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Giving the Gift of Travel
As the holiday season is upon us have you considered giving the gift of travel? Why the gift of travel verses a new purchase? It turns out as soon as you get used to a new purchase your level of satisfaction decreases. A material purchase might give you novelty but, it lacks the key ingredient for maintaining happiness. The power of experience!! Giving the gift of experience, of travel, it becomes a part of you that can not be taken away. The memories you create with your loved ones will always be with you. Your richest most cherished memories aren’t from material goods but, from experiences you have had. Travel takes you away from your normal day to day activity. It gives you a chance to connect in ways you can’t at home. Dr. Thomas Gilovich a psychology professor at Cornell University conducted a 20-year study on happiness. He found material possessions bring fleeting happiness. But, experiences become a part of our identity. We are an accumulation of all the places we have traveled and the things we did while we were there. My husband I created a list when our boys were small. It is a bucket-list of family travel destinations that I have been determined to reach. I remember each place and that place has captured my children at those ages. I see the two-year-old eating the apple at Glacier National Park after we played in the stream. I see the 6-year-old and 9-year-old as they stand high over the bay in California on Highway one holding arms out stretched and almost feeling like they could fly. I see them dancing at the Old Lahaina Luau in Maui. I still feel the breeze and see that sun set. “Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods.” Said Gilovich. Sharing those experiences will bring you closer to your loved ones and you will always have those memories to carry with you the rest of your life. Those memories will truly be the gift that keeps giving!
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy
