Hiking is a form of therapy or meditation for me and I’ve listened to other people talk about how hiking helps them think.
I feel that the reason that hiking is like meditation is when you hike you have to pay just enough attention to where you are stepping so you don’t trip and this means you aren’t looking at a phone to check your email or text messages. You are present in the moment and not distracted by the flotsam of everyday life.
We try to squeeze so much into a day and are constantly bombarded with messages about how we should be doing even more than we are doing right now. We wake up early and do the laundry, and the dishes, make breakfast, get the kids to school, race to work, answer emails while we are talking to someone on the phone and responding to a co-workers mimed question, we race home only to be stuck in traffic where we listen to the radio and respond to the last emails of the day, we get home, get the kids, head to practice, come back home, make dinner, clean-up, help with homework, sit down for a few precious moments that we squander watching a television show we won’t be able to recall within a month much less a week, put the kids to bed, and pass out.
We don’t live in the moment, we race from one to the next.
But when we hike – we are present in the moment while we walk through the woods and listen to the rhythmic crunch of leaves under our feet. We see and hear the birds in the trees and maybe, if we are lucky, scare up a deer that snorts at us before flashing its white rump and bounding off through the woods.
In the woods, we are present in the moment and if we let our children explore with us at their pace, we can create memories that they will tell their children about.
By showing our children how we appreciate the little moments and the simple pleasures of a walk through the woods, we are helping them develop healthy habits for their physical, emotional, and mental health.
We are fortunate in the Greater Cincinnati Area to have many great places to hike during the fall. For a hike with kids try California Woods or Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary, or Big Bone Lick State Park.
You have to make time to be in the present moment. To stop and take in the beauty around you and to reset your self so you can handle all that life has to throw at you.
