Why Everyone Should Be Going HIKING ALONE

PC: @izzymay16

Hello loves, I’m ridiculously excited to say it is HIKING SEASON.

Ah, I could write essays on how much I love to go hiking, but for today’s article let’s just focus on one angle:

Hiking alone.

For some reason, plenty of people believe that hiking is a social event. They gather into a group of twos, threes, and fours and take a grand trip up to the mountains. Pictures are taken, lunch is had, and everyone goes on their merry way back home again.

Being known as the notorious hiker in my friend group, I’m frequently asked to take them along on one of my many trips into the forest. And because I love them, I always say yes. But taking people on a hike vs. going to the woods by myself are two completely different experiences for me. Going hiking with someone does not satisfy my urge to be in the woods, and therefore I hardly even count it as a healing trip.

Now I’ve been going to the woods by myself since I was 16 (thank you license). And since then, I must have spent close to a thousand hours alone in the forest.

A thousand. hours. alone. in. the. forest.

Do you understand how much that can shape a person? The conversations I’ve had with myself, the music I let inspire me on the way, the trees that looked over my growth through the years… I have a relationship with the forest that I can always go to, lean on, and find healing in. The forest is not going anywhere (and let’s pray this remains the case forever).

You know how we find interest in “shower thoughts”? Those are 15 minutes of your mind moving without interruption. Just 15 minutes of you without a phone or any distraction and you come up with the wildest imaginations. These “thoughts” are so famous that we even have a name for them. Now imagine what can come of your mind with 2-4 hours alone in the woods. The smog in your brain is cleared, the sentences in your mind get finished, and you? You become a whole new refreshed, healed person.

There are hours of work put in behind the person that you see. In my case, 2/3 of those hours are spent alone in my room, hand in my journal. The other third is spent alone in the forest, dancing with the trees. Those two combined create the person that you eventually see in real life. The work we put into ourselves 80% of the time is what others around you can finally receive in the remaining 20%. To me, the forest is the best place to go home to, over and over again. I feel love under the protection of trees, and it is only when I am there alone that I can fully communicate with myself and the nature around me. Just imagine the amount of healing you can do by taking your thoughts on a walk. That’s why it’s important to go alone.