From Burnout to Breakthrough: Why Your Mental Health Needs a Vacation

Summary

In this episode, Life Coach Layla brings it to you raw and real with no edits, makeup, filler or fluff. She discusses the profound benefits of travel on mental health, personal growth, and productivity. She emphasizes the importance of stepping out of comfort zones, overcoming fears, and embracing new experiences. Layla shares personal anecdotes about her travels, the lessons learned, and how travel can foster independence and resilience. She also provides practical tips for making travel a priority, even with busy schedules and tight budgets, encouraging listeners to explore both far and near.

Takeaways

Travel reshapes your brain's neuroplasticity, enhancing mental health.

Experiences outside your routine can significantly boost happiness.

Many people regret not traveling more when they had the chance.

Travel builds confidence and adaptability in unfamiliar situations.

Exploring new cultures deepens understanding and broadens perspectives.

Solo travel fosters independence and self-discovery.

Fear can be a motivator for thorough research and preparation.

Travel can boost productivity and creativity in personal and professional life.

Weekend getaways can be refreshing and help avoid burnout.

Travel is a necessity for mental well-being and personal growth.

Chapters

00:00 The Transformative Power of Travel

10:31 Overcoming Fear and Embracing Solo Travel

20:39 Travel as a Tool for Personal Growth

24:55 Making Travel a Priority

Do Life Website

www.layladawndoeslife.com

Certified Life and Business Coaching

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Mermaid Division

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Transcript

0:01

Hi friends. Welcome to the do live podcast. I'm your host life coach Layla. And today we are going to be talking about something that is very dear to my heart. And that is travel. And I know, I know you're like, I don't, I don't need a lesson on travel from Layla. but here's the thing. When you get out of your comfort zone, out of your normal routine, your brain forms new neuro pathways. And it's good for you. I'm not going to get into all the science behind that. We've talked about that in several other episodes. But I just want to talk about how it has so many incredible benefits to your mental health. So like, have you ever noticed like just a change of scenery can boost your mood? If you've been sitting in the office so long or in your desk or cubicle or whatever, you just get up and go wander and you're immediately better. To a degree, obviously. But. Let's see, before we get started, how about you think about your favorite memory as a child, your fondest memory. Were you on vacation with your family? Were you somewhere different? Was it outside of your home? That's something I want you to kind of keep in mind. So let's go, you know me, let's do this science. So we talked about how new experiences actually reshape your brain. Your neuroplasticity, your brain's ability to form new connections is stimulated when we expose ourselves to new places, cultures, and ideas. So research has shown that stepping out of daily routines lowers stress and anxiety while boosting happiness levels. A study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that people who travel more frequently report a greater life satisfaction. Sounds like a great excuse to book your next trip, right? And I'm not just saying that because I'm also a travel agent at mermaid division, shameless plug. I am actually saying that because I have read a lot of studies and interviews of people who are older in age and they're on their duck bed and they ask them, what are your regrets? And they regret not having more experiences when they were capable. They waited until they retired to travel and do all the things. And when you think about life in America specifically, you are given two weeks off a year to enjoy your life, to travel the world, to take a break. And most of the time, those two weeks, we schedule chores and things around the house. And I'm sorry, I'm in the middle of nowhere in Florida. And I thought being, you know, kind of close to the woods and a vacant parking lot would be. quiet, but there's some traffic. we're just going to pretend it doesn't exist, right? I would have done this closer to the middle of nowhere, but then I had zero signal and it wouldn't take 20 years to upload and you'd never have this episode. And I wanted to get it out to you. So I apologize for all the background noise of these rude vehicles that were not here until I showed up. There was absolutely zero cars, zero people, zero traffic, zero anything. So anyway, I digress. So yeah, so I really don't want you to waste your life working, working, working and never having experiences. Even just like a quick little weekend getaway to a campsite, to a campground, go barbecue in the woods where it's applicable. Don't just like start a fire in the middle of nowhere. Like make sure you're in a designated area for that kind of thing. you know, I'm just saying just a difference, change of scenery. You don't have to go far. An hour drive, like most people live within an hour of. some sort of beautiful scenery. Even if it's just a little lake, can take a kayak or a small boat ride or something. So that's really kind of what I really wanted to get into more than anything else was just little things that you can do to travel and why it's important. So the more we travel, the more we expand our perspective. You hear the phrase, you don't know what you don't know. And The more you travel, the more you learn, the more you understand different cultures, different areas, different ways of life, different reasons for being. And you get to see life through different cultural lenses, challenges, and different beliefs. And it opens our mind. Travel also builds confidence and adaptability. Think about it, navigating an unfamiliar city like I was in Miami not that long ago and I didn't realize that. Miami was like driving through a third world country. I spent the summer in Europe and I would much rather go back to Europe and drive all day on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car than go back to Miami and drive around there. Apparently there's no such thing as left turn arrows