How Travel Changes Your Brain

AGGIE’S STORY

• Was working a corporate job in Australia, then had a midlife crisis. She bought a boat on eBay and flew to Mexico to pick it up, despite never having sailed before, and had to learn over the course of sailing for a year.
• Sailing taught her thought management and self-belief: “it’s up to me whether I can survive or not.”
• She developed certainty and belief from within, even when the environment didn’t support that.
• Sailing changed her idea of what brainpower is. Previously, brainpower had meant remembering 500 numbers or remembering the most at university like the smart kids. She wasn’t familiar with the idea of brainpower being used to survive.

BRAIN BENEFITS OF TRAVELLING 

• Traveling makes you ask questions and avoid assumptions. You stop taking things for granted and learn to analyze patterns.
• Traveling triggers growth, wonder, and fascination, all of which benefit your brain.
• You’re constantly put in new, novel situations which you have to try to figure out, and it provides a reminder that there is no right or wrong way to do things.
• Traveling made Aggie want to live by design not default, and ask “what is normal? How do I want to live my life? What’s the norm for me?”
• Classrooms can be found not just within walls, but also when you cross borders.

AGGIE’S TRAVEL ADVICE

• You can check out Aggie’s TED talk here
• Be resourceful, and be patient with yourself. Whatever your comfort zone is, step outside of it.
• Talk to locals. Ask them 5 questions about their culture, ask them to teach you a word.
• Getting out of your own routine is useful in itself. You don’t have to travel across the world, you can take micro trips: take a day, a weekend to reset and recreate yourself. You can travel across your city, state, or country.
• You can try changing one thing about your morning routine.
• Putting ourselves in a new environment can make us conscious and self-aware again.

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• Don’t forget to take a screenshot of this episode, tag us both on social media (@aggie & @jimkwik) and share your favorite place you’ve ever been, and the place you most want to go with us!