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What the Outdoors Does for MeToday I want to share with you about why I’m so passionate about the outdoors,...
So here’s why I love being outside, and especially, outside where I’m surrounded by remote, wild, natural environments.1. I want to be free from over-stimulation.Technology, traffic, shopping, todo lists, managing money, making money, responding to other people’s urgency — it’s all overwhelming.
Being free from that for a few hours, a few days, or a few weeks is good for me.
It helps me stay healthy, and it helps my mind and emotions heal from the damage they incur from living in a busy, hectic, first-world urban environment.
2. I want to experience the earth in its purest, unadulterated form - before it’s too late.Energy development, residential and commercial development, urban development, consumerism - our society’s thirst for these things is destroying natural places at an alarming rate.
Given the recent political climate surrounding the Keystone Pipeline, Bears Ears National Monument, and development in the Grand Canyon, it’s apparent to me that nothing seems sacred or untouchable anymore. I hope future generations have the opportunities we do to experience wild nature.
From Ryan Jordan BPL Founder
"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in"
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”By John Muir
That about sums it up for me too.
Leaving behind the nagging realities of everyday life.
daveiniowa
04-05-2017, 19:31
Yep! And when I climb huge mountains or face wild animals and weather or total defeat then succeed, I feel like a total bad a$$. Because I do the things other people only talk about doing. That's living.
FrogLevel
04-05-2017, 19:49
I like going on an adventure however short or long. I also get pleasure knowing everything I need is on my back and the only thing that's going to get me home are my legs. I personally don't feel bogged down by technology in my daily life so I still enjoy bringing my kindle and smartphone along. It makes the experience all the better.
devoidapop
04-05-2017, 20:43
I do some of my best thinking when I'm alone for hours or days in the woods. Sometimes I need that time to confront myself and think about how to be a better me.
It also connects me to my childhood, and aren't we all suckers for nostalgia?
Great topic. I look forward to reading other responses.
All of the above and more, but I never think of it as an escape... more like getting back to normal. The woods are as real as any other reality, and preferable to most.
saltysack
04-05-2017, 22:18
DW I'd say I couldn't agree more....this song by JJ Grey really hits home....
https://youtu.be/VwxNZ2mff-o
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Enjoyed it SS. Has a CCR or Allman Bros feel.
BuckeyeBill
04-06-2017, 01:15
There is no comparison to standing or sitting on a outcrop looking over the valley below or across the valley at another peak and wondering what it's like over there. Add a hot cup of coffee and a sunrise or sunset and the world is at peace if only for awhile.
LazyLightning
04-06-2017, 02:37
Hey now, first post here. The outdoors hasn't been what it should have for me, or much at all, for a lot of my life. That thought came over me recently while I was looking up the Appalachian trail and realizing I gotta get out and hike that, didn't know much about it until a few weeks ago. I'm planning my thru hike for next year as I prep this year, planning at least a day hike every weekend at different places around me, with some overnighters when I can. Been working in the carpentry field since high school so I'm not really out of shape or anything to begin with. I'm remembering how much I used to love the outdoors and just walking in the woods, it's been too long away.
“Before the deed comes the thought. Before the achievement comes the dream. Every mountain we climb, we first climb in our mind.”
— Royal Robbins
Being outdoors to me is a place to relax and unwind and get some great exercise and ponder about life and our meanings. Its also nice just to think about ones self and feel the movements of the body. Many other thoughts that the outdoors brings into my mind go thru my head but ill leave them there for me to enjoy. Everyone's reasons for being outdoors are different and are all great reasons to that person, outdoors can do many different things for people.
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. - John Muir
johnspenn
04-06-2017, 06:28
Spending time in the outdoors engenders a sense of wonder and a sense of gratitude for the creation we live in.
Spending time in the outdoors allows me to "unplug" from the everyday grind and gain some perspective on challenges and problems I face. Hiking, especially, gets my brain working and helps me think more clearly.
