Wondering what could be the connection between travelling and Vanappu, the site’s name? The term 'Vanappu' means 'beauty'. Life becomes beautiful when we follow healthy ways to lead a healthy life - that includes practicing yoga and other exercise forms, having a healthy diet, seeking solution in natural remedies for various health conditions, leading a stress-free life, following an all-inclusive approach in life and of course travel. Travel was an essential part of ancient men, a part that was a necessity for their very survival.
Ancient man travelled to various parts of the world after overcoming hardships and populated earth. He migrated from one place to another when the place he lived was short of water and food resources. Unfriendly climatic conditions during seasonal changes also caused early man to migrate. To sum up, survival was the basic reason for ancient man’s travel from place to place.
Cultivating lands changed the lifestyle of ancient man who settled down in one place and associated himself, inclusive of his culture, tradition and the lifestyle of his race with his land.
The life of ancient man was filled with challenges. Once he was short of resources he had to migrate; he knew what he was leaving behind and also knew what he was seeking but he was not aware of where he will find what he was after; neither was he fully aware of the dimensions of the risks that were an integral part of such migrations. Still, he had to travel, had to migrate to survive. Such traveling broadened ancient men’s perspective of life, developed their wisdom, sharpened their survival skills and strengthened them as a race.
The necessity behind ancient man’s travels acquired various dimensions over centuries and even today, travel is being a necessity for man and very essential for his soul.
Why is Travel Important for Mankind?
Travel educates man. We may learn about the world map, countries, their capitals and about oceans, high mountains and ice-covered landmasses in our school books. But our childhood memories of traveling to our grandmother’s home during every holiday give us memories of a lifetime and lets us have practical lessons.
It may be the same town, same home, same trees but more taller, same friends from neighbourhood, same orchards and parks, old cricket bat and a super old cricket ball. It may be the same types of games with paper boats and all. Those were also the times we had lunch with friends from neighbourhood, sky-gazed and fell asleep never completing counting of stars even once and woke up with the rising of sun. Those wonderful experiences gained by traveling to our grandma’s place can never be equalled by what we learn from school.
Why does traveling even if it is to the same place during every holiday give an experience that we cherish throughout our life? It is because we take a break from our routine life, which sets our mind free, broadens our perspective, boosts our creativity, makes us enthusiastic and happy. This gives us the energy to return to our routine life after our holidays. If the same destination can give us such an amazing experience, what it will be like to experience landing in new destinations? How encouraging will it be and how enthusiastic will we be? What a great wealth of knowledge will we acquire!
Other Major Benefits of Travel
Travel is not just about the destination. Starting from home before the break of dawn, enjoying every moment of the sunrise, looking to stop for breakfast and after a while searching for a coffee shop to sip a hot cup of coffee and stretch our legs, listening to music as you keep chatting with your fellow travellers and taking in the beauty of natural sceneries as you move, all these are the very essence of traveling.
Train and bus travel captivate our minds likewise. Unlike as in car and bike journeys, in trains and buses you get to mingle with people who are complete strangers. This makes the journey more interesting.
Various factors have to be considered before choosing to drive on our own and traveling by train or bus. Each type of travel can be interesting in more ways than we can imagine. Self-driving gives us more freedom in terms of traveling; we can change our destinations and halt in an unplanned location, which we find so compelling. Trains, on the other hand, do not let us get off mid-station just because we had sudden change of plans. However, true travel minds do not find this a great hurdle as they can always get down in the next station and choose a different mode of travel to reach their new destination. Bus travels across various cities and villages and we get the feeling of being connected throughout. Bus journey, in its own way can be very interesting and rewarding provided you choose the bus that offers the best comfort.
A good number of people travel for the sake of visiting places and enjoying views. Their travel will have a list of to-do and they mostly follow it to the dot. Some travel to bond with nature. They indulge in physical activities including trekking, walking along beaches, swimming, diving and rowing. The adventure seekers love the element of risk in their travel and all stand to gain some common benefits.
Some of the benefits of travel include:
Travel Educates
Travel helps to acquire knowledge about different places, countries, languages and culture. The challenges we face while traveling boost our problems solving skills. Right from planning a journey to returning home, travel has endless experiences to offer. Experience is the best teacher, right?
Promotes Health
As mentioned above, our mind gets ready to experience all the goodness of travel and this in turn tunes the body to adapt to the changes in diet. This naturally boosts our immune function. Even foods that we tend to avoid at home find their way into our stomach while on travel without side effects. This is the result of happy state of mind.
As travel involves physical activities including walking and trekking, heart and lung function improve. The happiness we experience while on travel promotes positive attitude and thoughts which in turn positively impact our physical health.
Promotes Mind Health
Travel relieves stress. It brings out the child in everyone and makes us involved in fun-filled activities which we would never dream of doing in our day to day life. All these make our worries disappear and fill our minds with happiness.
Makes Us Humble
Travel makes us realize how insignificantly small we are in this vast universe. Humble mind crosses barriers and embraces all. This trait helps to associate ourselves with other cultures and languages in the most constructive manner.
Boosts Self-Confidence
Travel boosts self-confidence. Visiting new places, talking to strangers and speaking in languages that we hardly know anything about without apprehension boosts our self-confidence. Handling unexpected situations while on travel also promotes self-confidence. So does gaining new friends while on travel to a distant land.
Shapes Personality
Travel shapes our personality. It develops trust in others particularly since we will be going to unknown lands and communicating with complete strangers. It helps to handle with clarity of thought any situation that may arise while traveling. Interacting with new persons gets easier. Communication skills improve. Approaching everything with an open mind comes by naturally.
Apart from all the above, travel sends us to self-assessment mode. Travel gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate our mental makeup and thought processes. We gain new perspective of life and our horizons expand. We also develop acceptance.
In this materialistic world, none of the assets that we own can give the happiness, experience and memories that a travel can give.
It was work for a living a few decades ago; now things have so changed that it feels like one lives only to work. Family, relatives, friends, socializing, bonding with nature, all that was considered the essence of life took a back seat when earning started topping the list of priorities. We fill our lives with electronic gadgets and expensive items and interact with them hoping to find happiness. With all these, we live but we fail to enjoy life.
Travel gives us a break from routine. It gives us the opportunity to decide our destination and involve our mind in ways to achieve it. Travel brings out the best in us as we befriend others on the way, trust people and experience beautiful moments. Travel makes us enjoy and bond with nature. These are the reasons why we love travelling.
Hence, traveling is not just going places. Travel rejuvenates our body, mind and soul and beautifies the person in us. Travel makes us happier. It elevates our mental state of mind and brings out the inner beauty of mankind.
Every journey is a new experience
Every journey is an interesting story in itself
Every journey is an education
Every journey is a beginning
Every journey is an answer
Every journey is a chapter in our lives.
Let us create opportunities for opportunities may not keep knocking at our doors. Let us make a beginning even if the travel is to the adjacent town.
In the coming days, starting from Chennai, we will come up with important places to visit. Stay connected, pack your bags and keep moving.
Special thanks to my husband Thamizharasu for offering certain suggestions to improvise the content.
Rama Thamizharasu
Welcome to yogaaatral. I am a yoga therapist, SEO consultant, writer and translator. If you love pets, we invite you to visit our pet blog @ https://voiceofapet.blogspot.com/ and our YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/@PetsDiaryandMomsToo