anywhere and you just get in where you fit in and hope nobody hits you I guess. I don't I don't know. I will uber next time I'm in the area. But anyway so when you think about navigating an unfamiliar city trying new foods that was one of the things that We always made an agreement, so me and my partner, we would go on a mommy daddy trip and then we would go on a family trip. So we would take our two weeks a year and we would spend one week with the kids as a whole family exploring new places. And then we would do something as a couple exploring new places. We very rarely go to the same place twice because we want to experience new things. And we make it a point to not like go to the same restaurants like most people go to a different city and they're like a McDonald's or an Applebee's or something and they're so excited to see something familiar and that defeats the purpose. The whole idea is to explore and try new things. We will my my husband had a whole agenda like a list in his phone of different cities and restaurants because he loves like food channels and all the like food stuffs. So anytime he would watch a show and they'd be like, there's this place here, he would bookmark it and put it in his phone. So when we were like, hey, we're in New Orleans, where do we go? He'd have like a whole list, an itinerary. So we would like plan our vacations around where we wanted to eat. So everyone's like, what'd you guys do in New Orleans? It's like, we did a ghost tour and then we ate for a week. I really can't think of anything else. And we had an amazing time. Like all the kids were like, I want to go back. This was the best vacation ever. you know, try something different, get out of your comfort zone. If you're going someplace exotic, indulge yourself in the culture and research. Like when we went to Hawaii, I'm really sad that it was COVID time. So there wasn't really a lot of options for things for us to do, but I really wanted to. indulge in the whole Polynesian culture and see the shows and the history and do all the things and just be respectful of wherever you go. First of all, respect the nature, respect the natives, respect the culture, respect the history. I was going to go to Dubai in January and that fell through for multiple reasons. But first thing I did is I looked up what is the dress code for single women and it was, you certain places I could wear whatever I wanted within reason, and then other places I needed to be, you know, long sleeve, long pants kind of thing. So I researched what the culture was and how to be respectful. And that's just something that you should do no matter where you're going. But yeah, so in a nutshell, the more, the more we step out of our comfort zones, the more resilient and stronger we become. And so for those of you who travel solo like me, You know how transformative it can be. There's something empowering about relying on yourself in foreign places and it fosters independence and defense and deepens self-discovery. So I was terrified. I don't want say terrified, but I was really, really concerned about my trip to Europe. I was in Estonia. I went to Finland. And I was very concerned about going to Turkey for a week as a solo female traveler because of cultures and things. My family's in Saudi Arabia and there I've, you my mom kind of scared me about going there when I was younger because all the rules and laws and things about women. So, you know, Turkey's very close and not too far off culture wise, any kind of, anyway. So I did my research and I looked into it and I was very nervous and you know even in the in the airport waiting for my connecting flight to get to Istanbul there was an altercation between a man and a woman and he slapped the absolute daylight out of her and I mean she was mouthing off to him. I'm not gonna I don't know it was just it was weird because like me I wanted to be like rah rah rah save And then I just kind of around and everybody acted like they didn't see it. And then I was like, I don't want to get arrested. She just got slapped. Who knows what could happen to me and be legit. So that was like the really like the worst part of it. But everywhere when I was there was amazing. And I was there with friends. It's not like I just went by myself. I went by myself to meet up with other people. But we all stayed together. We all had a great time. A couple of us ventured out on our own and did things and there was nothing to be afraid of. And most of the fear was in our in my brain. And I say that to say, a lot of the times that we're afraid of something, we are afraid of made up scenarios in our brain that we made up. And the likelihood of them really being true is pretty slim most of the time. I was a very fearful child. And I used to think of all the things that could happen and how I would escape. And I wanted to be prepared. And while that's a great feature to have in your brain is Jesus is to be mindful and ready for you know whatever could happen it's also not great to be afraid of everything too so there's a big difference between being prepared for things and being afraid and so just wanted to reiterate that getting out of your comfort zone and forcing yourself to do the hard things. It's okay to have a little bit of fear, but don't let that fear completely engulf you. If anything, use that fear to empower you to make the right decisions. Again, I use my fear of being afraid of going to Turkey as a solo female traveler to motivate me to research and figure out, you know, what exactly is it like? I did a lot of in-depth, like, okay, what do I need to know? What rules do I need to follow? And if I didn't have any bit of fear, I wouldn't have done that. So... I just am in the middle of Florida because I was at an event for van lifers. This is so weird to say. It's an event called Peace, and Vans. And it's where a bunch of nomads who live in their bands and campers get together and just they celebrate each other because being a solo traveler, if you're living that nomadic lifestyle can get kind of lonely. meeting up with other people was amazing. I'm contemplating selling my 3300 square foot home and getting a van because I do love to travel. do love being a solo traveler. I love going to all the places and I love going to all the places and doing all the things and I hate waiting for