Hiking meditation

Stepping away from your life of responsibility can be so challenging. Hearing the phone ring at the office and answering it to deal with other people’s problems, seeing your child upset about school issues, your spouse downloading their day of stress, and on and on; it weighs heavy. Your senses are constantly being taxed by the grind of everyday life, and it can be overwhelming and sometimes hard to drown out. Until you the smell of the morning dew on the trees, feel the breeze of the day blowing on your skin and the sight of the sun rising over horizon. Hiking can help restart all of your senses and bring you back to the center inside yourself.

Finding the trial for your excursion is the beginning of the relaxation process. You know where you are going, what time you will get there, how many miles you’ll be walking. Focusing on this one thing can help to start alleviating all the stress around you.

The first step on the trial can be such an awaking. The feeling of the rocks, branches and underbrush on the path under your feet. You step on it as if it is going to adjust to your foot but instead, your feet adjust to the path. The ache of your feet and calves and thighs start to radiate but you ignore it because it’s a real pain, a good pain.

As your feet begin to find your pace, you’re greeted with a cool breeze on your arms, legs and face. You notice that the breeze seems to be coming from all different direction. Then you realize, it is you that is changing orientation. Walking from north to west, to north again. The path is always changing, and you are moving along with it. As you start to feel the sun beating down on you, the breeze is no longer there. In an almost insignificant span of time, all has changed, but the journey will always persist.

The crunching sound of the path under your feet can be almost hypnotic. If you are lucky enough to hear birds on the trek, it can be such beautiful music to your ears. The sound of water rushing past you can be refreshing. It seems, like all this at once might be daunting, but you take in all of what you need in the moment you need to hear it.

Taking a drink of water can be so overwhelmingly intense. You didn’t know how thirsty you were until you took that first cool drink and how good it tastes as it flows into your mouth and down your throat for just that little bit of rejuvenation. Sometimes because your mouth is so dry you can taste the bitterness of the adrenaline, but it washes away with every drink you take.

The view from the top is nothing short of magnificence. You reflect at the path that led you to that point. You look out and see how tiny and insignificant you and your problems are in the world. You sit down, too really take in all the grandeur. You don’t want to shut your eyes because you don’t want to miss a thing. So with your eye’s wide open you take in the view, breath in the crisp air, feel the sun and the breeze on your face, hear all the sounds around you as you take a drink of water. This is calm, this is serenity, this is peace.