The most important and often encountered emotional goals of the "traveler" are:
Knowing new territories belonging to other cultures; Experimenting with the specific culinary diversity of the place;
Encountering relics of ancient civilizations;
Experiencing new emotions and experiences; Enriching spiritual life
Adventure and entertainment; Relaxation and revival
The need for change, to leave something behind, the removal from stressful and unpleasant situations;
The choice of destinations is based on the personality and needs of the tourist. Travel is the kind of activity that stimulates the individual's inventiveness and adaptability. Adaptability is a feature of normality in mental health, being a natural and normal way of changing something in the lifestyle.
Benefits to the psyche
Starting from the needs, expectations and motivations of people who choose to travel, we can select a range of benefits to the psyche:
Increasing autonomy determined by the freedom to make its own choices;
Reducing intrapsychic or interpersonal conflicts (if any) by changing the environment;
Recovery after a stressful period;
Physical, cognitive and affective relaxation;
Developing new relationships, using communication and social skills;
Boosting motivational capacity through deliberate and enjoyable actions;
Reward for work done or for various achievements;
Meeting the needs of novelty, knowledge, experiencing new experiences with pleasant emotional load;
Posting and relieving certain responsibilities and pressures of certain social roles;
Increased self-esteem by generating and managing new, unforeseen situations, solving challenges in an unfamiliar, unknown environment.
Source: My Doctor Magazine - Rodica Stoican (Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist)