Spending time in the outdoors gives me the motivation and impetus I need in my everyday life to stop being so lazy and get myself in decent enough shape to enjoy the times I'm privileged enough to do so.
I tried to write a blog post about this subject a while back, and here's some of what I came up with...
"And the deeper it goes, the fuzzier it gets and the harder to explain it becomes, but I’ll try. As eternal creatures, and God’s children, we understand that although we inhabit this world for a time, ultimately this is not our home. We are strangers and pilgrims. We find imperfect happiness here for a season, but we look for and long for something better. As I’m out in nature, walking, wandering, this is what I find myself doing- looking for and longing for something better. Maybe it’s around the next bend, at the summit of the next hill, across that river. And sometimes I find it, but I don’t find IT- that thing that is best. So I walk on and keep searching. I understand that I won’t find it here in this world, but my vision gets a little clearer. Paul tells us that we see “through a glass darkly” and I totally get that, but sometimes. some rare times. the darkness lightens and I get a glimpse."
(original post here if anyone's interested (https://couch2trail.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/what-is-it-about-the-trail-his-take/))
eggymane
04-06-2017, 06:31
I just generally dislike taking showers every day for work..being out in the wilderness allows me to not take one!
Even though I'm terrible at naming constellations I thoroughly love looking up at the vast sky at night and just being amazed at the universe we live in. Shooting stars are one of my favorite things.
I despise tap water. Drinking pure natural mountain water is my definition of happiness.
I don't really care much for beds. I would much prefer my hammock or my sleeping pad on some forest duff.
saltysack
04-06-2017, 07:32
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170406/89196a17b3ac707a66c27162367a4be7.jpg
Pretty much sums it up....
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
TX Aggie
04-06-2017, 08:03
I grew up in a small town out in west Texas. Our family vacations were typically RV trips to Texas parks and campgrounds, my dad and I hunted from a camping trailer, and I would cowboy camp in my yard on summer nights.
We even had a section of land about a mile outside of Big Bend National Park where we went almost every year.
Now I live inside the Baltimore/DC I-95 corridor and the rat race contained within. I'm now using backpacking and the relative proximity to the AT to get my two girls out and into the woods. Thankfully they've taken to it just like i did as a kid.
So getting outside to me is a connection both to the past and the future.
Tipi Walter
04-06-2017, 09:10
The modern fascination with all things Human is a temporary blip---we in fact lived in nature and outdoors for most of our 200,000 year history as modern homo sapiens. So to me backpacking and living outdoors is an old tape and allows me to reclaim my Cro magnon heritage. It's in our blood, despite this current drooling over Everything Human.
Humans are mammals and animals no different than fireants or rodents. Some even consider us the Planet virus, destroying everything wild and decent. But unbridled earthly Nature will win out in the end, no matter how many battles we modern Humans win in our War on Nature. Living outdoors is the reality, living indoors is a temporary construct of species centrism and our love of ourselves, resulting in the urbanization of America the beautiful and the destruction of the wild.
I put it into this "mantra"---If you're indoors you're a failure; If you're outdoors you're a success."
illabelle
04-06-2017, 09:39
I LOVE sleeping with fresh air. Winter, summer, nighttime temps in the 20s or 80s, I'll have my bedside window open. Maybe just a crack. Maybe a lot more. I love listening to the chorus of night creatures singing to me from the darkness. You'd think we have hundreds of frogs, or a few thousand even, crickets, owls, and whatever else.
My husband hates my open window. :(
gwschenk
04-06-2017, 10:00
This is the thing:
"You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place ? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know." — René Daumal.
gwschenk
04-06-2017, 10:07
Also this:
"On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude." — Lionel Terray.
For me it is a organic, GMO free, all natural form of Xanax!
