Those of us who love to venture out into semi-wild areas to wander for hours know there is more to the experience than most realize. There are the obvious health benefits that come along with moderate, low-impact exercise, fresh air, and mental relaxation. But there is another beneficial effect of hiking that is fortunately much more immediate: the combination of calmness and alertness. This is likely partially a more spread out version of the well known "runner's high." Fellow hikers will know what I am referring to. Spend a half hour walking, and your thoughts will become noticeably more positive. You will be more motivated after the walk than you were before. Spend four hours walking, and your body will have reached a fluidity of motion that complements your new mental acuity. Meanwhile, your mind will be both energetic and at ease. In this heightened state of being, you no longer have the problem of getting yourself going, as you would if you were trying to get off the couch to walk the dog. At the end of a long hike, what you have really achieved is a harmony between mind and body.
Where does this elevated state come from? I don't know if this question has ever been answered. Exercise clearly plays a role, however. The brain no doubt gets more oxygen during hiking, as the rates of circulation and respiration increase. I would argue that in contrast to vigorous aerobic exercise, more prolonged and moderate exercise has a greater effect on the brain. Not only is the the brain receiving more nutrients during a long session of moderate exercise, but you have more time to think during a long walk than you would during a shorter run. When we hike, we are free to think. Ours minds wander and we end up working through problems and coming up with creative ideas, without ever intending to do so. New ideas and life solutions can have impacts on our lives that last much longer than the post-hike euphoria.
Exercise alone cannot account for the benefits of hiking though, as simply immersing ones self in a natural, beautiful area can alter the mind as well. Most of us spend the large majority of our time in buildings, always facing a flat wall. Our usual surroundings have a geometric simplicity that can dampen the imagination. The next time you are in the woods, look around and compare what you see to the inside of a building. The woods are infinitely more complex, and as primates, our minds evolved to process visual information not from the inside of a square building, but from the forests and other natural areas of our origin. The more time we spend indoors, looking at flat walls, flat computer and television screens, and flat floors and ceilings, the more we may be caging a component of the human brain that developed in a completely different environment.
What can be lost if we don't use our brains to the fullest extent? Hiking is not simply enjoying nature as a hobby or a nice diversion. It is a lifestyle. To be a hiker means more than to appreciate the natural beauty all around us. It means choosing to address a part of ourselves that is too often ignored. We are beings that spent millions of years evolving in an environment completely different from the one we live in today, and the hiker knows that the remnants of that evolution are alive and well in the human brain, waiting to be awoken with a gaze upon a forested trail.
Where does this elevated state come from? I don't know if this question has ever been answered. Exercise clearly plays a role, however. The brain no doubt gets more oxygen during hiking, as the rates of circulation and respiration increase. I would argue that in contrast to vigorous aerobic exercise, more prolonged and moderate exercise has a greater effect on the brain. Not only is the the brain receiving more nutrients during a long session of moderate exercise, but you have more time to think during a long walk than you would during a shorter run. When we hike, we are free to think. Ours minds wander and we end up working through problems and coming up with creative ideas, without ever intending to do so. New ideas and life solutions can have impacts on our lives that last much longer than the post-hike euphoria.
Exercise alone cannot account for the benefits of hiking though, as simply immersing ones self in a natural, beautiful area can alter the mind as well. Most of us spend the large majority of our time in buildings, always facing a flat wall. Our usual surroundings have a geometric simplicity that can dampen the imagination. The next time you are in the woods, look around and compare what you see to the inside of a building. The woods are infinitely more complex, and as primates, our minds evolved to process visual information not from the inside of a square building, but from the forests and other natural areas of our origin. The more time we spend indoors, looking at flat walls, flat computer and television screens, and flat floors and ceilings, the more we may be caging a component of the human brain that developed in a completely different environment.
What can be lost if we don't use our brains to the fullest extent? Hiking is not simply enjoying nature as a hobby or a nice diversion. It is a lifestyle. To be a hiker means more than to appreciate the natural beauty all around us. It means choosing to address a part of ourselves that is too often ignored. We are beings that spent millions of years evolving in an environment completely different from the one we live in today, and the hiker knows that the remnants of that evolution are alive and well in the human brain, waiting to be awoken with a gaze upon a forested trail.
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