If you’re a busy career woman and you’re having trouble figuring out where your work life ends and your personal affairs begin, it’s time to take a break and go traveling. In a CNN.com article entitled, “Why Your Brain Needs Vacations,” author Elizabeth Landau quotes Adam Galinsky, professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, who says stepping back from a familiar environment is good for you because it helps you gain new insights on daily living. The best way to do this is through traveling. “Consider that when you get advice from a friend, his or her suggestions are often more creative than what you would have decided for yourself—and scientific studies have confirmed this,” Landau explains. “That's because your friend has psychological distance from the situation at hand. When you're in the middle of a problem, it's sometimes hard to untangle yourself from it to think about it clearly.” This is the reason why people who travel often have “epiphanies,” she adds, as it allows them to look at their lives from an outsider’s point of view.
While, according to Galinsky's research, living abroad can do wonders for your creative thinking, you don’t necessarily have to travel far to gain some perspective. Merely leave the confines of your home and stay somewhere you've never been to before, like a small rest house in the province or even a fancy hotel room in an unfamiliar city. Be aware of your surroundings, study the locals, and let yourself experience something new. When you return home, you’ll be brimming with new things you learned about yourself, and you’ll be ready to face a new day.
[Click here to read about the other mental benefits of vacation time on CNN.com]
Need ideas for places to travel to? Check these out on FN:
- Travelers’ Tales: Pangasinan at a Glance
- Travelers' Tales: Discovering Calapan City and Naujan in Oriental Mindoro
- Travelers’ Tales: Wandering in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro
- Travelers' Tales: Road Trip to the Heritage City of Vigan
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(Photo source: sxc.hu)
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