Long ago, the essential activity of our species was hiking.
Humans had to hike so we could hunt and gather food, so we could collect wood for fire and rocks to build shelter, so we could participate in our tribes’ great annual migrations. Hiking was critical to survival.
Today it appears hiking is inconsequential, strictly optional. But the opposite is true: Hiking is now more important than ever. The world needs more hikers, because hiking makes people better people.
Hiking Makes You More Creative
Anything that gets you outdoors—out of your home, your office, your car, out of your mundane routines, out of your fixation on trivial detail, out of the clutches of so-called news and shallow entertainment—makes you more creative. But most outdoor sports keep your conscious mind engaged. They can be thrilling, but they require you to fixate on technique and terrain, so they don’t let you go deep into yourself. You can’t hear your subconscious mind. Hiking, because it’s not a sport, allows you to mentally relax. Your subconscious mind becomes dominant. And the subconscious is your greatest source of problem-solving creativity.
Hiking Makes You Smarter
In a recent study, a large group of randomly selected people was given a task intended to exhaust their attention capacity. They were then divided into three groups for a 40 minute break. Group A went walking in a local nature preserve. Group B went walking in an urban environment. Group C sat quietly and read. 40 minutes later, they were all given identical proofreading tests. Group A, the nature walkers, did far better on the test. That’s because hiking both relaxes and stimulates the mind.
Hiking Makes You Healthier
It’s the perfect exercise: aerobic, low impact, inexpensive, gentle on the environment, viable at any age, so simple it requires no instruction. And hiking, because you do it in natural surroundings, is more than exercise. Hiking has the power to heal. Studies show that patients in hospital rooms with windows providing views of nature require less pain management and heal faster than do patients in rooms with windows overlooking parking lots. So you can imagine what a potent healing therapy it is to actually be in those natural surroundings, hiking through them.
Hiking Makes You Calmer
Hiking quickly makes you aware of your breath. You begin paying attention to the rhythm of your breathing. And breath awareness is an element of many forms of meditation. That’s why hiking balances and centers you, inducing clarity, focus and calm. Studies support this. Daily doses of “green time”— time spent outdoors in natural settings—alleviate symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Hiking Improves Your Love Life
Hike with your partner, and two things will happen. First, the locust-like swarm of details, obligations and responsibilities that typically keeps buzzing around you will not follow you up the trail. You and your partner will find your awareness returns to each other. You’ll begin enjoying each other more, relaxing into your love. Second, you’ll find hiking becomes shared adventure, which sharpens you and your partner’s sense of mutual purpose. It will bond you. It will galvanize your relationship.
Hiking Makes You a Better Friend
That enormous, infinite space, the great outdoors, that you enter when you go hiking? You can bring some of that space back with you, inside you. And you can offer it to others, in the form of openness, empathy, patience, compassion, simply being a better listener, all of which will make you a much better friend.
Hiking Makes You Happier
Hiking is fun. But the word fun doesn’t do it justice. When hiking, you’re admiring our planet’s grandest scenery, you’re exploring wild lands, you’re negotiating tumultuous terrain. It makes you feel intensely alive. It brings profound joy. Profound because it’s not just your joy you’re experiencing. It’s the pleasure of the infinite spirit.
Hiking Makes You More You
The excited conversation that begins at a trailhead when friends go hiking together gradually subsides into more personal, intimate talk. Sometimes that distills into discussion of loftier ideas, but it always slides into long periods of silence. So even if you always hike with friends, you often end up hiking alone. And if you can dive into that tranquility, if you can swim into that solitude, you’ll probe the depths of your soul. You’ll come away with a better understanding of who you really are and where you want to go in the larger journey of life.
Gosh, you hit the nail on the head with “Hiking Makes You More You”! You are talking about me and the friends I hike with and especially so, with regards to our hike yesterday. Were you watching and listening in?
Posted by Andra on May 13th, 2012.
Growing up in Oregon, as the son of a forestry engineer… my favorite memories are from hiking. There is such a unique happiness that comes from hiking and being outdoors in that capacity. Great post!
I’m writing on behalf of KEEN Footwear, and we’re looking for people’s favorite spots to get away from it all, and adding to our global map. We’re really trying to get people outdoors, and provide a way to grow the community at the same time. Here’s a link to the map, feel free to add some places, I’m sure we missed a few…
http://recess.keenfootwear.com/get-high/
Posted by Recess Team on May 14th, 2012.
Now these are some benefits of hiking. Me and my friends try to regularly to take time out for some hiking and make it a camping trip. Its great fun!
Posted by Steven Gray on May 15th, 2012.
Great Post!! Couldn’t agree more.
Posted by OurBoler | Chris on May 15th, 2012.
Hiking is a great way to enjoy the outdoors! Awesome points!
Posted by Mary @ Green Global Travel on May 19th, 2012.
This is an absolutley wonderful post.
I’ve read it over a few times now and will return to it often.
Please keep sharing such musings!
D
Posted by DSD on May 20th, 2012.
Hiking with Huskies
One of our huskies is anxious & excitable in the car on the way to a hike; she yips & yaps & bounces around from window to door; after the hike she is a totally different dog; quiet abd serene. The other husky is male, and imperturbable both ways. we get in the car every morning for our husky hike; the weather is different every day here in B.C., so every day is different. Animal encounters are frequent. Yesterday I had a hummingbird encounter, and a swallowtail surprise , but even that is wonderful when you are outdoors. we went to Raven Rock, where my husband leaves a treat on the mossy rock, and waits for his raven friends to fly in; they always do. My favorite month is April, when we hear and see the migrations of snow geese. It is so cool here in the mornings that I am still wearing parka, hiking boots & toque! in June. My husband is 82 and I am 75! So There!
Posted by Susan MacLeod on June 18th, 2012.
As a cube farm dweller in corporate America, I can’t agree more. Getting out on the weekends and hiking, or paddling, is a must to avoid insanity. There have been times over the years that I have been unable to get out for extended periods and I can definitely notice a degradation in my quality of life.
Posted by Nate on June 18th, 2012.
I also work in a hermetically sealed office at a cube. It is such a relief to escape in the great outdoors on weekends. I find cycling brings similar introspection as hiking, but lacks the immediacy and connection of hiking with others. I agree with the author that there are many benefits to hiking besides the physical exercise.
Posted by John Holmes on August 28th, 2012.
Amen, brother. — Craig
Posted by hikingcamping on August 30th, 2012.