Tipi Walter
04-06-2017, 10:22
Matthew King is one of my heroes and he understands the outdoors and what we call Pantheism---that God is Nature and nature is God. He was a Lakota spiritual leader. Here's one of his quotes I like---
“God made everything so simple. Our lives are very simple. We do what we please. The only law we obey is the natural law, God’s law. We abide only by that. We don’t need your church. We have the Black Hills for our church. And we don’t need your Bible. We have the wind and the rain and the stars for our Bible. The world is an open Bible for us. We Indians have studied it for millions and millions of years. We’ve learned that God rules the universe and that everything God made is living. Even the rocks are alive. When we use them in our sweat ceremony we talk to them and they talk back to us.”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/de/d7/fa/ded7fa48112403fcc1d35ee12f3e34f6.jpg
Here's a pic of Matthew King speaking and holding up his Eagle feather---
Pic from---
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/535787686891989116/
colorado_rob
04-06-2017, 11:19
Nice thread...
My motto: "He who spends the most time outdoors in his life, wins". I'm pretty sure we are still programmed to be outdoors, mentally, hence why we're the most happy and relaxed when so. I extend this to say:" He who sleeps the most number of nights outdoors wins". I basically catch up on my sleep when backpacking.
For long hikes, what is so cleansing to me personally is that life boils down to only four essentials: Eat, sleep, hike and pee/poop. Nothing else really matters!
I get so annoyed on long hikes where I have to take care of some sort of financial business on the trail, like pay a bill or check a security or bank balance or something like that.
The rhythm of steps, breath, arm swing. Moving through space consciously ( of course sometimes with huge effort).
left52side
04-07-2017, 23:59
Well im not sure if this pertains to the outdoors but for me it does as being outdoors is part of it.
For me I fell in love with thru hiking and long distance backpacking because of the humbleness it brings oneself.
I enjoy leaving all the "comforts of home"scenarios and relying on such minimal things to carry me through A half year at times with just whats on my back.
(And for those of you who know me,know thats not alot at all lol.)
All the stress goes away even if it is soaking wet and cold outside with A whole day of climbing ahead of me,there are no worries.
When I am from A trip I do not feel like I am "home" even though I have adapted to living minimally in A tiny home getting rid of lots of "luxury" items I still not feel at home.
But the second I hit the trail I feel that enlightenment again ,that well being again, that peace again.
No bad days ...
So im not really sure what the outdoors gives me , I suppose peace...
Matthew King is one of my heroes and he understands the outdoors and what we call Pantheism---that God is Nature and nature is God. He was a Lakota spiritual leader. Here's one of his quotes I like---
“God made everything so simple. Our lives are very simple. We do what we please. The only law we obey is the natural law, God’s law. We abide only by that. We don’t need your church. We have the Black Hills for our church. And we don’t need your Bible. We have the wind and the rain and the stars for our Bible. The world is an open Bible for us. We Indians have studied it for millions and millions of years. We’ve learned that God rules the universe and that everything God made is living. Even the rocks are alive. When we use them in our sweat ceremony we talk to them and they talk back to us.”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/de/d7/fa/ded7fa48112403fcc1d35ee12f3e34f6.jpg
Here's a pic of Matthew King speaking and holding up his Eagle feather---
Pic from---
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/535787686891989116/
Awesome post
pesphoto
04-08-2017, 11:05
..getting away from the hustle and bustle and general loudness of everyday life.
Being one who prefers solitude its been just the ticket, not to mention it has helped me lose about 30 lbs along the way.
This is high content thought provoking comments. TU all for sharing. Some really good stuff!
Going to Nature is not escaping from reality but embracing reality.
Its like you're turning the volume way up and way down at the same time. Its the difference between riding in a car to the mall and walking to the corner store. Its the taste of an ice cream cone when you know you're going to sleep under a bridge tonight.
Whether I'm walking on a local multi use trail, mountainbiking or hiking with a pack on my back the end result is the same. I feel decompressed.
