How Travel Rewires Your Brain and Body

Wonder isn’t a luxury—it’s a lever for real change. We trace the quiet path from a single sunset or museum hall to the deep shift you feel when you come home from a trip and realize your mind, mood, and body aren’t quite the same. Drawing on the science of awe and years of solo travel coaching, we break down how novelty, vastness, and meaning work together to rewire attention, dial down rumination, and open space for gratitude and connection.

You’ll hear how nature’s big canvases—mountain ranges, star-splashed skies, ocean edges—create instant perspective, and why human-made marvels like Machu Picchu and the pyramids spark the same wide-open feeling. We talk about awe in cities and art galleries, in music that lifts the chest, and in small spiritual moments that make time feel deep. Along the way, we translate research into simple practices: a daily awe pause, choosing a “vastness anchor” for each destination, slowing your pace by 20 percent, and keeping a one-line reflection that turns fleeting wonder into lasting change.

We also explore what’s happening under the skin. Awe is more than emotion; it’s whole-body. From brain networks lighting up to the calming shifts in breath and heart rate—and even potential immune benefits—these moments act like micro-reset buttons. Whether you’re planning a big trip or staying close to home, you’ll leave with a toolkit to find awe on purpose and let it do its quiet, healing work. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review telling us the last moment that truly awed you.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Have you ever returned from a trip and felt
changed somehow?
And you're not sure what it wasexactly that happened on your
trip that maybe caused thistransformation.
We all know that travel cantransform us, but how do we
articulate what happened andreally what caused this change?

(00:22):
And yes, there's some positivesabout getting out of our
routines, and I'll get to thatsome more.
But there's actually sciencebehind how this transformation
or change happens while you'retraveling.
Welcome to Solo TravelAdventures.
I'm Cheryl Esh, your certifiedtravel coach.

(00:44):
I've been doing some researchlately, really interested in
understanding the science behindtransformation and how travel
can change you mentally,physically, emotionally, and
even spiritually.
And I've started reading a bookcalled Awe by Dr.

(01:07):
Keltner.
And he basically is he's ascientist, and he talks about
really, I call it the science ofawe, AWE.
And awe is the feeling of beingin the presence of something
vast.
This is his definition that goesbeyond our comprehension.

(01:29):
Yes, it's an emotion, but it canreally affect our physiology.
So physiology is not just ourmind, but also our body and our
emotions.
And to feel awe, it actuallyrequires something novel, some
novelty or something unexpectedrather than the comforts and

(01:51):
certainty practiced in our dailylives.
So I believe this is partly whywhen we travel, we might be
awestruck with something thatwe're seeing maybe for the first
time because it's uncommon, it'suncertain.
It's brought us out of thisroutine of our daily lives.

(02:13):
And it's something we've likelyhave never seen before, maybe.
And so this is one reason I can,you know, give as why uh travel
presents us with manyopportunities to experience awe
because when we travel, it'susually someplace new, not

(02:36):
always, but awe can presentitself, you know, physically.
You can see sunsets that justkeep your jaw like open and
you're just in wonder of thebeauty of it.
Think about the seven wonders ofthe world or the seven natural

(02:56):
wonders or the seven ancientwonders of the world, and how
remarkable a lot of those,whether they're structures or
natural wonders, just how arethey created?
It just blows my mind often.
The vastness of something toowill give you that feeling of
awe.
And I think of sort of thevastness of whether it's a

(03:19):
mountain range that I'm lookingat or the Grand Canyon.
And I just often, when I dotravel, because I do like to
spend time in nature, I am oftenawestruck because there's things
that I will see that are not ummaybe something I would see in

(03:41):
my country.
However, I do find myself inawe, sometimes just watching a
sunset.
Now, sunrises are beautiful too,but I'm not a morning person, so
I don't see as many of those.
So those can also be just thatmoment of awe.
Watching that sunrise, justcreation in itself gives me

(04:06):
pause and I just reflect, andit's like, wow, you know, that
God created this, this wascreated for us.
So you can feel awe throughnature, as I mentioned.
Doesn't have to be.
Some people find awe in art.
So this could be not justphysical art like paintings or

(04:27):
sculptures, it could be in musicas well.
So some people, that's wherethey get this feeling inside of
just remarkable awe.
They're just awestruck.
You could even have a spiritualencounter that gives you this
feeling of awe.

(04:50):
New art, when we travel, weoften see new landscapes.
We often, uh for me, sometimesit's just a different hike or a
different walk that presents anopportunity to see new things
and to reflect and just to be inawe.

