Mountain Hiking – Therapy for the Mind, Body, and Soul

It’s five o’clock in the morning. You are simply tired yet full of enthusiasm. It’s a Sunday morning, and you are going, again, hiking on the mountain. You cannot wait for a new adventure to start.  Still, you have to do a couple of things.     First, you wash your face, take a cold shower, and brush your teeth. You may feel sleepy, but the cold water should do its trick. After that, you check your backpack to see if you didn’t forget anything. You put on your boots and leave in a rush.   The train is about to leave in thirty minutes, but you aren’t sure if you will make it. This time, you are taking a cab to the railway station. The mountain range is only one hour from your town, but you must wake up early to make it. For what? For everything.   After one hour of train napping, you reach your destination: a small mountain town that you have visited many times. You’ve visited this place because you have been on hikes that start here.   But before you start hiking, you go to the local 7-Eleven to grab two sandwiches, a soda, and three bananas. You will need the energy. You plan to walk ten hours, so every calorie counts. A cup of coffee may be a good option now, so you get one.   The weather is colder on the mountain, but that’s all right. You left home today to avoid the heatwave. You take a deep breath. The air is rarer at this altitude. It’s just what you need for your body and your mind. You look around and admire the sublime nature. Then, you remember that you must finish a ten-hour route.   You thought about hiking alone. As a solitary person, you thought that nature walks benefit your spirit, but you may not feel spiritual today. No, today, you want to socialize. Luckily, soon, you come across four hikers.   What luck! You get to walk through nature, experience it, and socialize with new people. They seem okay. They are about your age and enthusiastic about exploring.   As all five of you go on the mountain track, you see squirrels, you see goats, you see deer. You see many plants that you have no idea what they are called. At one point, from a far distance, you see a bear. It is massive. For a moment, you feel petrified, but that’s all right. After the bear saw the five of you, it left.   Nature has a lot to offer and a lot to teach us. After so many hours, feeling tired yet still enthusiastic about your trip, you reach town. Civilization at last! You feel safe now, but disconnected.   You know that you cannot live in the woods, up in the mountains, you just aren’t a wild animal, but something within you wants to live up there. Sad that you cannot do that, but grateful for your nature hike, you sit on a chair inside the railroad station, waiting for the train that will get you back home. In an hour, you’ll be there.   You’ve reached home. You take off your dirty clothes, take a hot bath, and lie down in bed. You’ve never felt so tired yet so relaxed. Your body tells you that it is time to get the best rest of your life. The mountain hike has healed your mind, body, and soul. Tomorrow morning, you’ll be a new man. Tomorrow, you’ll be a man of action again.