Benefits from hiking
Best tips to detox your brain while hiking
I, like many, often head into nature to disconnect from my busier
frontcountry world and heal.
Hiking and backpacking are easy ways for me to
clear my mind, focus on the present, and find
some peace. However, that’s not always the
case—despite my best intentions.
Sometimes I embark on a hike and I’ll have a moment where I realize I
don’t even remember the last mile because I was so deep in my head
thinking about other things I need to do,
playing out an entire
fantasy scenario, or
ruminating on an old ache. Other times, I realize I
haven’t heard the birds’ calls or the crunchiness of leaves under my
feet because the same song has been blaring in my mind for a good hour.
It’s wild how much of our lives we can
“miss” when we’re living in our minds. But I’m also
grateful for these moments, as they’ve helped me to gain more awareness
of when they occur and how I can kindly redirect them.
If you’ve
ever experienced something similar to the scenarios I’ve described
above, then this post is for you. The following are some practices I’ve
found useful when looking to quiet my mind on
the trail.