other people to confirm. I've tried to plan multiple trips with other people and it's just so hectic and chaotic and it got so frustrating because, these people are coming and now they're not coming and they paid and now they're not coming and now they want their money back and everybody else has already paid their portion based on X number of people and now X number and it's just, I'm not dealing with all that. Like if you want to come, can come. If not, you don't. Like I'm done. Like I became a travel agent so I can plan all that stuff for other people, but when it comes to my own personal travel, I don't have the patience for that. I want to just be able to let go and setting up camp everywhere is kind of a pain. And so I would like to just have everything, like it's not like I'm going to be homeless. I'm just. changing from a big home to a smaller home and a home that's mobile not necessarily a mobile home which is weird because that should be what it's called but a home that I can take wherever and so no matter where I am I'm home because that's kind of what it feels like anyway like my big house has never really felt like my home we bought it kind of in a rush to keep the kids in the same school district and all that fun stuff and I do love it it's a beautiful house but it's never felt like my home you know what I'm saying No place has ever really felt like home. So I feel like having my own little space wherever I go is gonna be my home. But anyway, I digress. All of that was said because I went to this event. I was working the event as part of the team, like the behind the scenes team, so I could get more in-depth information. And was so nice to see like everybody's looking at each other's vans or getting ideas. They're looking at different builds, different connectors, asking a million questions. What works, what doesn't work. So it was just like, everybody's doing the same thing, but differently. And then talking to each other and like dancing and, and it was just, I have a whole episode on community. I'll try to link it. I don't know if signal will even let me like edit this episode or add any show notes or anything. So I don't even know what's going to happen, but. I met so many amazing people, like people that I'm going to be friends with on a regular basis. we all exchange socials, we follow each other, we are already messaging each other and having conversations and talking about different things and where to travel. And so I have people I can ask questions to if things come up and just genuinely good people that I connected with that I think are just amazing humans and I'm so happy that I know them. And the same thing when I lived in Europe for the summer, like I made Amazing friends. I moved to Europe and I stayed in a hotel and I stayed in a castle in Estonia Which was awesome except for the fact that it was a we were on the top of the castle on the ninth floor and castles Don't have elevators so that and I packed like an American so, you know had three big gas suitcases in a book bag So besides that I Moved into a four-bedroom Apartment in a castle with three strangers. had no idea who they were and after three weeks we're all best friends. Like I love them and I follow them on socials and I comment when they do things and I'm so excited to see them. The one girl I message on a regular basis, I was talking about coming and visiting her. The other girl we were talking about coming and visiting and you know so every time I go somewhere new and step out of my comfort zone I meet people. I make friends and It's so much peaceful, so much more peaceful and harmonizing than your small town group where it's just this drama and this couple and he said, she said. And I'm just so over that small town like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like that's not, I'm from St. Louis and I moved to a small city in Illinois, which is only like 20 minutes away from St. Louis just because I wanted to get away from people shooting at me and the corn doesn't try to murder me. So, but. Then I'm stuck in the small town with the small minds and the small problems and I'm not degrading small towns. It's just I've been there too long. I feel like I've outgrown it and I've outgrown the drama and the people and the stories and the situations. And the more I travel and the more I meet new people, the more I love it. even if you don't solo travel and meet new people, I've got a couple trips planned with a couple girlfriends of mine and traveling with someone like really creates deeper bonds. Like have you ever traveled with someone and you feel like it really deepens your relationship or the opposite because when you travel with someone you really get to know them you have a lot of time to just talk and communicate and really get to know people. I've traveled with people that I will never never travel with. again, because I learned a lot about them in that trip and I'm grateful for those lessons and And so yeah, so if you're not interested in solo traveling if that's just a little bit out of your comfort zone I understand not everybody Has that mindset and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that I mean if you travel with a partner like See how much it changes your relationship when you have these shared emotional experiences It's pretty awesome. You create really good memories and it's it's something fun that you can look back on. And I also, let's see, I already talked about... like immersing yourself in culture and different things. But when you're traveling in nature, like hiking or camping or beach resorts or sight or retreats or things like that, those can have like deep, powerful, emotional healing effects. And believe it or not, travel can also boost productivity. Studies show that taking breaks, especially through travel, improves focus, problem solving, and creativity. So like if you've ever felt stuck in a rut, traveling shakes things up and brings fresh inspiration. Many successful entrepreneurs and creatives credit travel as their key to innovative thinking. I can personally say that as a serial entrepreneur, every time I travel, I get some sort of insight, some sort of creative spark or burst or come up with a solution to a problem that I've had for a long time. Like even just in the past few days, I was just sitting there staring