It’s easy to get bogged down in the everyday stresses of work, family and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but sometimes a change of scenery is just what the doctor ordered.
A study done on university students, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found evidence that suggests traveling encourages an open mindset and positively affects social and mental health through personality development.
New Albany-Plain Local Schools teacher, Sandy Reed, knows the health benefits of traveling first-hand and is no stranger to the open road.
“When I travel, I am inspired,” Reed says. “Sometimes I experience moments of awe, I meet people and I just grow. I become more than what I was before.”
In addition to a personal trip she takes to South Africa every year to hone her wildlife tracking skills, Reed was also given the opportunity to take a three-week trip this past winter to South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and Antarctica through the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship offered by Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society.
The fellowship is a two-year program that takes 50 educators from the U.S., Canada and surrounding areas to various places around the world offering them unique field experiences that they can take home with them to share with their students and communities.
Taking in the sights
Photos courtesy of Sandy Reed
Sandy Reed
Throughout the entirety of her trip, Reed wore a wireless Isansys Lifecare cardiac monitoring patch to track her heartbeat. This experience, done in collaboration with STARK Industries and its CEO Joe Swantack, was a great way for her to watch her health and allowed her to share this unique technology and data with her students and community upon her return.
While hiking in the frigid tundra, Reed walked alongside colonies of king penguins and herds of elephant seals. One of the highlights of her trip was a close encounter with a humpback whale that swam up to the bow of her ship, The Explorer, and was close enough that Reed saw its eye.
“You go to Antarctica and you’re going to experience the deepest, most humbling feeling and know that this world is so much greater than you. These life forms will continue when you’re no longer here,” Reed says. “I think having gratitude in your life creates a peace… I feel emotionally and mentally rich.”
Experiencing moments of regular gratitude, as Reed did while abroad, could also lead to improved mental health.
In an article published in University of California, Berkeley’s The Greater Good Magazine, psychology professors Joel Wong and Joshua Brown say that practicing gratitude can decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety by actively shifting thoughts out of a negative cycle. The professors also state that the effects of practicing gratitude increased over time.
In addition to feeling a greater feeling of peace, Reed is also on her feet a lot when she travels. While traveling with National Geographic, Reed took every opportunity to hike, kayak and explore the landscape, even taking a polar plunge.
“I wanted to connect to the land, to the place,” Reed says. “I wanted to feel it underneath my feet.”
In an article from BrainMD, which references University of Pittsburgh adjunct professor of neurological surgery, Paul Nussbaum, Nussbaum suggests that exploring new locations isn’t just fun - it can also help to strengthen brain function and memory.
“Traveling can stimulate your brain and spur the growth of new connections within its cerebral matter. There’s a link between new experiences and the formation of dendrites, which are the branch-like extensions that grow from brain neurons,” Nussbaum states in the article.
What’s next
Photo courtesy of Sandy Reed
Sandy Reed
The trip to the southern hemisphere was only one part of Reed’s involvement with the program. As she heads into the second year of her fellowship, Reed is now turning her focus to sharing everything she learned while abroad.
Reed created a science curriculum specialized for each grade which incorporates her experiences, such as the anatomy lessons her sixth graders will learn by studying her heart rate data. She plans to share her experience at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany as well as at other locations in Ohio.
She hopes to educate more people on the wonders of Antarctica as well as the immense health benefits that can be gained through travel to inspire others to travel to the southern hemisphere.
“I think Antarctica stole my soul,” Reed says. “It took a piece of me that did not come back.”
While Reed continues to share what she learned with the community, she believes that classroom experience is no replacement for being an eyewitness to the wonders of the world.
“I believe that you can study, and learn and do all that ahead of time, but to go somewhere is to change you,” Reed says.
For students, studying abroad can help academically and holistically as they are exposed to new and unexpected environments.
“The more people we can get out there to see what the world is like, the more global their thinking will be and the better chance we’ll have of taking care of this planet,” Reed says.
Katie Giffin is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
