Why do we sometimes feel like ‘we really need a vacation’? It’s not just because it’s enjoyable – it is also good for your brain.
Vacations do wonders for your creativity. That’s partly thanks to the relaxation that a vacation brings. If you give your brain time and space, you arrive at new insights. In his recent book about what effect traveling has on us, Dutch psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis quotes the German writer Thomas Mann:
‘Traveling removes people from their obligations, interests, worries, prospects. Traveling awakens oblivion […] by separating people with their whole person from relations they maintain and bringing them into a state of freedom that is of their own origin.’ But you don’t have to travel to the end of the world to reset your brain. Research shows that vacations to closer-by destinations also lead to more creative thinking. However, a journey farther afield does often lead to more sparks of inspiration.
- Find more about travelling (with a camper-van) in Issue 29.
Text Jocelyn de Kwant Photography Timothy Meinberg/Unsplash.com
