Pepe GuajardoTravelling is a relief to the body, Music is tranquillity for the mind; The topics of travelling and music just go great together. Travelling and listening to music are essential activities that are loved by everyone around the world. The impact and significance that music can have on people is something that can be understood no matter where you are in the world no matter the language, no matter the religion music is a universal language for all human beings. Travelling is something that everyone in the world has been doing since the beginning of time, Caveman where nomads which meant that they were travelling daily, they never had a set home or routine. People nowadays are just going in circles in their life, repeating everything on the daily. If you think about it; music and travelling are a great combination for doing a trip around the world to release yourself from the cycle that you have in your life, and for all of the benefits that would come with it as well.

Music is one of the most essential things for us humans in our lives. We listen to it every single day, whether it may be when you wake up, while you are in the car, when you are out with friends, at school, at work, anywhere you are you will always be close to music. Music has been around ever since the beginning of time for humans on earth and it has stayed for a reason all this time. First of, listening to music is highly beneficial. This is because it helps you calm down, get excited, work better, clear your mind and much more. Music has a big role in brain development in your learning, your mood, and even your health. Music is able to do this for us since it makes the brain release amounts of dopamine to the striatum which is a critical component of the motor and reward systems in your brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that makes your happiness levels rise and keep your mood up. It gets releases when doing activities such as eating sweets to taking cocaine. However, “levels of dopamine were found to be up to 9% higher when volunteers were listening to music they enjoyed.” (McGilchrist, 2011). More specifically, the auditory cortex activates when listening or imagining a tune. There was even a study that resulted in “distinctive neural responses from similar regions when there is an unexpected break in a repetitive pattern of sounds, or in a chord progression.” (Matter, 2013) Additionally, it has been shown that picking up an instrument and taking the time to learn how to play it, also helps out in your life; It increases your motor skills and learning abilities in your brain that weren’t as strong previous to doing this. Overall, listening or playing music through instruments increases happiness, raises our mood, helps us live better and creates a better wellbeing for people.

Travelling around the world is something that everyone in the world should do at least once in their life. It is an experience that is really powerful for people that don’t leave their home and surroundings often. Only 29% of American men have travelled abroad in their life and the average American only travels to three different countries in their life. However, the human body needs to travel since it has been proven that it is scientifically beneficial for your overall lifestyle. A “study found that women who vacation at least twice a year show a significantly lower risk of suffering a heart attack than those who only travel every six years or so.” (Alton, 2017) This goes for everyone; men, women, and kids. Traveling also releases stress and enhances creativity. This is because the brain calms down when it is not in its usual surroundings, especially when it is not under pressure. When travelling, you experience and see new things and culture. This allows your brain to create new pathways and connections. As you travel around the world and, as said before, experience new things, you become more empathetic and open-minded. You meet new people and usually, it makes you realize how lucky you are. “The travel site Momondo did a study that showed that 76 percent of people surveyed say that travelling has made them more tolerant, trusting, and accepting of others,” (Stitson, 2018). As it is scientifically clear that travelling is beneficial for you mentally and physically, more people should be open to travelling more instead of being in a constant cycle in their life.

If we know that both listening to music and travelling is beneficial to us, we should bring both things together into one, making a planned out trip to go somewhere abroad and get to go to concerts and festivals or just be on the road somewhere else listening to music. To make this happen we would need to set up a plan. I believe that to make a good travel plan you should follow 4 steps to make it the best you can. First off, Step #1: Acknowledge your limits. When doing this type of trip you need to be sure that you know what you are getting yourself into. Travelling for a kind of long period of time could be overwhelming to people, especially if you are going to be moving a lot to get the best experience out of the festivals that you would be going to. Before you do this, you should know that if you are not a very active person you could easily get tired at these type of events and quit on this plan that you took time to make. Step #2: Establish a budget. Budgeting is crucial for travelling since not everyone can afford to go everywhere and to spend huge amounts of cash on their trips. When doing this you need to consider that you will be paying for airlines, hotel bookings, and more. Also, there are some music festivals and concerts that get really expensive, especially when the tickets are bought really late, the prices go really high. A tip that I could give that has been previously given to me would be to not go for the VIP tickets when it’s not always that worth it, and you can spend that extra money that you were going to pay for it on other things. Budgeting is an essential part of making this plan a reality since it will make sure that you can go to the best place you can afford to go to. Step #3 Establish destination and events you will attend while going on this trip. For this, you need to find out where you actually want to go to. You should probably choose the music festivals first instead of choosing the cities and then trying to see if there are any concerts/festivals there since it will make the planning simpler. Step #4: Go through with your plan. Travel to the places you wanted to go. Take a friend, a family member, or just someone to accompany you so that you can have an experience that you were able to share with someone else.

Travelling is good us as humans. Music is good for the development and expansion of your brain. These two topics add up for perfect a recipe of; stress relief, happiness booster and a blast of tranquillity to your body and mind. This plan that I laid out is nothing set, you are the one that at the end of the day is going to do your own trip and adventure, you are the one deciding how it will turn out. Let the music relax you and the trip embrace you. People nowadays are just going in circles in their life, repeating everything on the daily. Break your cycle, do something different, do something you haven't done before, and find out on your own what the benefits of doing this you will receive. Travelling is a relief to the body, and music is tranquillity for the mind.

Sources:

Alton, Larry. “5 Reasons Traveling Abroad Is Seriously Good for Your Health.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 19 May 2017

Ashford University Staff. “How Does Music Affect Your Brain?” Ashford University, Ashford University. Forbes School of Business & Technology, 7 June 2017

Harvard Men's Health Watch. “Music and Health - Harvard Health.” Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publishing, July 2011

McGilchrist, Sonya. “Music 'Releases Mood-Enhancing Chemical in the Brain'.” BBC News, BBC, 9 Jan. 2011

Robert J. Zatorre and Valorie N. Salimpoor. “Opinion | Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 June 2013

Stinson, Annakeara. “Here's Proof That Traveling Is Good For Your Health, So Book A Vacation Now.” Elite Daily, Elite Daily, 25 Apr. 2018