NotAgain
04-09-2017, 14:18
The outdoors has literally saved my life. I have always been a strong active person who spends a lot of time doing traditional bushcraft, primitive archery, and other outdoors-related activities. I was the cubmaster for 3 years for a gold star pack until I got sick, and I really pushed the traditional crafts. Last year, I went through a tough divorce and I was diagnosed with a very serious life threatening disease. I lost 40 lbs very rapidly and could not even walk up the stairs in my home to get to my bedroom. I spent some time in the hospital and am on a new experimental medication that seems to be working.
For a while though, I kind of just gave up caring. I no longer had the strength to do the things I loved. I could no longer pull back my bows, go hunting, play any sports and kind of became a loner. The new medication was definetely helping me get my strength back and I started going to the local state parks just to do some overnights and to sleep outside in the primitive campgrounds.
Man, being outdoors again felt so good! I slept so well and felt so refreshed the next day! I woke up and ate well. This was so important, as part of the side effects of the pharmacueticals was insomnia and loss of appetite, and I was definetely suffering from those! Now I am trying to get out at least 1 night a week, and trying to visit all of our state parks. I try to hike at least 5 miles of trails the day of and when I am leaving, with the most in one day being 11 miles. I am trying to go lightweight and feel really good that I am at least walking those miles and still feeling energetic! I know it is not the miles that you guys do daily, but it feels monumental to me!
Well anyways, to wrap things up. I am once again feeling good about life, friendly and caring! The woods has been my church and help me priortize my life.
What gets and keeps me outdoors: The wonder of it all. The way fog lifts in the morning or snow falls. The way flowers bloom or a salamander runs. The incredible vistas that call me further on. In it all I can lift my voice and sing hymns of praise to the one who made it all. What gets me outdoors? It is there I can spread my arms out, breathe and let my thoughts go creative, these are things I cant seem to do in the box cubicles of an office.
Stone1984
04-09-2017, 16:34
Being from a scientific background I take solace in the fact that stars have died in order for me to be here. The utter beauty and magnificence of the outdoors is awe inspiring to me. I am at peace and comfortable in the natural world. I also enjoy challenging myself. I like the burn of my muscles after a hard days work. We are only here for a short time. I wish everyone could find the things that make them happy and strive to achieve them. One of those things for me is a very long walk in the woods.
evyck da fleet
04-10-2017, 07:36
It allows me to unplug and get other people out of my head whether it's running or hiking to stay in shape, get back in shape or get off the couch. Hiking trips also allow me to appreciate how easy I have we have it in the modern world thanks to technology, be it planning my next trip, what I want for dinner etc.
First, I want to thank SaltySack for posting the beautiful picture with the amazing quote from Hubert Reeves!
Now, what the outdoors does for me: For me, the outdoors, particularly wild settings, provide not just a source of adventure,it but also a sources of spiritual enrichment the likes of which churches couldn't dream of providing. I always feel better about myself and about life after a walk in the woods or in the wild. To get the full benefit, I find it it is better to go out alone. Groups of 10-20 people only separate me from the enrichment I would have otherwise have gotten. I don't really know why so many people see mountains for instance as a place to race through rather than as a place to slow down and soak up. I guess they have their reasons but for me, it is best to slow down and soak up all the wild has to offer than to hurry through it.
whiteblaze community... I wish we had more threads like this one. Let's talk about why we value the oudoors!
illabelle
04-10-2017, 08:43
whiteblaze community... I wish we had more threads like this one. Let's talk about why we value the oudoors!
Agreed. I've enjoyed this thread. Several posts have been inspiring.
I would like to point out that it's not "the outdoors" so much as it's the WILD. Yesterday I was talking with a friend who commented that she likes yardwork, and I like hiking. Both are outdoors, but don't provide the same benefit at all.
I tried to explain to her what I get out of hiking, but it was hard to find the words for it. I like what Reverse said above in post 31 about the "Wonder of it all" - poetry! Even when it's a relatively mundane stretch of trail, there's the little things that make it wondrous: luxuriously deep and moist moss, the economies of extravagant leaf production, the profound difference in how solids like the ground support us while we move effortlessly through our gaseous atmosphere.
