The Mental Health Benefits of Meaningful Travel
- Sasha Javadpour
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
The moment your foot hits unfamiliar soil—or perhaps, deeply familiar soil after years away—something inside you shifts. You breathe differently. You see more vividly. You begin to notice how the rhythm of life elsewhere moves at a different tempo, how people greet one another, how light falls on buildings, trees, and streets. In travel, we don’t just move through space—we enter a new psychological landscape, and with it, an opportunity to reconnect with something often buried by routine: Ourselves.
As a counsellor, I often support people through the process of rediscovering themselves by creating a space for reflection, exploration, and contemplation. Travel, too, can be a kind of therapy. Not because it “fixes” anything, but because it opens up space. Space to feel. To reflect. To explore longings. To remember who you were before the noise of everyday life drowned you out.
In this article:
Why Travel Can Be Good for Your Mental Health
Modern life is relentless. Whether it’s the grind of work, the isolation of digital life, or the sense of being stuck in patterns we can’t name, many people find themselves disconnected from others, from nature, and from themselves. Travel disrupts those patterns. It introduces novelty, awe, and perspective – all powerful antidotes to anxiety, burnout, and even depression.
Research supports this. Travelling has been linked to improved mood, lower stress levels, and increased creativity. Being in a new environment naturally draws us into the present moment. You can’t auto-pilot your way through a winding village road in the Alps or a bustling market in Bavaria. You have to be there in the here and now. You have to pay attention.
You have to feel.
In many ways, that’s exactly what therapy helps us do: become more present with ourselves and more attuned to what matters.
When Travel Becomes a Homecoming
For me personally, travel holds a very specific meaning. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany. It was my first home. When I moved to Singapore, I carried Germany with me like a secret language – a quiet, internal compass that still points me back to who I was before I learned to adapt, blend in, and belong elsewhere.
Going back to Germany as an adult isn’t just a holiday – it’s a return to self. The Black Forest offers me a quiet kind of magic, with its dense woods and winding trails that feel untouched by time. Berchtesgaden, with its towering Alpine peaks and sweeping mountain vistas, takes my breath away every time. Standing among those snow-dusted cliffs, the world below so small, there’s a clarity that arrives, like something inside me lifts and exhales.
And then there’s Frankfurt. Often reduced to its reputation as a financial hub, the city has far more to offer. It is fast-paced, yes, but also full of energy and character—diverse food, cutting-edge art, a skyline that pulses with ambition, and pockets of warmth and familiarity that only locals really know. For me, it’s the backdrop of childhood memories, reunions with old friends, and conversations with my father over good bread and strong coffee. It’s where the past and present collide in ways that feel electric.
In therapy, we often explore how our past continues to shape us. Sometimes we find healing by understanding it, other times by returning to it—not to stay stuck, but to reclaim what was good, meaningful, or lost.
Travel that connects us to our origins can be profoundly therapeutic in this way. It helps us integrate where we’ve come from with who we’ve become.
Travel as a Mirror: Who Are You When You're Away?
One of the most surprising things about travel is how it changes not just your surroundings, but your sense of identity. You might find yourself more spontaneous, more open, more joyful. You might rediscover forgotten passions or experience a kind of aliveness you haven’t felt in years.
It’s not that the “travel version” of you is a fantasy. It’s that certain environments permit us to be more ourselves. When we strip away the expectations of our usual lives, we begin to see what truly nourishes us. That might be a quiet morning coffee in a sunlit square. Or walking for hours in nature. Or having deeper conversations with people you have just met.
Travel gives us access to different versions of ourselves, and some of those versions are worth bringing home.
Therapy and Travel: A Shared Journey
You might think of travel and therapy as unrelated. But at their best, both are invitations to step outside the familiar, to reflect, to reconnect, and to choose more intentionally how we want to live. Both can help us move through emotional stuckness. Both require courage, presence, and curiosity.
At Hirsch Therapy, we help clients map their inner world with the same wonder and openness that travel inspires. We ask: what are the places in you that feel forgotten, unvisited, uninhabited? What kind of life would feel more aligned with your values, your longings, your story?
Whether it’s a trip back to your hometown or an adventure across the world, travel, like therapy, can be a way of coming home to yourself.
Final Thoughts
The world is vast, and so are you. Every place you visit adds a new thread to the fabric of your identity. And sometimes, the most powerful journeys aren’t about seeing new places, but seeing old ones with new eyes.
If you’re feeling disconnected, burnt out, or unsure of who you are anymore, maybe it’s time to take a journey. And if you’re ready to explore your inner landscape more deeply, therapy can help guide that process.
You don't have to choose between exploring the world and exploring yourself. In fact, the two often go hand in hand.