This one is a very personal piece of write up because hardly does one remember to write about the things that has impacted life in a major sense. I will always see trekking as a journey more than just an exercise.
Trekking does change the way you think, if you are the kind of person that accounts for every second of your life, chances are that you will understand and enjoy the mind game behind trekking. For a general overview, trekking may be simply walking a long rough path to reach a destination, and if you are lucky to be walking in wondrous areas for example trekking in mustang, trekking in Nepal, you will come across new sceneries on your path at every turn to make the dread of trekking worthwhile.
When I started trekking, I was a mere city girl but with the blood of the mountains in my vein; trekking came to me naturally. And with the knowledge I have now, it is safe to say that trekking is a powerful mind game rather than just a physical activity.
With walking and breathing at every step, taking into account only the step that I have taken and about taking the next step, I realized the discipline of trekking, like every other art form, trekking requires patience and to view your process and progress from a third view perspective, where you are watching yourself walk from above yourself, and judge yourself about how you look like from the above. I could judge how composed and positive I am about reaching the goal, how much strength am I generating in the mind to keep moving ahead and just taking the next step, telling myself again and again how the next step will bring me a little closer to where I have to reach.
Trekking kills ego and generates the good ego within
The path is going to be long and it is going to be a path that you have never encountered before, and chances are you may be well frustrated before you can enjoy the beauty of that place, because of physical exhaustion. Hence you already know that you are going to get super exhausted, but here’s the trick, “SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF/ AS WELL AS SUSPENSION OF BELIEF” working together. what I mean by suspension of belief (the belief that you are on the way and getting closer with every step and that you have to get closer and closer); and suspension of disbelief (disbelieving that you don’t have energy enough to carry on) because in fact you do, the human body has a lot of fat, that can get converted to energy as and when required, so gather all the fat and turn it to sweat to reach the movement you require to carry on.
When you do this what happens is that you are telling yourself and the body that you have control over it and that the mind is a more powerful factor. When you believe that that mind really is the most powerful factor, all the ego that comes with the outer body, gets avoided and subdued, because we live in a world where body sells easier than the mind, and we are attuned to thinking highly of our bodies and a lot of negative ego gets generated because of that, but when you just play with your mind, you in turn enable yourself to look at the other’s mind and see the difficulties and the limitations blocking it.
This helps you correct your mind and make it more persevered. This helps you enjoy your trek with all the pleasures under your control and you can choose when to stop and experience that pleasure for a while and when to start moving ahead again. This control is a very powerful element if you can practice it till the very end of your trek, I’m sure you will account for every step you have taken along the way. You can tell me how you feel when you reach your destination after having practiced this control all along the way, I’m sure it will be unexplainably uplifting and powerful.
Trekking generates a rhythm that is natural to the body
People work their entire lives matching rhythms with other people to get work done in this world, so often at times we lose the natural flow of rhythm that we have within and get chaotic when there is no rhythm to match and all you have to do is depend on is your own rhythm throughout the journey. Often at times if you have practiced the control explained above, you have enough mental capacity to observe a lot of things happening around you.
In one such observation while trekking in India, I noticed that there were women and children half my height and size walking ahead of me on my journey and they were carrying a big bunch of wood to burn, and they were talking and jollying along their way uphill as if it was a straight road they were walking on.
The grace they exulted inspired me to be very curious about how the locals walked, and that’s when I observed this pattern. As they walked they maintained a consistent pace of slow walking and taking small steps at a time. The pace never fastened or slowed, it was very consistent and as their body warmed up with that consistency, that consistency gave them power to keep moving to where they have to reach. Applying this trick was the moment when I realized the joy and the art of trekking. That is when I started trekking like a jolly old mountain woman, who just realized the entire point of being in a new place, it is to be in that place and not think of things that are elsewhere and don’t need the attention at that moment, I could be with the place, I could really say that I was in that place and I know every rock on the road.
This is how you may find and connect to your natural rhythm and with the suspension of belief, learn to eventually trust your body, decisions and your natural rhythm and a sense of respect comes with that control, a sense of a peaceful alienation a state of being at peace with yourself, when you are all in control and shedding the extra kilos as well as taking life into account with every breath.
Chances are you may encounter yourself after learning this control, when you meet yourself all exhausted and still standing and able to appreciate things that are little and around you, you learn to appreciate the little beauties of life. You will have all the mind capacity to think about where you stand in your life in a bigger overview, because by the time you reach your destination the mind will be calmer and you will realize you can wear away all the negativity simply by walking, trekking and by doing the apt movement in any situation because you will have known that there is a lot of space in the world to accommodate you, and that you need not lose control over the banalities of life.
Movement is the key to human life and it can change a lot more than one can think and assume.