at the clouds, because they were pretty cool, and listening to the weird sounds of nature, because there's different birds, different bugs. So there's one bird. I think it's a loon. I'm not real sure. 100%, I'm going to look it up whenever I can. But listening to it, it sounded like a dinosaur. So I'm just laying in my hammock listening to dinosaur sounds in the woods behind me. and watching the clouds and it was just such an awesome experience and I was just kind of at peace and all of a sudden this like thought like actual like thought bubble popped into my head and it was the answer to a problem that I've been contemplating for a long long time and and I think if I wouldn't have just had that serene peaceful moment to just be present and be mindful of where I was and what I was doing and grateful and happy for that situation and just enjoying the life and the nature. I have still been trying to force the answer in my brain, that makes sense. And let's not forget about burnout. I don't know if I already posted the episode on burnout, but there is definitely a whole episode on burnout and how to avoid it and recover from it. But stepping away from work, trip can help reset your body, your mind, and it leads to a better work-life balance. And as a travel agent, I do more than just book your vacation. I curate an atmosphere. I orchestrate adventures. So I have friends that are traveling to Japan and they gave me a list of the things that they want to do. And so what I did is I took that into consideration and then I planned and whole itinerary and you're going to go here and here and here based on distance and travel. And here's this local scene. Here's this nightlife. Here's this guided tour. Here's these things based on what they said they wanted to do. So, you know, I booked a whole experience. Anybody can just go to like whatever third party travel site and book their hotel or book their flights. But when you work with a travel agent, we plan an experience for you. And so I know a lot of people ask me the difference in what a travel, like why would you get a travel agent? First of all, most of us don't cost anything. If you're just booking a simple trip or planning a simple trip, I don't charge for my services and I take all of the pressure off of you. I just do all the things for you. So that's kind of a no brainer. Most of the time I get you special discounts and perks that you can't get from just booking on your own. And even if I don't have any special discounts, it's usually not ever any more expensive than what you can get on your own. And if there's any problems or issues or anything, I take care of that for you. So I just wanted to kind of throw that out there, if that was a question you have. So how can you make travel a priority, even with busy schedules and tight budgets? A few practical tips. There's a lot of budget friendly travel hacks like off season deals and travel rewards. Again, going through a travel agent we have. So the company I'm with right now is Ambassador Travel and Cruises located out of Belleville, but they've been in business for over 50 years. And so they have a lot of connections and discounts and special offers and perks and things that you can't just get by booking online. again, knowing me. off seasons and things like that can help. When I talked earlier about planning shorter trips, weekend getaways can be just as refreshing and rewarding for your mental health and keep you away from burnout a little longer until you can get to a longer vacation. And even then just like exploring locally. Sometimes the best adventures are right in your backyard. So like I live in a small town in Illinois called Swansea and I think the biggest cities like Fairview or Belleville. and st louis is twenty minutes away there's so many different restaurants parks attractions and things to do and it's so sad how many people in illinois think like the river has lava and they refuse to cross the river they refuse to go twenty minutes into the city and explore a whole different world a whole different culture so there might be a lot of different things in your own backyard and if you like i live in the middle of nowhere there's nothing Go take a farm tour. Did you know that was an option? Did you know that you can go to a lot of local farms and take a tour of where your food is at? They give you free food too when you're there. Some of them, not all of them, but most of them, at least the ones I live by do. So explore locally, even just for a weekend or something, just getting out of your normal routine. And then make your trips intentional. Set a goal, whether it's to relax or adventure or to engage spiritually or disconnect or whatever it is. Set a goal for your travel. I'm sorry if I'm moving all over the place. There's so many bugs everywhere and because the sun is right in my face, they're all like, lights. So I just want to say that travel is more than a luxury. It's a necessity. It's a powerful tool for mental well-being, personal growth, and productivity. whether it's a trip across the world or a short drive to a nearby town, the benefits are undeniable. I challenge you to start planning your next adventure. It doesn't have to be with me. You don't have to use a travel agent. You can just think of where you want to go and take the steps that you need to make it happen. So no matter how big or small, where will your next adventure take you? If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and let me know your favorite travel experience. love to hear about, like that's one of the reasons I became a travel agent is A, I can't possibly travel to all the places in the world that's impossible. And I get so excited when I live vicariously and I plan other people's trips. Like I get so excited for them and their trip that it's almost like I'm going. So I love it. So let me know your favorite travel, your favorite vacation, your favorite places. Again, I hope you found some sort of value in this. Please like, share, subscribe, leave review, do all the fun things. Stay tuned our episode. No, I'm not going to tell you what the next episode is going to be on. So I'll just leave that as a little teaser. Again, if you want to go deeper, you can follow me on all the socials. I'll leave all my links below. And yeah, let's go do life. differently.