For a More Creative Brain, Travel!
There are plenty of things to be gained from travelling: new friends, new experiences, new stories. But travelling may come with a less noticeable benefit too: Some scientists say it can also make you more creative.
It has long been believed by both writers and thinkers that travel benefits the creative process. Ernest Hemingway, for example, drew inspiration for much of his work from his time in Spain and France. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, moved from the U.K. to the U.S. in his 40s to start screenwriting. Having sailed around the coast of the Mediterranean in 1869, Mark Twain wrote that travel is “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
In more recent times, psychologists have started to examine the phenomenon which many have already learned anecdotally: travelling may potentially alter the mental mind. In general, creativity is related to neuroplasticity, or how the brain is wired. Neural pathways are influenced and habit. What this points to is that they’re also responsive to alter: new smells, new by environment sounds, new tastes, different language, sights and sensations ignite various synapses in the brain. In this way, they may revitalize the mind. But don’t get it wrong.... if you go to Amsterdam, for instance, and don’t venture out from the comforts of your hotel, there might not be a significant change in your creativity levels. However, if you go and engage the locals in a conversation and cycle around the city, you’ll probably notice a difference!
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page,” said St. Augustine. So get out there! In the not so distant future, it is predicted that you may be more broaden by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Explore. Dream. Discover.