Hiking Tips: Do These Daily for Big Trail Rewards

When you hear "hiking tips", I'll bet you expect some common sense recommendations about boots and packs.

Surprise!

You can find those sorts of tips on all of the other pages of this website.

Instead, let's talk about other, less often discussed facets of hiking.

Do you approach your trail time from four perspectives?

Yes indeed, you have 4 facets to "you", beginning with the spiritual dimension and moving through the emotional, mental, and physical levels.

My hiking tips will get you started thinking about all 4 dimensions - or just focus on the ones which interest you the most.

Spiritual hiking tips: I am not about to tell you which religion is best, or which spiritual leader or book or movement is THE way. That's a deeply personal decision.

But what I do want to share with you is how important it is to have passion and purpose in your life. For me, hiking unlocks my spiritual dimension because it touches a dimensionless space inside of me. It also puts me in touch with a deep commitment to the planet, and to my fellow travelers in time, which leads to thoughts of service and compassion.

Here's a question for you: Have you ever allowed yourself some space and time to just sit beneath a tree and breathe slowly? You might not think of this as a spiritual exercise, but you'd be surprised what you might learn about yourself! Empty your mind and focus on just one thing: breathing with the tree. Both of you are fellow Earth travelers. The tree is breathing out oxygen and you are breathing out carbon dioxide - feeding each other vital components for life. Try my tree-breathing tip for a few minutes and then get back on the trail, refreshed and energized. If the spiritual aspect didn't surface, at least your red blood cells are oxygenated and your muscles are relaxed!

Hiking tips to address the emotional aspects of being a strong, committed hiker should begin with identifying your emotions.

This sounds deceptively simple, but I find it very hard to nail exactly what I'm feeling sometimes. I tend to blur the line between annoyance and flat out anger. Or I allow irritations to build up until a volcano of upset and hurt spews forth, frying everything in its path.

So, based upon personal experience, I counsel you to isolate each emotion as it arises, and examine it dispassionately. Decode its message: which feelings are surfacing, and why? Is this a pattern? A habitual reaction to a particular person or event? Is it useful? Is it painful or damaging to you or others?

I'm committed to working on my emotions, unpacking the truth within them, and using that truth to become more stable and centered. I find this work to be easier while I'm hiking, probably because I'm not distracted by emails, phone, and other interruptions. Long stretches of trail time give me mental space to go back over my latest emotional upset, and analyze it. Devote some of your mental space during your next hike to working out why you feel the way you feel when your feelings are uncomfortable.

Why would I suggest you do this? Because emotions rob you of energy. Wouldn't you rather have that energy directed to your passions in life? I know I would!

Mental hiking tips begin with the energy theme, too. If I have a long list of things waiting to be accomplished back home, I don't enjoy my hike to the fullest. If I allow it to, hiking pulls me out of my head - peaceful and un-filled-up with my "to do" lists. In a sense, I claim my power and utilize it for the hiking trail. Those chores will be waiting for me when I get home, so why spend my precious outdoor time stewing about them?

So the next time you catch yourself in the mental churn cycle, consciously disrupt it by focusing on how much you are loving being on the trail! Focus your energy on having a great hiking trip, not on how you're going to cross off every item on the chore list tomorrow.

At last we get to the hiking tips for the physical body. I hope you've already had a chance to look around at the nutrition tips and the healthy hiking tips on the site.

Here, I'd like to drop a little challenge into your lap. Are you serious about building & maintaining a strong hiker's body? Have you set yourself a goal, and are working toward it? Not every hiker will, but for those who like to push a little bit, work your way through this checklist (coming soon) to be sure you're maximizing your physical dimension. By building these solid physical habits, your trail time will be enhanced a thousand-fold because you won't be as prone to soreness, injury, dangerous distractions, or fatigue.

And there you have it: hiking tips for all 4 dimensions of a strong hiker!

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