Friday Thought – Hiking For Peace

Sometimes, the path to inner peace is found by adding more miles to your hike.

We’ve all heard that hiking is nature’s therapy, and walking can be deeply meditative and beneficial for our well-being. It’s all true, but the true therapy doesn’t kick in until that magical moment when you realize that while your feet have been steadily trekking, your mind has been wandering somewhere out in the universe. Sometimes, you can’t even recall what you were thinking about! And that’s perfectly okay because a clear head is a healthy head in this case. If you haven’t experienced this yet, a couple of things might be in your way.

Each time you hit the trail, the day’s stresses tend to tag along with you. In fact, it’s quite common to start a hike fully immersed in those daily worries. Similar to when dealing with insomnia, you can’t command yourself to “relax.” It rarely works. What usually happens when you finally fall asleep, is that without realizing it, you’ve just drifted away. Hiking for “peace or clarity” works much the same. You can’t force it, and if you’re on a bustling trail with lots of hikers, dogs, bikes, traffic noise, and the like, it probably won’t happen.

So, your best bet is to seek out a peaceful or quiet trail. It might not always be easy in a busy tourist area like ours, but there are serene trails all over if you know where to look. However, even on busy trails, you can achieve that tranquility with today’s go-to solution, “adding miles.” Seasoned hikers often advise that to find solitude, “go farther.” This is because, after the first mile or two, the crowds nearly always turn back.

And now that you’ve got your peace? Keep walking. Speaking from a lifetime of dealing with anxiety, I can tell you that nature doesn’t immediately shower you with “peace” upon entering the woods (No matter how many memes tell you otherwise!). Nope, all those anxieties may just hop right into your backpack and accompany you… until they don’t. And often, that’s the secret — it’s the distance that sets you free. If you just keep plugging along, in most cases, eventually you’ll mind will break free. In fact, the more you repeat the exercise, you may find the quicker your mind will learn to drop the stress along the way.

Yeah, but who has that kind of time?

I hear you! But really, if you start looking at your hikes by “hours” versus miles, you may start seeing what is possible. For instance, a typical 2-mile hike takes most of us around 40 minutes or so. This may be all you need. A 4-mile hike might take just under 2 hours. An 8-mile hike takes just over 3 hours. Of course, this all depends on your level of fitness and the condition and elevations of the trails but I think you can see the point. Chances are, quieting the stress will cost you an hour or two… but, it’s sooo worth it!

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Learn More About Devil’s Lake State Park’s Hiking Trails