The Transformative Power of Travel – Healing Trauma Through New Landscapes, People, and Perspectives
- Brainz Magazine
- Jul 28
- 5 min read
Written by Aleya Belamour, Relationship Recovery Coach
Aleya Belamour is a manifestation expert and energy healer. She is the founder and CEO of Reclaiming Radiance, where she offers a 6-month program to help women heal from narcissistic abuse, a free support group, and leads healing journeys around the world.
Trauma can make your world feel small. It can trap you in the same places, the same thoughts, and the same emotional patterns that caused you pain. But there’s a powerful antidote that can help break this cycle and rewire your brain for healing, growth, and joy: travel.
Travel isn’t about escaping; it’s about expanding your mind, your heart, and your capacity to feel safe, alive, and connected again. It’s about learning new things in new places you wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. Travel is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself on any healing journey.
How travel helps rewire a traumatized brain
Neuroscience shows that trauma can deeply affect the brain, especially the amygdala (the fear center), hippocampus (the memory center), and prefrontal cortex (the decision-making and regulation center). When you’re stuck in routines or the environment where your trauma occurred, your nervous system is constantly reminded of danger, even when there isn’t any.
Novelty and movement are powerful drivers of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire itself. Travel offers a continuous stream of new stimuli, such as different foods, smells, languages, and situations, which engage learning and memory systems in the brain. These experiences can help form new neural pathways, quiet overactive fear circuits, and strengthen the areas involved in presence, pleasure, and curiosity.
New places, new people, new perspective
When you’ve been hurt, especially by someone close to you, it’s easy to fall into the belief that people aren’t trustworthy or, worse, that the world is inherently unsafe.
Traveling exposes you to the vast range of human kindness.
You’ll meet a child in India who eagerly wants to be your translator on a 24-hour train journey. A farmer in Vietnam who chases you down two blocks to give you your change when you mix up the currency conversion. A retired couple in Spain who invite you in for tea when they can see you are a bit lonely, these are just a few of my real-world examples. Through travel, you are reminded that most people are not out to hurt you; in fact, they’re eager to help.
Witnessing different environments, ways of life, family structures, communication styles, and values can also validate your unique experience of the world and remind you that you’re not broken, you’re just healing, and that the world is a big, beautiful place where you can still find happiness when you may have felt hopeless.
Movement moves stuck emotions
On a somatic level, travel encourages movement, which is one of the most effective ways to release trauma stored in the body. Walking unfamiliar streets, hiking foreign mountains, and swimming in new waters, all of these help discharge tension and bring your nervous system back into balance.
As you move through landscapes, you’re also metaphorically moving through emotional landscapes, processing pain, shedding old stories, and discovering parts of yourself you didn’t know were still alive.
Travel doesn’t have to be expensive
Healing through travel doesn’t require five-star resorts or luxury retreats, although you should put those on your vision board because you never know. There are other creative, affordable, or even free ways to see the world while giving yourself space to process and grow:
Trusted housesitters
One of the most healing and budget-friendly ways to travel. This global platform connects you with people who need pet sitters. In exchange for free accommodation, you get a cozy home and animal companionship, often incredibly soothing when you’re emotionally raw. I have personally used this platform to meet amazing people and look after their pets all over the world.
Email me for a 25% off discount code: info@breakuptoblissful.com
Hostels & budget-friendly Airbnb
Many modern hostels offer private rooms with communal kitchens and coworking spaces, perfect for meeting fellow travelers. Airbnb rentals can also be split with a friend or found with long-stay discounts. I’ve had some wonderful Airbnb hosts, my favourite being a Korean grandmother who taught me about life growing up in Korea over breakfast and showed me how to make Korean dumplings.
Workaway/ worldpackers
These platforms allow you to volunteer at hostels, farms, language schools, or eco-communities in exchange for food and lodging. It’s a meaningful way to stay somewhere longer, connect with locals, and contribute to something outside yourself.
Retreat exchange or karma yoga
Many yoga or wellness centers offer "karma yoga" programs. You help out a few hours a day in exchange for staying on the property, often with access to yoga, meditation, or healing workshops.
Slow travel
Instead of rushing from city to city, spend more time in one place. It’s cheaper and allows you to build routines and relationships that restore a sense of safety and belonging.
In conclusion: The world can hold you
Trauma isolates. Travel reconnects.
By changing your scenery, you change your story. You show your brain that the world is not only survivable but beautiful. You remind yourself that life is still full of possibility, spontaneity, kindness, and love.
You don’t need to run away to heal, but sometimes, taking even a short trip can be the thing that brings you back to yourself. Solo travel can feel intimidating at first, but the world is safe, and it is full of millions of people like you, so making connections abroad isn’t so hard.
If you don’t want to go solo and would like to join a group trip, I am happy to invite you on a Breakup to Blissful Girls Trip. I host Girls' Trips all over the world, from a weekend away to a weeklong getaway in paradise. These trips are designed for women looking to explore, connect, laugh, and heal.
You can find more information here.
Read more from Aleya Belamour
Aleya Belamour, Relationship Recovery Coach
Aleya Belamour is a relationship recovery coach and energy healer. She is the author of Breakup to Blissful and Heal From Narcissistic Abuse: A 90-day Journal. Aleya offers coaching and worldwide retreats to help women thrive after painful breakups and divorce.
Research:
Maddux, W.W., & Galinsky, A.D. (2009). Cultural borders and mental barriers: The relationship between living abroad and creativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1047– 1061.
Bunzeck, N., & Düzel, E. (2006). Absolute novelty is more effective than relative novelty in engaging the human hippocampus. Learning & Memory, 13(4), 378–384.
Hartley, C.A., & Phelps, E.A. (2010). Changing fear: The neurocircuitry of emotion regulation. Neuropsychopharmacology, 35, 136–146.
Keltner, D. (2009). Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life.
