9 Surprising Mental Health Benefits of Hiking

It is recommended that people should have a physical hobby in order to stay fit and healthy. There are plenty of activities that fulfill this, and one of them is hiking.

Hiking offers a lot of benefits, but the first thing that comes to mind is it can help improve our physical health and stamina. But more than that, hiking also comes with a couple of mental health benefits.

If you are looking for an activity that will stimulate your body as well as your mind, then you should try out hiking. To help persuade you, here are nine surprising mental health benefits that you can get when you go hiking:

Clear Your Mind

The world has a lot of overstimulating objects that are trying to get your attention all of the time. Sometimes, you need time to yourself so that you can help clear your mind and consume the world once again.

Although you need time to clear your mind, the world doesn’t make it easy for people to do that. A lot of people find that the stress of their everyday lives can clutter up their minds and make them not feel at peace in their thoughts.

But if you’re a hiker, you have an excuse to leave behind the world, even for a little while. When you go hiking, all you need to know about is the trail. If you want, it could only be you and nature as you go hiking.

Without being surrounded by these over stimulants, you get to finally clear your mind off everything that is boggling you.

Makes Us Happier

Some people are happy staying in and lazing around their homes. There’s nothing wrong with finding happiness indoors as long as you get your work out now and again.

However, not everyone is wired the same. Some people find that staying indoors for too long can feel suffocating. They want a chunk of the outdoors every once in a while.

Even if you’re not an outdoorsy person, sometimes it will do you right and make you happy if you go outside sometimes. Although everyone is different, it doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from reconnecting with nature when you go hiking.

Boosts Brain Power

As people continue to age, their brainpower also declines. However, you can continue to be sharp even as you age as long as you do exercises that stimulate your brain.

To boost your mind, you don’t always have to do mental exercises. Even physical activity can help improve your brainpower. One such physical exercise that you should do is hiking. In fact, some studies have found that walking even for only 15 minutes a day can help add more years to your life.

The great thing about hiking is that it’s an activity that everyone of all ages can enjoy. Even if you’re older, there are a lot of hiking trails that are easy to finish, even if you don’t think you have the physical capacity to do so.

Besides, there aren’t any crazy techniques that you need to learn to be able to hike. As long as you can walk in some capacity, you can find a hiking trail out there that you can enjoy too.

Sparks Creativity

Hiking can also have a positive effect on your creativity.

When you go hiking often, you can start improving your memory. Aside from that, you can also enhance the neurogenesis in your brain, which will help create new nerve cells in the body. The creation of new nerve cells will help spark your creativity. Aside from that, hiking gets you to new places that you probably haven’t been to before.

Sometimes, if you are stuck in the same place all the time, it can be hard to be creative. A simple change of environment and a change of pace can help stimulate creativity, which is how hiking helps.

Boosts Self-Esteem

Hiking requires you to rely on nobody but yourself and your ability to survive in your hiking environment.

If you do manage to hike by yourself, it’s going to help boost your self-esteem by a lot. Knowing that you can rely on yourself while you hike is a mindset that is going to help you reflect on the rest of your life.

Improves Your Outlook

Hiking is pretty straightforward as an activity, unlike some other exercises. All you need to focus on is the trail.

If you find yourself being overwhelmed and overthinking often, then it can lead to a lot of negative emotions since you over-analyze.

But since hiking is straightforward, it doesn’t require you to overanalyze what you do. It’s going to reduce your tendency to ruminate, which will reduce your overall negative emotions and improve your outlook in life.

Increases Focus and Attention

As mentioned before, hiking is a pretty straightforward activity.

Although it’s honest, it still requires all of your attention, especially for multi-day hikes. The more often you go hiking, the better it is for you to learn the art of focus and concentration.

Unplugs You From the World

The modern world requires you to get plugged the moment you wake up. Although it has its benefits, sometimes you need to get away from it all.

If you need that moment to unplug from the world, then hiking is the best activity for that.

Helps Social Interactions

You don’t have to be by yourself when you go hiking. You can either join a group of strangers or have your family go with you. There’s nothing quite like a strong social network that is around similar interests, such as hiking.

And since human beings are social creatures, finding ways to interact with people is going to improve your overall mental well-being.

Hiking offers a lot of mental health benefits that anyone can reap. From sparking your creativity to improving your mood, there is much that you can look forward to when you go on a hike. So, grab your hiking poles and strap on your hiking boots and get to hiking as soon as you can!