Here’s how adventure can break the cycle of negatavity, providing a buffer for your racing mind:<\/p>\n
Small moments of shared positivity<\/strong><\/p>\n Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson from the University of North Carolina has spent more than three decades studying the power of positive emotions. She believes it’s a sort of “daily nutrient”<\/a> that comes from “micro-moments”<\/a> of shared positivity. This involves at least two people being together, in the same moment, and sharing a emotion or gut-level connection.\u00a0It could be as incidental as hi-fiving a group of kids, or smiling at the woman who serves you coffee in the morning. While any positivity is good, “shared positivity \u2014 having two people caught up in the same emotion \u2014 may have even a\u00a0greater impact on health\u00a0than something positive experienced by oneself,” says Dr.\u00a0 Fredrickson.<\/p>\n Read more: The one travel talent of people in their 30s<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n When you travel with a group of people abroad, you fuel this upward spiral of shared positivity. Adventure travel is brimming with moments of impromptu connection and bonding, whether you’re mulling over a sunset in the lunar-like landscape of the Atacama Desert<\/a> or interacting with Bedouin villagers<\/a> in the Jordan’s rust-red mountains.\u00a0Over time, these small moments resonate and accrue a power of their own, counteracting negative thoughts to create greater happiness.<\/p>\n Seize the golden present\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n One common form of negative thinking is rumination.\u00a0“Rumination is a kind of negative thinking in which we get mentally stuck and keep spinning our wheels without making progress, like a car stuck in a snowdrift,” explains psychologist and life coach\u00a0Melanie Greenberg<\/a>.\u00a0“Rumination can make you more and more anxious as you keep thinking of more and more negative outcomes that could possibly happen.”<\/p>\n Read more: Tackling the mid-30s blues<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n When you travel, you are forced to stop dwelling on the past or the future. Instead, you concentrate on the now (which, as we know, is the only thing<\/a> that matters). This could happen in a prosaic sense, like planning how to get across the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, or navigating your way around the cable car system in La Paz. Or, it could be something altogether more euphoric, like abseiling off Table Mountain in Cape Town<\/a> or tackling white-water rapids in northern Thailand<\/a>. “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living,” writes Dale Carnegie, in his best-selling book,\u00a0How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.<\/span>\u00a0“We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” Travel means you wake up and smell those roses.<\/p>\n Trade control for tenacity<\/b><\/p>\n Overthinking is another typical funnel of negativity. “The problem with overthinking is that it\u2019s an attempt to control what isn\u2019t controllable,” says Greenberg. “You don\u2019t have a magic eight-ball that can predict the future. With most choices, there are unknowns… It can make you too risk-averse and scared to act.” When you travel, you take away this control. You’re compelled to confront the unknown, with its myriad of choices and risks.<\/p>\n Read more: Forget dating and just connect with people<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Travel, in other words, forces you to make friends with uncertainty<\/a>, and accept that you won’t always know what lies ahead. You prove to yourself you that can survive, come Delhi belly or the hair-raising traffic of Hanoi. Rather than trying to control the future, you instead learn to rely on your inner skills to tackle stresses and setbacks. You build up a sandbag of resilience to keep the whirring “what ifs?” at bay.<\/p>\n Unshackle from routine<\/strong><\/p>\n While routines can be comforting, you can also become bogged down in them – and this is particularly true of negative thinking. You believe that your predictable life helps to guard against your worries, but it actually entrenches them. Doing the same things, day in and day out, your mind has nowhere to go but inwards. You forget all about spontaneity<\/a> and the happiness that comes from following your gut<\/a>.<\/p>\n “We have to unshackle,” says Dylan Thuras, a video editor who wrote this blog<\/a> about how travel can blitz a negative mindset. “We\u2019ve become too accustomed and clingy to schedules and logic. If you see something, and it looks interesting and your first thought is ‘We should go check that out,’ then check it out! It allows you to discover the freedom you really still have.” Travel engenders this spirit of curiosity at every turn.\u00a0The familiar routines where you find your comfort zone are pulled beneath your feet; you need to be creative in exploring the world around you. This not only quells your inner critic, it also gives you distance and a fresh perspective on the thoughts that have previously consumed you.<\/p>\n Learn new skills<\/strong><\/p>\n Of all the things that can counter negative thinking, learning may be the strongest weapon.\u00a0\u201cYour mind is really like a muscle, and using it is a key\u201d to lifelong mental health, says\u00a0Lisa Berkman, professor of public policy and epidemiology at Harvard University. Part of the happiness of learning comes from something\u00a0Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi\u00a0calls “flow”.\u00a0 Flow refers to a peak moment of consciousness in which we are so engaged with what we\u2019re doing, we lose all grasp of time amid a deep sense of focus and enjoyment.\u00a0Flow doesn’t have to be generated by a big or noble activity, but it needs to be something that fully absorbs us (watching TV, for example, wouldn’t count as it’s too passive).<\/p>\n Read more: How being single can enrich your life<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Travel – particularly adventure travel – opens up a maze of opportunity for learning new skills. You might unlock the art of Mexican cooking<\/a> in the culinary capital of Oaxaca. You could master the skill of paddle-boarding<\/a> on Slovenia’s mirror-still lakes. You may discover how to fly across the waves in a surfing lesson<\/a> in Morocco. All these events, and countless more, will bolster your sense of confidence<\/a> and self-reliance. And they’ll most likely spark off the meditative state of flow, an internal state that is the very opposite of negative thinking.<\/p>\n Tap into the power of awe<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAwe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast or beyond human scale, that transcends our current understanding of things,\u201d says psychologist\u00a0Dacher Keltner, from the\u00a0Social Interaction Lab at University of California, Berkeley. “People often talk about awe as seeing the Grand Canyon or meeting Nelson Mandela. But our studies show it also can be much more accessible\u2014a friend is so generous you\u2019re astounded, or you see a cool pattern of shadows and leaves.”<\/p>\n Read more: Three great reasons why you should try travelling alone<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Negative thinking can trigger anxiety and a flight-or-fight response. But awe, says Keltner, makes us stop and think<\/a>, as we become receptive to seeing things in new ways. When we’re faced with something that sparks awe, we’re more likely to think in terms of “we” rather than “me”, so it also binds us together<\/a>. The effect of awe is so potent that teachers in New York have started to take their students on “Awe Walks” in nature and art. “It helps them feel less marginalized, with a sense that life is still good,” says one teacher. Travelling sparks all kinds of moments of awe, from the dazzling peaks of Rainbow Mountain in Peru<\/a> to the magnificent glaciers of Iceland<\/a> and\u00a0the social revival captured by street art in\u00a0Medell\u00edn<\/a>, Colombia’s “City of Eternal Spring”. Cultivate these moments to lift your spirit and revive your soul.<\/p>\n Images: Flash Pack and Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s all too easy to be pulled down a rabbit hole of negative thinking. 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<\/p>\n![\"Finland](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Finland-group-adventure-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Nepal](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Nepal-adventure-solo-travelers-16.jpg\")
![\"fitness\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/man-solo-travel-leap-lake-wilderness-outdoor-nature-1-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Rolling-Chapatis-in-Delhi-India.jpg\")
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