When I was in graduate school in Hawaii, there was no shortage of ways to embrace nature. It helped that I had a group of friends that was always pushing each other to get out there, go further, and challenge ourselves to do things out of our comfort zone. One of my friends kayaked around the circumference of the entire island of Lanai.
Others spent time on Kauai near the Na Pali Coast hiking and camping for days on end before exhausting their supplies only to enter town briefly to get more and start all over again. When they finally reached the airport to return to Oahu they were reprimanded by airport security for being almost too dirty to fly.
Some of the best hikes and camping trips I took involved flying to another island and spending days on end camping, hiking, and surfing before finally heading back to Oahu to enjoy the spoils of modern city life.
What’s so special about spending time in nature?
Those trips represented something more than a carefree walk in the woods, which by the way is a fantastic book by Bill Bryson on the Appalachian Trail. It was these breaks from normal society that helped us reconnect with an inner peace that is harder and harder to find today. The constant contact world that we live in doesn’t allow this kind of retreat anymore unless you are intentional about doing it.
There is something extremely satisfying about accomplishing something on your own without the ease of modern technology. Hiking a trail to its terminus using a topographic map and a compass instead of a GPS system. If we did use a GPS it was to go geocaching, a sort of modern treasure hunt where you try to find something hidden by others at a specific latitude and longitude. Pitching a tent and spending time in the woods without a shower and cooking over a fire was especially satisfying.
But I can’t just pick up and go for days on end…
Of course it doesn’t have to be this extreme or extravagant. After all we have responsibilities to attend to and we can’t just fall off the grid for days on end when ever we want. We can however, spend the day in the garden and doing outdoor work without your phone. Go on a day hike or spend the day at the beach in the water on a hot day without air conditioning. The activity doesn’t really matter as long as it disconnects you from the normal grind and bonus points if it puts you out of your comfort zone.
Doing this not only brings us back to our natural state but it allows us to think without the clutter of social media, advertisements, and everything else that seems to pull us into 50 different directions at once.
Not only will you feel better by doing it, but it is also one of my favorite ways to fight anxiety. Here’s the other interesting thing about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and into nature; You really appreciate those modern amenities when you come back. A shower feels fantastic after a long hot day at the beach after you are covered in sand. Your bed feels pretty good after spending a few nights on the ground in a tent.
Keeping a little more of a balance between nature and the modern world goes a long way to not only appreciating what you have, but also helps your feeling of fulfillment by knowing that you can accomplish something without modern technology.
This week I’m challenging you to find your activity that balances you with nature, puts you a little out of your comfort zone and disconnects you from the modern world, and lands you squarely in the natural world.
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