6 years ago I started hiking. Well, hiking might be too big of a word here, but I did start to have long nature walks to tire the puppy that I got.
Over the time I see a huge progress regarding how I approach those hiking trips.
When you hike around tourist routes you can see signs on the trees with the color of the route. They show you where to go next. See the mark here on the pine tree?
6 years ago when I started I couldn’t take my eyes off the phone. I didn’t trust the signs on the tree, I needed to see the online map and the arrow that showed where I was facing to make sure.
I would follow the route and… look at the screen again in 5 minutes. Even if there’s nowhere else to turn. Overthinking at its finest.
This was taking away from the joy of the trip, away from the time spent actually looking at the beautiful nature, away from enjoying the time with my dog.
Since then (2014) I basically when for a week+ nature trip every year. Year after year I noticed how more and more I relaxed and started to enjoy the walks.
The issue with looking at the map every 5 minutes was the craving of control and having a plan. But one cannot control absolutely everything in life. Sometimes you need to make it to point B until you start seeing point C. And this is what I learned with hiking – I need to walk to the next tree with the colorful sign on its trunk and from there it will be clear where to go from there on. Not sooner. Just trust that you’re going in the right direction. And if you can’t go as fast as you want to go, you’re still going in the right direction.
Did it only take me 6 years? Well, kinda. But if you read the paragraph above you know that’s not important. Important is that I was going in the right direction.
If you’re dealing with overthinking and over controlling, consider this hiking therapy of just going from one point to another without obsessing about the whole plan.
