Some of the truest words I’ve ever seen, I read on the wall of a bathroom stall in a small hostel somewhere in the South Pacific. Scrawled above the toilet paper dispenser in all capital letters it read, “We travel not to escape life, but so life doesn’t escape us.”

Since then, I’ve put more thought than ever into the benefits of travel. Beyond the broadening of your proverbial horizons, research shows that a planned vacation and even random wanderings have been found to contribute to helping maintain spiritual, mental and even physical health.

For instance, who knew that an annual vacation could cut a person’s risk of heart attack by 50%? It’s true. In a study of 12,000 men, Savannah’s own branch of the American Psychosomatic Society suggested that those who take vacations every year reduce their overall risk of death by about 20%.

Wait, there’s more. According to the Travel Industry Association, blood pressure, heart rate and levels of epinephrine (a stress hormone) decline on holidays of only one or two days!

“We concluded that skipping vacations could actually be dangerous to your health,” said Brooks Gump, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Oswego and one of the study’s co-authors.

And that’s only your physical health. Travel allows your mind and spirit to not only grow, but to flourish in an environment of (usually) non-judgmental, like-minded peers; to temporarily see the world through your rose colored glasses and perhaps another culture’s eyes. Even if you only ever travel a little farther than your own backyard, as long as your mind and heart are open to new experiences growth, and therefore health, is imminent.

So my question to you is, who among us—even in the most trying of times—can afford not to travel? With all signs pointing to go, and your heart literally on the line, it’s time to hit the road, crank the car, fly the friendly skies… get up and go…