5 Top Reasons Why Hiking Is Good for You

The Benefits of Hiking

Don’t you just love how relaxed and inspired you feel while hiking? Here’s a look at the impact of hiking on the human body and the top five reasons why hiking is so good for you.

Hiking Keeps Your Mind Sharp

While all forms of exercise are beneficial to us and provide our brains with oxygen, hiking has a slight advantage. Hiking teaches the mind to stay alert while navigating the body through unpredictable terrain.

Whether it’s slippery surfaces, hidden obstacles, or overhanging branches, you constantly need to focus and adapt. Even something as simple as being on the lookout for trail markers or animals that might cross your path requires micro- and macro-adjustments.

Hiking Promotes Calmness and Happiness

Exercise is excellent for stress relief, but an abundance of research suggests that exercising outdoors has distinct advantages. For example, walking in a green space compared to an urban environment helps the mind recover from the attention overload and mental fatigue we experience from leading lives with constant digital interaction.

Studies also suggest that people who spend time in nature are less likely to suffer from anxiety and rumination. Since the mind is less likely to repeatedly think about the same negative thoughts while outdoors, being in nature can also help alleviate depression.

Hiking Helps with Relationships

While hiking promotes physical and emotional health, there’s also mounting evidence that it can help to build relationships. Whether it’s with a friend, a loved one, or a stranger, being on a hike helps people bond. Facing physical challenges together helps make us feel closer to each other, promoting a sense of safety in vulnerable circumstances.

For example, one study showed that mothers and daughters who spent 20 minutes walking together in the outdoors presented improved focus during a cognitive task. Their interactions with one another were also improved, and there was more of a connection between them with positive rather than negative emotions.

Hiking Can Boost Your Creativity

Artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet painted some of their greatest works that were inspired by nature. Science has caught onto this link, and we’re now starting to see the documentation of the connection between nature and creativity.

The results of a study by a psychology professor testing the effects of nature on creativity among a group of young adults speak volumes. After spending several days immersed in nature without being distracted by multimedia and technology, the participants all showed increased performance in a creative, problem-solving task.

Whether it’s because the mind has an opportunity to wander while outdoors, or the unpredictability of the scenery, head out for a hike without any mobile devices if you want to improve your creativity!

Hiking Improves Our Relationship with Nature

If you look at it from a fundamental perspective, we’ll rely less on cars if we have the stamina to walk to places, which can help reduce our carbon footprint. But hiking also improves the connection that we have with nature. And if we have a better relationship with our planet, we’re more likely to be concerned about the impact of our actions on the environment.

So, experiences in nature can help us care about the natural world and encourage us to protect and conserve it. It means that activities in the outdoors, such as hiking, can be mutually beneficial to humans and the planet.

Final Thoughts

There you have it! Whether you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and need to boost your creativity, or crave an escape from technology, head out on a trail!

These hiking benefits will leave you feeling re-energised and optimistic about the future, so go on that hike and enjoy the magic you’ll find in nature. If you’ve returned from a reinvigorating hike, let us know about your experience!

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