Finding Life's Meaning Through Hiking Adventures

This blog was posted in the old hikezilla website by Rob Johnston.

Over the millennia, humankind has pondered the existential question, time and time again – ‘What is the meaning of life?’ But has anyone truly figured it out? In our modern age, it feels like we should be in a better place than ever before to be able to draw some clear conclusions on the topic.

After all, the vast majority of us have all of our basic needs met and plenty of spare time to reflect on our life alongside pursuing what interests us, whether that be consuming media, playing computer games, going to the gym, playing sports or even just good old retail therapy. And yet, how much closer are we to figuring out the meaning of our life, at the broader level as a society or at the more micro level as an individual?

Of course, being a hiking blog, the majority of you reading this will be avid hikers. So if that is your main passion then it seems highly probably that it has brought at least some personal meaning to your life. But could hiking be the actual meaning of our life?

The benefits of hiking

The meaning we extract from any activity is much more likely to be associated with the way we mentally engage with it rather than the activity itself. How do we know this? Because whenever we approach any activity with a genuine focus on benefiting both ourself and others, we can observe both the accumulation of positivity within our own mind as well the positive influence it has on those around us.

As we have explored in previous articles, hiking as an activity brings many benefits. When done in a group it can have a very positive impact on everyone taking part. Even just spending time in the great outdoors can cause us to feel happy and relaxed due to being surrounded by a peaceful environment, free from the clutter of the cities we often spend so much time in. So what are some of the things that can bring meaning to our life while hiking?

What can we learn whilst hiking?

There are always plenty of opportunities to learn more about ourself and others whilst hiking and, arising from that reflection, the ability to have a positive impact on both us and the people we associate with in daily life.

One way we could approach this is to try and be be more patient; whether that be with the elements, feelings of discomfort, heat and cold, with our state of mind, with passers by or maybe even with the people we are hiking with. Practising patience could range in anything from trying to do our best to tolerate someone’s presence whilst keeping our lips firmly closed, right up to having a deep and unwavering acceptance of the way things are (even if it’s raining!).

Whatever our experience of this mind, if we can do our best to generate an intention to be kind to ourself and others whilst trying to accept things as they are, then there’s no doubt this is going to bring some benefit. And, as we know from our own experience, we’ll always find plenty of opportunities to practice patience when we’re out hiking!

We can also think about why we enjoy spending time outdoors, like in actual nature itself. I think one of the reasons is due to the lack of complexity in relationships and lack of emotional conflict between the peaceful forest dwellers. Especially compared to when humans are involved.

It would be stretch to say that animals all live together without any conflict at all, and yet it does feel like there’s a certain harmony that pervades a forest which, comparatively speaking, simply cannot be found within the constraints of a busy city. Could this be teaching us something about the way we live and what can we learn from mother nature and her peace-loving friends?

As well as marvelling at the intricate interconnectedness of nature itself, we can appreciate how animals work together without a thought of personal gain or self-importance. After all, does one group of honey bees get through half a day’s work and think “Ok that’s it for us today lads… time to sit back and enjoy the fruit of our labours while you lot keep slogging it out.” No, of course not, they all pitch in as a collective until the sun is about to set and then they all retire together to rest at the end of a hard day’s work.

There’s also something about the space hiking in nature can create in our mind, that can so often help us to put our own problems into perspective. It’s so easy to get caught up with difficulties and dramas, and yet just spending time in the simplicity of nature can help us let go of our grasping at ego and realise ‘it’s not all about me!’ This can actually be an incredibly liberating experience.

So you might get up one morning to go hiking and take with you a problem that has been bothering you all week. And then, rather than going round and round in circles and continuing to get annoyed at someone for what they said or did, unproductively replaying it in our mind, instead we find some space and are able to start to let go.

Just being in a calm environment can help us break those unhelpful thought patterns, enabling us to more easily see the other person’s point of view and realise it’s not such a big deal after all. Then, rather than feeling trapped in a constant state of disturbance and frustration and imagining ourself responding negatively to the situation, we take inspiration from our friends in the forest, and instead envisage scenarios of compromise and resolution.

Finding meaning in the things we enjoy

I think the best way to find meaning in our life is to try and bring a positive mindset, one that wishes to deepen our own and others’ happiness, into the things we most enjoy. So if we enjoy hiking and it makes us feel good, why not be curious about how we can develop positive states of mind while doing it that will lead to us feeling more happy and relaxed.

Whether we find meaning in hiking, or even the meaning of our life, will ultimately depend on our intention. If we know hiking helps us be more relaxed and make a conscious decision to cultivate positive intentions while doing it, understanding this will benefit the people in our life, it will start to become a very powerful activity for us.

Why is this? Because the energy we put out into the world is the energy we get back and engaging in an activity with the specific intention to benefit others will always lead to a positive outcome. These actions will then naturally become the source of our own and others’ happiness. We can also validate this in our own experience because we know it feels good to be kind and, if done with a good intention, we can see how it brings happiness to those on the receiving end of kindness too.

So before we go hiking, all we need to do is spend a few moments thinking about the people we want to benefit and then take the focus of that positivity out with us on our day. If we do this ourself, we might be pleasantly surprised by the result.

So is hiking the meaning of life?

As we may have intuited, the reality is that it’s probably less about what we’re doing with our time and much more about how we’re relating to what we are doing, that is going to determine its impact on our life. But if we already enjoy hiking, then this is going to be a good basis for deepening our experience of positivity. If we can learn to cultivate positive states of mind whilst hiking, viewing it as an opportunity for personal growth and connection, we will find that it’ll gradually bring more and more meaning into our life.

When we think about the people we appreciate in our own life and world, who are they and what qualities do they have? Who do we respect and who do we look up to? Probably it’s people who have developed a caring attitude towards others, a selfless mind that wishes to benefit others over and above the consideration of their own welfare. Whether they are consciously aware of it or not, these people have cultivated positive intentions to care for and benefit others, and so these intentions are naturally reflected in their behaviours.

Sure, most of us probably aren’t going to become the next Mother Teresa, but if we can put a little more good back into the world by learning to develop positive states of mind and trying to be kind in any little way we can, wouldn’t that feel good? Then if we can learn to grow that over time, gradually spreading kindness amongst our friends, colleagues and family members, how can that not have a positive impact on those around us and eventually society as a whole?

Doing our best to maintain a loving mind whilst offering support to the people in our network can be incredibly powerful and we shouldn’t underestimate the impact we can have on the people in our life. And for those of us for whom these tendencies don’t come naturally, it starts with cultivating positive intentions and what better activity to start practising with than hiking!

So, in summary, it’s probably not so much that we can say hiking is the meaning of life within itself, but if we can learn to use that activity as a basis for developing minds of love, patience and so forth and amplifying these minds by developing targeted, positive intentions, there’s no doubt it will bring great meaning to our life. And, in fact, it’s a great reminder for me to start applying more conscious effort to do this myself. I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and I look forward to seeing you all out on the track soon, friends.