By Raja Umi Nurshahirah Raja Izzuddin
As the world nowadays values money over life, many people who exist in this world devote themselves to be career oriented. They cannot stop themselves from making more money that is supposedly not enough for them. To them, money can buy anything, therefore, they try very hard to satisfy their hunger for money.
However, there are some people who do not have any choice but to work harder than everyone else especially to cope with high costs of living. Because of that they need to struggle very hard to earn every penny that they can. Sometimes, one needs to have more than one job, especially the low income workers, who receive less than their own sweat in order to survive.
Even teenagers in todays world are already exposed to a lot of responsibility. Not only as responsible daughters/sons or siblings in the family, but also as students. Not to mention their responsibility in class and club activities.
With this crazy responsibility which chooses money over life, many have been driven into huge depression. Their minds are always filled with responsibility and money.
Faced with such situation in life, many seek solution to help them escape from depression. As suggested by many experts, travelling is one of the most sought after activity as this can make them escape from their real world for a moment to seek for happiness.
There are a lot of benefits by travelling around, for example, they can breathe fresh air and start anew after they come back from a break or vacation. Not only that, they can see different perspectives of life apart from their own world. Seeing green enviroment can also stimulate their minds and release stress.
œIn order to release one’s depression, one should travel around. It doesn’t matter where, either inside or outside the country, because our brain needs to escape from old environment for the moment before it can start to function again. Therefore, the short vacation is something necessary for these people, said Branch Manager of Kembara Dunia Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, Raja Mohd Hafiz Raja Nasharuddin.
œDuring travelling, not only they can escape from depression, they can also meet with different kinds of people, know different views of the country or know about other country and improve one’s knowledge. Not only that, one can learn about one’s own country if one travels inside the country. Yet, not only travel can cure depression, hiking and camping can also enlighten the depression. As long as they can escape from the big city, those two also can be the cure, added Mr. Hafiz.
œDoctors also support the idea of travelling if their patient is in depression mood. The reason is that travelling itself is part of the distress process. While in that, they can meet new people and start to open up to others and not live in their own world anymore. Also, in the process of travelling, the patient can ponder his or her own values in this world and from such thinking, the depression in the mind of the patient will become less and less present. It makes the patient value his or her own self more. Also, there is a saying, ˜when traveling around, one can sometimes find his or her true self. ”
It shows that travelling is the key to releasing depressions inside one’s body, said a medical officer of Institut Kanser Negara, Dr. Raja Hazwani Aimi Raja Mukhtar.
œHowever, when we talk about travelling, of course it will cost a bit. Thats why, one must travel within his or her range of money. In other word, affordable. With that, one can release the depression and stress all out without worries, she added.
Besides curing depression, travelling has a lot of other benefits too. It broadens one’s networking especially when one wants to increase projects or set up another company at a different location or even in another country.
œAside from learning new things or learning other habits, a person can also broaden networking for the sake of the company. Knowing many people can result in having brighter job prospects in the future, especially if one is in a good term with people who have big names in the country, said Associate Professor Dr. Masrah Azrifah Azmi Murad, who is Head of Department of Information System, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
She added that one can also sharpen one’s creative and critical thinking skills as he or she has seen so many things outside their own country and met with other people of different social and cultural backgrounds. ***