Hikingjim
04-10-2017, 09:44
When you wake up and your goal for the day is to enjoy life, enjoy peace and quiet, enjoy the wilderness, embrace challenges as they come, keep moving, how can it be a bad day?
I can apply some of that philosophy to every day life, but it's much much harder to execute!
One AT vloger (earlyriser71) calls everything busy/society "the matrix" in his videos, and I like the analogy.
When people reference hiking or plans to hike as escapism, there may be some truth in that. But what are we escaping? Often an artificial way of living, inside a box (physical and mental) of whatever size, with certain routines. Escapism is a positive thing if you're abandoning restrictions and getting back to the basics of reality
Tipi Walter
04-10-2017, 12:19
First, I want to thank SaltySack for posting the beautiful picture with the amazing quote from Hubert Reeves!
His quote reminds me of an old Ed Abbey quote---
"Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development?"
I often muse about wilderness and the state of wilderness on my backpacking trips---I keep an exhaustive journal---and while squatting in such places I marvel at the human noise pollution from the nonstop overhead jet traffic crisscrossing the TN and NC mountains.
And then I think of the neverending encroachment of monkey man into everything decent and/or pristine. Which brings me to the thought of a modern-day Jesus trying to find a place to pull his 40 days in the wilderness. He'll be lucky to get some scrub forest behind a Walmart.
Another Kevin
04-10-2017, 16:37
(1) Getting away from the overstimulation which allows for
(2) Listening to the Fella that Owns the Place.
Also:
(3) My mood improves when I'm Out There regularly.
(4) When I'm not Out There regularly, I start putting on weight - and really struggle to keep it off.
The two may be related, and this pair may be related to the stuff above.
Illabelle.. you make a good point. Just being outside does not necessarily help. I never got much pleasure from mowing a lawn for instance. It is being in the wild, in the wood, in the mountains in nature that truly refreses the soul!
The woods are poetry in motion. They and all that inhabit them are beautiful. Even the spiders I so seriously hate, are gorgeous to see and watch in their home, doing what they were created to do (which is not to live in my house by the way). It's another world from the one I live in daily. A world full of animals and creatures of all kinds living only by instinct, without guile or hate or agenda/motive. Just living as they were created to live. How wonderfully simple and easy and I am envious and being outside (at their house) for a while gives me a tiny little taste of what that might be like. I feel a bit like the animal/mammal I am. Probably the only time I feel that way. It's a up close and personal viewing of the circle of life, including the plants and trees and dirt and insects. It's breathtakingly beautiful. It re-prioritizes the mind to the most basic needs and concerns and allows me to gain perspective and reasoning. At the end of the day, what really matters in this life? Relationships and the state/condition of your heart and soul, and food, water and shelter. You can get your fill of all of these in the woods.
rocketsocks
04-10-2017, 19:55
Heading to the mountains always felt like goin' home.
I'm not the most introspective but I actually wrote these while in my bag and tent last Saturday night:
1. It's not work, it's not what I do everyday.
2. The woods are quiet.
3. I want to gain/maintain some physical condition.
4. I want to return to some of the physical challenges that I met when I was younger.
5. I like the challenges and the decision making.
6. I like the prehike planning.
7. Other backpackers are good people to be with.
Family/friends would be surprised to learn that I've even thought along these lines.
Traillium
04-10-2017, 23:41
I'm not the most introspective but I actually wrote these while in my bag and tent last Saturday night:
1. It's not work, it's not what I do everyday.
2. The woods are quiet.
3. I want to gain/maintain some physical condition.
4. I want to return to some of the physical challenges that I met when I was younger.
5. I like the challenges and the decision making.
6. I like the prehike planning.
7. Other backpackers are good people to be with.
Family/friends would be surprised to learn that I've even thought along these lines.
RangerZ, you've caught a lot of the mundanity, the same-old trudge, the daily plainness that I found on my hike last year. I loved those aspects!
