When I think about traveling the first thing that comes to my mind are the family vacations in Europe my family does every year as long as I can remember. I associate summer with going to Italy or France, Winter with skiing in Austria or Switzerland and Fall with staying at the German coast. But what does traveling really mean to me? What does traveling mean to all of us? Nowadays I think traveling is often seen as something „Insta worthy“, it didn’t happen if it isn’t uploaded on Instagram. And of course I do this too. I do post my travel pictures for my friends to see and I love to look at their’s but I still feel like sometimes we should take a step back and think about why we are actually traveling and what benefits it brings to ourselves. We are not traveling for anyone else right? Traveling actually affects our mental health in a very positive way as explained in this article (insert link here). By breaking out of our routine our brains get to rest but not too much. They are still challenged by all the new impressions, food, music etc. we see everyday when we are in a different country or even just in a different city. Our brains get challenged in a good way and at the same time we are getting some rest. While traveling we can learn a lot about different cultures. My family went to Italy during summer when I was about eight years old and I remember having to go into literally every museum, church or monument. At that young age my parents often had to win me and my sister over with some ice cream to get us into the next attraction or on the next walk through the old cities. But I also remember that we started talking about the artists and the buildings I saw that year a couple years later in school. And I remembered a lot more about it than I expected. The older I got the more interested in other cultures I got and I was looking forward more and more to our family vacations and not only because of the ice cream, but because of all the different impressions I got and all the new things I tried and saw. It was pure excitement and it still is. Whenever we travel to a new place we get to experience so many new things. And not just that, we can also get to know new people, maybe even find new friends. And that’s, in my view, the best part about traveling. Traveling must not always be expensive. I feel like when you’re traveling on a budget, your experiences can sometimes even be better. My cousin made an Interrail Trip through Europe this summer, he stayed in cheap hostels, spend a lot of time in trains and even had a rat in his room in Paris, but when he came back at the end of summer, he told everyone that it had been the best trip of his life. He travelled with two of his friends, but they got to know many new people, they are still in touch with. I had a similar experience a few months ago. I travelled to the German coast and stayed in a really tiny village with five of my friends and even though the time we spend in multiple trains and busses nearly felt as long as the time we actually stayed at the little house and there was literally nothing going on in the village the whole weekend, it was one of the best vacations of my life. I had so much fun with my friends, we talked to the local people, walked along the beach and just had a great time breaking out of our routines. The relaxed and happy feeling most people develop while traveling can last up to five weeks after returning from your holidays. So I can only encourage everyone to go and see the world. Or even just your own country. Sometimes it only takes a two hour car ride to spend and amazing time with your friends or to make new friends. There is so much to see in the world, so much to experience and I don’t want to miss out on any of this. I am really thankful for everything I have already seen in the world and I am exited to see so much more.
Lina K For more on this subject: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/how-travel-affects-mental-health
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The power of technology to me is insane. You can walk down the street and almost everyone will have a phone or laptop on them no matter where you go. When looking at old movies such as “Back to the Future” everyone assumed we’d have flying cars or robots and although that seems pretty cool I sure as hell am glad we don’t have those things yet. I think that we should take a step back and fix the dangers before we take 2 steps forward and make more technology. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my phone but sometimes I can’t help but think about how different my life would be without it. One of my biggest problems with technology is how hard it is to put it down once you’ve picked it up. It’s very often that when I find myself trying to complete homework or do other tasks I get easily distracted by my phone and always end up on it. The drawback with this is that technology or not, my biggest problem is already procrastinating on things and it seems as though my phone and procrastination are the best toxic duo. I will try to do homework and once I get notifications on my phone from friends I suddenly lose all interest in my work, my attention span shortens, and all my focus goes towards my phone. Now if I give into those impulses and pick up my phone, the next time I look at a clock or put my phone back down will be 2 hours later. I find this happens because once I open my phone and check those messages I’ll get sight of other apps and want to use them as well. If I don’t give into those urges and continue to work, with each message I get my work ethic goes down. As this is such a big problem for me and I have lost a lot of time from my phone, here are some of the best ways I've found to be able to do work without my phone as a distraction:
Not only does technology and social media affect my worst habit of procrastination, it can also majorly affect mental health which not enough people realize. As of right now, there are 850 million users on Tiktok and 1 billion users on Instagram and i’ve noticed the majority of those users we see when scrolling are influencers. While some influencers create content purely based on entertainment, a lot of the time there are influencers who will only post or talk about their ‘perfect’ life moments which can change what we viewers consider to be normal. These media can easily affect our self esteem, body image, and self worth and I think that is why it’s often that young people have started to feel pressured when posting on and using social media. A study in the UCLA Brain Mapping Center showed that social media has become so addictive that when posting, our brains can react to the ‘likes’ or comments we receive on those posts, which actually makes us want to post more. With posting pressures and cyberbullying it’s no surprise that depression and anxiety have been found to commonly link with social media. Mental health and wellness are extremely important so here are some ways to positively use social media that can help reduce anxiety:
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm https://www.forbes.com/sites/pragyaagarwaleurope/2018/07/30/5-ways-to-overcome-online-social-media-fatigue-for-mental-well-being/?sh=593d4fbe1cfa Avery R When I was thinking about what to write for this blog my mind went right to how quarantine affects your mental health. You wouldn't really think much about this but it is important. Being in one place not allowed to leave on week’s end is really bad for you and can actually make you mentally ill. Quarantine has 3 major effects on your mind autonomy, competency and connectedness. This isolation we face today is making people feel like they are not in touch with the world because everything has shut down. It pretty much feels like you're trapped, you don't see as many people as you once did. The American Psychological Association says that feeling isolated can lead to poor sleep, depressive symptoms, manage your emotions etc. in the last quarantine 31.% of people had depressive symptoms. If you are feeling these symptoms you can find ways to manage your mental health, for example, you can google ways to help and try a whole bunch of different ones. Here let me google that for you.
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