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Why travel broadens the mind and improves your capacity to learn

We’re coming to the end of the school summer holidays in the UK. Many of us have been lucky enough to go away for a week or two. Whether holidaying in a tent by the English seaside or venturing somewhere more exotic; traveling and getting out of our everyday situation has unexpected added benefits for our brains.

For many years, scientists believed that brain structure was pretty much fixed by the time a person reached adulthood. It’s only relatively recently that it’s been shown that the brain has the ability to change and grow new neural pathways throughout our lives. This concept is known as neuroplasticity.

This ability to form new brain connections is vital for learning new skills. Organisations and indeed, societies, have an urgent need to reskill and upskill people so that we are ready to meet all the challenges of the modern world. 

The World Economic Forum estimates that in the next five years, 23% of global jobs will change due to industry transformation from technological change, geoeconomic trends and the green transition. In order to create employees who are ready for all these big challenges and ready to learn the new skills that will be needed, organisations need to encourage activities that help neuroplasticity. 

One of these activities is travel (or having a holiday). Usually seen as a benefit for the employee, rather than for the organisation, encouraging employees to take a break can reap rewards in terms of their creativity and ability and readiness to learn. As well as improving  employees' wellbeing, it can be very positive for the business as well. 

So, how does travel improve our brains?:

1. Releases dopamine - Even just planning a trip can increase the dopamine in our brains. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which acts as a reward-centre in our brains and plays an important role in learning and memory. The right amount of dopamine can make you feel happy, motivated, alert and focussed - ready to learn and experience new things.
2. Enhances creativity - Travel broadens our perspectives and exposes us to new experiences and ideas. This stretching of our mental comfort zone enhances our ability to do creative work. According to Harvard Professor, Shelley H Carson, being bombarded by sensory stimuli on all sides, such as when you travel to a new place or spend time in nature, defocuses attention and disinhibits cognition, allowing us to come up with more creative solutions. 
3. Improves problem solving - successfully navigating travel delays, language barriers and finding your way around somewhere new can all build resilience and help us feel more comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. Certainly something employees need to be in today’s turbulent business environment.
4. Protects against decline - According to Michael Merzenich - a world authority on brain plasticity - getting outside your comfort zone, experiencing the unfamiliar and the resultant growth in brain connections, can also protect against cognitive decline and diseases such as Alzheimers and dementia. 
5. Boosts mental health - travel allows us to break free of routine and responsibilities, make and reinforce social connections, reduce stress, improve self-confidence and enhance our overall well-being. After a break, I always feel more relaxed and much more full of energy and ideas on my return to work.

What else can L&D do to encourage neuroplasticity?:

1. Allow for challenge - In L&D we’ve known for a long time that making things too easy in a learning experience doesn’t result in change that sticks. Encouraging people to step outside their comfort zones and try new things will help create new neural pathways.
2. Build in practice - repetition and reinforcement are key to strengthening those new pathways and helping new skills become embedded.
3. Encourage mindfulness - studies from Harvard and University of Naples have shown that practices such as meditation may be able to induce brain plasticity and create increased gray matter density in the hippocampus, which is important for learning and memory.

In today’s rapidly changing world, we desperately need employees who are able to learn and adapt quickly, come up with creative solutions, be open-minded and ready to address urgent challenges. Instead of seeing holidays as disruptive to the business, we can, instead, see them as part of a package of measures to encourage neuroplasticity and be looking at what else we can do to help our employees' brains be future-fit. 

Now that you have the scientific evidence, you can go and ask your boss for time off for a holiday - after all, it’s in their best interest 😉