I got all the warm fuzzies from directly being in the natural world as well — and that was powerful.
But what you've written also captures a lot of what I yearn for. Thanks!
We (my gf and I) mentioned to a chubby waitress while she was taking our breakfast order, that we we going hiking. Her face lit up and she asked us "is hiking fun?"
We looked at each other and said "no, not really, but its something we enjoy doing. Its hard work at times"
As a friend of hers asked her once "what godforsacken mountain are you climbing this weekend?"
We've asked ourselves several times why we enjoy it. It can be a miserably exhausting experience, it can be terrifying, it can be deathly cold, it can be so hot that your toungue swells from dehydration. One has to battle biting bugs, dirty water, hygiene and sanitation issues, it can be very repetitious to the point of boredom and in those moments one withdraws within oneself and reach a zen-like quality. Your mind floats, free of stress, or cares of the outside world. The miles fly by. You stop on top of some godforsacken mountain, and drink some ice-cold mountain water you just filtered a mile back on the trail, munch on some gorp, and watch nature's geologic handiwork flow out before you and think how few people in the country even have the motivation to shut off ESPN and get off the couch to get to this exact spot and see this view. Mind completely empty, just enjoying the moment. At that moment, one realizes how truly unique and special one is.
And also, hiker chicks have the greatest glutes.
saltysack
04-11-2017, 08:43
We (my gf and I) mentioned to a chubby waitress while she was taking our breakfast order, that we we going hiking. Her face lit up and she asked us "is hiking fun?"
We looked at each other and said "no, not really, but its something we enjoy doing. Its hard work at times"
As a friend of hers asked her once "what godforsacken mountain are you climbing this weekend?"
We've asked ourselves several times why we enjoy it. It can be a miserably exhausting experience, it can be terrifying, it can be deathly cold, it can be so hot that your toungue swells from dehydration. One has to battle biting bugs, dirty water, hygiene and sanitation issues, it can be very repetitious to the point of boredom and in those moments one withdraws within oneself and reach a zen-like quality. Your mind floats, free of stress, or cares of the outside world. The miles fly by. You stop on top of some godforsacken mountain, and drink some ice-cold mountain water you just filtered a mile back on the trail, munch on some gorp, and watch nature's geologic handiwork flow out before you and think how few people in the country even have the motivation to shut off ESPN and get off the couch to get to this exact spot and see this view. Mind completely empty, just enjoying the moment. At that moment, one realizes how truly unique and special one is.
And also, hiker chicks have the greatest glutes.
Ha....counting down till the she nazi's eat this up....
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The perfect campfire topic.
I tend to quote Benton MacKaye a lot... He uses the word "recreation" a lot in his essays. Parse that word. Say it. He also talks about the wilderness as "oxygen for the soul."
Love hanging out with kindred souls at a campsite or shelter. Love being high above the world, looking out over it... absolved and relieved, at least for a while, of its petty concerns. Celebrating my health, vigor, and freedom. I love the deep silence, and the (mostly) soothing sights, sounds and scents of the woods.
To the extent that I'm a spiritual person at all, the woods are my cathedral.
Tipi Walter
04-11-2017, 09:27
We've asked ourselves several times why we enjoy it. It can be a miserably exhausting experience, it can be terrifying, it can be deathly cold, it can be so hot that your toungue swells from dehydration. One has to battle biting bugs, dirty water, hygiene and sanitation issues, it can be very repetitious to the point of boredom and in those moments one withdraws within oneself and reach a zen-like quality. .
My personal definition of Backpacking? Managing Discomfort.
Some days are tough, some days are tougher, other days are not. And all are done in the up-ended snow globe of Miss Nature's favorite home.
Some backpacking days are a nonstop scramble from one campsite to the next in terrible conditions. These tough days produce a mindset which can make for a long tough day of backpacking and eventually results in what I call the Lizard Gaze—Your eyes get focused like a lizard and you enter a very strange state—Moving at all costs, robot mode, sticks and jabs unnoticed—you feel no pain—and you react to everything in your surroundings without thought. It’s a good place to be but it’s a tough place to get TO. Green berets call it the Drone Zone. Common backpackers like me touch the hem of the skirted Lizard on occasion.