(05:10):
And I I love the fact that now,I mean, I'm sure it's been
years.
This gentleman has been doingresearch on happiness, I believe
was his first book, and now he'sjust tapping into because this
book was just written in 2023.
So it's fairly new research onthe science of awe, AWE, that uh

(05:36):
we're noticing how it can affectus in our brains, right?
When we are uh in that place ofawe, our brains just start to
light up.
Apparently, he's done someresearch on kind of what parts
of your brain do uh activate uhduring those those times, those

(05:59):
feelings of awe.
And I find myself when I travelhaving many moments of this.
And it could be wherever I'mgoing.
And sometimes it does justrequire slowing down and not
just running from place toplace, but spending those

(06:19):
moments, whether it is naturethat makes you awestruck, or
art, going to a museum to seesomething new, or listening to
music.
Maybe it's sitting out in thedark sky and seeing all the
stars and just in wonder of allthat's out there.

(06:42):
And I often have my kids haveeven said, when I travel, I'm a
different person.
And I think some of this uhplays into it because when I'm
traveling, I am I have a spiritof gratitude, and I often will
pause and just marvel, even ifit's something, I mean, like,

(07:08):
for example, thinking about, youknow, I did hike Machu Picchu
that was in nature, but as I satand looked at, you know, looked
over the the cliff and I saw theactual Machu Picchu city and all
the stones that they built thesestructures with, you just have

(07:28):
to marvel at how they climbed upthese hills, these mountains,
carrying these big slabs ofstone to actually build this
structure.
Same with like the pyramids ofEgypt.
You think about how did theybuild those?
You go back whenever they werebuilt.
Like nowadays you might say,okay, well, we have cranes now,

(07:52):
but they didn't then.
And so that those things to me,when I look at even the history
of something too, it brings thisnature of awe to me because it's
unexplainable to me.
And although we have historythat might explain certain
things, I still marvel at allthat.

(08:15):
And I know it doesn't require usto travel to feel this.
So I'm gonna encourage you in intwo ways.
If you are planning a tripcoming up, I want you to keep in
mind as you're you know takingyour travels, doesn't matter
where you go, even if you'regoing to a city, right?

(08:36):
I I mean, I was marveling atthings in Paris, and that's a
big city.
Take some moments and reflectand absorb and fill your mind
with that feeling of awe and letit sink in because it's
affecting your physiology, it'sgonna affect your body, right?

(09:00):
It's gonna also affect yourbrain, as I mentioned.
But even physiologically, yourbody, uh, when we have these um,
I'll just call them positive orhappy kind of feelings, there's
also an immune system responsethat is beneficial to us.
So, I mean, I think about themovie that Robin Williams did

(09:23):
and where he um made the sickpatients laugh, right?
And how healing that was.
So, this too, you know, beingout there where you uh reflect
and you are experiencing thenature of all, that can also
have that physical healingproperty, in my opinion, because
it does affect your wholephysiology.

(09:44):
So go going on your trip, I wantyou to spend some time or make
that sort of just be aware ofthat as you are traveling.
And then if you don't have atrip planned, this is something
you can practice even in your umwherever you are, in your
locale, and in your everydaylife, even maybe something

(10:08):
mundane as watching the birdssitting and just marveling at
how they go from bird feeder.
If you have bird feeders, you'regonna see them more, or
listening to their calls ortheir sounds, maybe just
watching some flowers bloom overa course of a week and being in

(10:32):
awe of of all that, of creationgenerally, and or maybe you want
to go attend uh a concert thatis gonna bring you that joy and
that uh nature of awe toyourself.
So I encourage you because thisis one of I think it's kind of

(10:55):
one of the foundations ofunderstanding how travel can be
transformative, how it can healus, even um intentionally, yes,
but uh that's not your mainfocus, maybe.
Uh yes, there are times when wecan be intentional about using a

(11:19):
particular trip for healingpurposes.
Yes, and you know I'm all aboutthat.
That's part of my coachingprogram, but I'm just talking
about a normal travel thatyou're gonna do, that you can
incorporate that so that youcome back changed and
transformed just from thatsimple act of being in awe of

(11:45):
whatever it is you areexperiencing in your travels or
even in your day-to-day life.
Again, as I mentioned uh youknow, before I have a coaching
program, and if you want toreally experience some change
and some transformation in yournext trip, go to hello at

(12:08):
Cherylbeckesh.com or you can goto my website,
Cherylbeckesh.com, and checkinto that program.
I love to hear from my listenersand let's get on a call,
Discovery Call, and get outthere and discover the science

(12:29):
of awe and how it can transformyour next trip.