My therapist told me to have at least one holiday every year. Because I have annual leave twice a year (two weeks each time), I’m able to enjoy international travel quite frequently. In this blog article, I’m going to share with you how travel has improved my health.
- Travel gives us access to more natural sunlight.
Many years ago, my doctor gave me liquid Vitamin D because I didn’t have enough Vitamin D in my body. But I obviously shouldn’t take liquid Vitamin D in the long term, so the doctor’s recommendation is to get more natural sunlight so that my body can produce more Vitamin D automatically.
Unfortunately, the modern culture has taught us why we shouldn’t get more natural sunlight:
1) If we want to look youthful for longer, we should avoid sunlight and wear sunscreen.
2) If we want to protect our skin and avoid skin cancer, we should avoid sunlight and wear shirts with long sleeves & cover our neck with a scarf.
No wonder so many people are avoiding sunlight nowadays. They think they are protecting themselves.
But it’s actually a matter of how you leverage sunlight – there is a right way and a wrong way to access natural sunlight.
If you go out without sunscreen between 10am and 2pm on a sunny day, that’s the wrong way to access sunlight, especially when you spend a long time outside.
However, if you go out before 9am or after 4pm on a sunny day & you only spend 25 minutes maximum in the sunlight, that’s totally fine. In fact, that helps you sleep better at night and your body will produce more Vitamin D as well.
Since I love international travel, I often go to places where I can enjoy the beach. While I’m lying down on the beach, I would use a wet towel to cover my face and feel natural sunlight on my skin for 20 minutes in the morning. That’s the most healing activity in my life.
- The luxury of waking up without an alarm clock.
Personally, the most beautiful part of international travel is I can wake up without an alarm clock. That’s right. I don’t travel with anyone. I like traveling alone and manage my own schedule.
Waking up without an alarm clock is a healthy habit because that means I get enough sleep every night, which is very, very important to my health and wellbeing.
Usually, after I wake up without an alarm clock during a trip, I simply work on my laptop for a few hours and then go out for brunch. After brunch, I visit places of interest and explore everything I discover.
“International travel is very good for your health because it gives you more natural sunlight, more sleep and more physical activities!”