Ultimately though we get to sleep up against the soft breasts of beautiful Miss Nature and for this we keep going out.
I think part of the addiction too is that it is HARD. One of my near daily mantras to my kids and husband and whomever else is around when appropriate, is: "Nothing worth having comes easy". It's the fact that is is so hard that makes it worth doing at all and there is such an awesome pay off and you don't have to wait until the end for it. The pay off is in the views and sounds and smells and, and, and.... and it comes along with every step you take. Right along side the pain of your knees and back. Its a perfect balance between euphoria and misery in a simultaneous dance. And I can't think where else you could ever achieve such a feeling in this life. Its the perfect marriage between instant gratification and slow and steady wins the race.
The woods are simply peace and agony; simple yet technically difficult; pain and promise; sweat and sweet; tears and fears. It's everything all wrapped up in a little walk. OR.....
"It's Just Walking" by:LW
Time slows down, focus and absorption of the present moment increases.
Ask me about my 8 hour shift at work two days ago and I'm lucky if I can even recall 1 thing that I did. Ask me about my day #2 of doing Jasper's Skyline Trail years ago and I could likely write you a very detailed small novel, describing everything from the positioning of the tent to what clothes I was wearing.
I try to avoid having a pre-set plan and a "making miles" mindset, that is just creating a reason to stress and worry when in reality there is none.
Years of meditation has taught me to separate my brain into 2 separate entities, thinking, and awareness.
My thinking brain dominates probably 99% of the time. It's essential for life. It is also far over-stimulated by the way we live today. It is the sole cause for stress and anxiety, depression and anger. It can certainly produce pleasure, but I have yet to make myself "happy" with thought. My definition of happy is more of a carefree contentment though.
Awareness is the non-thought dominated state of being. I also think of it as being in "the zone". It's the feeling you get when you're fully focused and operating at peak performance. It's a snowboarder nailing a 900 in a superpipe. It's a football player reading the QB's eyes and making an interception. It's mind blowing sex. It's swerving out of the way of a stopping car at the last second.
Awareness is when conscious thought, which is the bringer of negativity, is not the dominating force in your brain. Negativity on the inside all too often is a precursor for negativity to present on the outside. Awareness is the full acceptance of and absorption in the present moment.
For whatever reason, hiking muffles my thinking brain. It doesn't put me into a meditative state, devoid of thought. It does, however, do a damn good job at cleansing the negative ones. My thinking becomes clearer, and I'm able to feel things that are all too lacking from my daily life. Awe. Appreciation. Wonder. A feeling that things will be all right.
After writing that, it seems like I use it as a therapy or a spiritual thing, but that is not the full extent of it. I also love hiking to a spot by a river and getting a buzz going with some friends. I love the small talk with strangers on the trail almost as much as the solitude. Although I loathe consumerism, I love the gear. Just looking at a well made pack or even a hiking map is enough to stimulate my mind. I love introducing people to the "sport", and taking someone to one of my favorite spots. I love not having a clue what time it is. I love it getting dark at 5pm in the winter, and laying in my sleeping bag reading a mindless entertaining novel for hours. I love the look of a well set up stealth spot. I love doing something I'm going to remember in 10 years.
I can't fully describe everything that draws me to it. It just feels natural. What else could I be doing that is any better?
If I can get out to where man-made things are not present except only the clothing and gear that actually works as it should and there is no evidence other people have been there, everything that is in me becomes enlivened, I think, because I am in the natural world where I belong and I was made for this experience.
There are those that are determined to destroy every vestige of every place for getting that experience: determined to destroy the chance for having experience of the natural environment. Nearly successful, practically everywhere I go there are the "improvements". It isn't easy to find a natural place.