Hiking Is My Therapy.

Don't get me wrong. I believe in counseling, in the power of processing life with a paid professiona; in order to get back on track and move on in life. I've been to plenty of counseling in my own life and I am a counselor. But I've also found my own form of therapy: hiking.

Life's been heavy this year. I can't totally pin it on any one thing. Rather, this heaviness is a mixture of hard work, and tiredness, and sickness, and life events, and country events, and world events. Whew! The overwhelm I've felt is pretty immense. I can't ever quite seem to escape or process it all.

But then there's hiking. It's my new favorite form of self-care. Being outside is like a mental detox. I see the stillness of nature as I walk, and I become more still. I talk to people I care about and I'm reminded that I'm not the only one with struggles. I breath in. I breath out. I sweat. I get tired. And somehow, afterward, the world seems bigger and better and brighter.

There's legitimate science behind hiking being therapeutic. The physical activity causes crossing between the left- and right-brain, resulting in new connections and new learning. New insights can be found and events reconsidered. Pretty cool, right?

Is hiking the be-all, end-all therapy? No, but for me right now, it's working. And if/when I decide to go back for traditional counseling (because at some point I might want to get married, face trauma, or have burn-out), I'll still keep doing it, because I know it will accelerate my processing and growth.

So without further ado, a few pictures from recent hikes:

 Clark Spring

 Constellation Trails

 Mount Humphreys

Praise God for His beautiful creation and its therapeutic value!