Traveling the world can be beneficial for our mind and body especially if we set our intention to it. Of course, intentions are personal and specific to each person but setting an intention will help manifesting what we would like in our life. For example, when we set our intention to improving our well-being on a trip, it gives us a direction to head to both when planning the trip and during it.
Now one might wonder, what can we do to improve our well-being during the trip? There are many paths we can take. We can all benefit from a greater contact with nature. Making room for experiencing and engaging with nature both during our travels and in our daily life is one way to improve our quality of life. Some of the travel industry works to connect people to nature but providing the transport to beaches, forests or mountains is only the first step, it does not mean that it will give the best health benefits of experiencing nature.
To reap the benefits, we can increase our engagement with nature. More contact with nature is not only good for our health and well-being but also for our planet as it seems to increase pro-nature behaviors. Environmentally friendly actions might even give us a positive feedback where protecting nature gives us good feelings which results in even greater benefits for us.
Now how can we connect with nature? There are different ways that we can connect with nature, here below are a few examples:
- Attention – Pay attention to the bird singing in the tree, the plants movement with the wind, the bumblebee flying by or stop and smell the flower that crosses your path.
- Connect – eat wild plants and berries/fruits (please make sure that they are edible), use natural objects to create art, spend time watching an animal live its life, explore a wild place (if you don´t have the knowledge to do so on your own please bring a local guide), walk barefoot in nature, make a flower chain, meditate/do yoga somewhere in the wild, close your eyes listen and feel the world around you.
- Reflection – Note down or think about how the nature experience made you feel, what can you learn from it and what is the value of nature.
- Activities – Participate in activities that that benefit nature, go out plogging, volunteer at a conservation program, pick up garbage/trash that crosses your path, reduce the waste your produce, reuse or re-purpose items and recycle.
Travelling gives us great opportunities to gain the positive benefits that we´ve discussed. Most of us don’t have to worry about work while travelling, therefore we can use our time to try out new ways to connect with nature and experiment what can potentially benefit our well-being. The positive impacts can be remarkable if we learn from it and implement into our daily life.
Connect with nature because we all benefit <3
