Why Travel Is The Perfect Cure For A Broken Heart
Breakups. Whether your relationship lasted five years or five months, whether you were the heartbreaker or the heartbroken, it’s never an easy time.
Everyone has their own way of dealing with a broken heart; eating ice cream and crying to Adele in your room, or trying to distract yourself with cocktails and dancing with your girlfriends. There’s no right way to do it.
But one thing can help in a big way: traveling. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that it’s the perfect salve for a broken heart.
Here are just some great reasons why travel can help the heartbroken — and why we think it’s one of the best cures out there:
It’s a pretty awesome distraction
One of the big problems with dealing with a breakup is the constant looking back. You’ll find yourself dwelling on the past — mentally revisiting your relationship, trying to figure out what went wrong and if the signs were there the whole time. It’s hard not to replay your breakup over and over, even though you know you’re just making yourself sad and angry.
Travel is a great distraction from unhealthy wallowing and obsessively fixating on what went wrong. When you’re traveling, you have no choice, really — you’re constantly on the move, meeting new people, trying fun things, eating delicious new food… It’s a truly immersive experience, and there’s no time for wondering what your ex is doing right now.
Plus, the chances you’re going to bump into your ex are basically non-existent — and this physical distance, as well as mental distance, gives you time and space to heal.
You’ll find confidence and reconnect with yourself
When you’re going through a breakup or trying to recover from one, you’re probably feeling low, stressed, and out of sync. Your main source of affirmation was your partner, and when your heart has been broken, your confidence and self-belief take a hit as well.
When your self-worth is attached to somebody else, you. But as relationship coach Orion Talmay of Orion’s Method says, “YOU are the most important person. You are worthy of your dreams, and of love.”
Traveling can help you find your confidence again. It’s honestly one of the most empowering and confidence-boosting things you can do in your life. After all, you’re throwing yourself out of your comfort zone, and this means being strong, brave, and independent. Sometimes, we don’t really realize that these qualities are there until we push ourselves into challenging situations, like taking a flight on our own for the first time or arriving on a group tour without knowing a soul.
Travel creates new memories
Getting over your ex and moving on can be so hard when your brain is full of memories of the two of you together. These memories can surface out of nowhere — triggered by a song, or a place or a smell — and create overwhelming feelings of sadness and loss.
Traveling is the perfect opportunity to create some new and amazing memories without your ex; whether you’re traveling with friends or going solo, you’ll have some unforgettable experiences along the way.
The good times you’ll have will take you further away from the sadness of your breakup, and soon your painful memories will be replaced with happier ones. Be sure to take plenty of photos during your trip too, then you can print them out and stick them on your walls when you get home to remind you of all the amazing adventures you had when you were away.
You’ll meet new people + form new friendships
Whether you’re going away for a few days or a few months, traveling with others, or setting out on your own, you’ll meet tons of new people along the way.
Meeting new people is one of the best things about traveling — you’ll make new friends from all walks of life and share some incredible experiences (and bond over them). Even if you only spend a few days with them or you just meet them on a tour, these people add something special to your traveling adventure, and you could end up connecting on another level and forming a lifelong friendship.
If anything, it just goes to prove that there are so many awesome people out there that are just waiting for you to meet them — and this is far more exciting than pining after your ex. Who knows, one of them may be the love of your life...
But you’ll also learn how to be alone again
If you’ve been in a relationship for a long time, it’s hard to imagine — and live — a life without your ex. You’ve spent so long together that your lives are intertwined. And once you’ve broken up, it can be incredibly difficult to untangle yourself and forge a life on your own without them.
This is where travel can help. Traveling — especially solo — forces you to learn to be alone again and pushes you towards independence. You’ll have to make decisions for yourself without the fallback of your partner and get used to arriving at a new destination without knowing anyone at all.
Solo traveling can be tough, but it can be fun, empowering, and incredibly freeing. By traveling on your own, you’ll learn to be comfortable with your own company, trust yourself, and appreciate the peace and clarity that is on your own brings. Best of all, you’ll be taking steps towards healing your broken heart all by yourself.
