Trek : A Gateway To A Real Life

I’m always asked why am I so obsessed and talk so much about only one thing- Trekking..!!! Well, I have been asked this question many times till date. Hence, I thought what else can be good to start a blog with this topic. So, let’s start with the first blog about knowing what trek adds to the life.

Thinking with a non-trekkers perspective, this is a valid question. If we play a devils advocate, we can ask “why to spend hours, toil our body in the hot sun?” or “What if someone gets an injury or have fallen?” or “Why so much of adventure required if we can live peacefully with routine?”.

For me, trekking is like an oxygen and I cannot think of me being separated from it for a long time. I personally think this should be part and parcel of life and the reason why I say this is as follows:

1. Stress buster: You might have heard of the famous saying that the “Nature is best stress buster”. You also might know that in today’s world, we are neck-deep into so many kinds of stresses of completing deadlines, meetings, household works, etc that we hardly notice we are stressed and we get used to it. This slowly takes a toll on the mind and body and one point of time, you start paying heavily for your therapy to relieve stress that has been accumulated over the years. The soul of trekking is to be as close as possible to the nature and temporarily get ourselves disconnected to the constantly buzzing world. Just imagine that you are in an area with no honking of horns, no rush and you are engulfed into the serene beauty of mountains surrounding you with birds chirping and the noise of gushing river at the background. By just an imagine, you feel the change in your stress level. This also helps you to rejuvenate yourself for your next task in the office or in day-to-day life.
2. Improves Fitness:Trekking actually helps you to build your endurance and pump your heart with the fresh air. Many a time it happens like you see the top of the peak and think that you cannot reach that top, but eventually, when you push yourself step by step and gradually reach the top, you get the feel of being top of the world and that resurrects all the positiveness and this one of the important fitness aspect.
3. Improves Immunity: This comes hand-in-hand with the above point. If you notice the kids today, they are the easy victims of any diseases or epidemics and the main reason for this is that their immunity system is not developed to fight them. The lack of fresh air and natural atmosphere contributes to this. Our body is developed to build immunity naturally and fight the diseases, but we do not give it any chance to develop this. When you go on a trek, you develop the immunity by means of fresh air, sweating a lot and provide all the natural resources required for your body to repair itself.
4. Prepares you for the challenges: When you are trekking, you come across situations where you do not see the route ahead and you have to create your own with all your ability and reach the top with whatever resources you have. This makes one mentally tough and prepare for challenges in your professional life. As trekking is a “goal setting” activity, it inculcates the habit to be focused on your goal and at the same time improvise your path to reach that goal, no matter, how tough it is. What else you require to be a leader in every aspect of your life.. ??
5. Builds team spirit and you become team-man: Trekking involves being in a group and move along and reach the pinnacle. A group can involve people who can move fast as well as the one who can move slow. It can have people of different ages and sex. Hence, when you are in a trek with them, you know you cannot go anywhere without them. This develops the habit of team spirit, sporting spirit and also develops patience as you deal with different people to help the group reach the top. This proves to be a vital point in your professional life. You can easily communicate with your colleagues, build team and complete project effectively. Well… another point of a good leader ??
6. Develops mental toughness: You might be aware that there is growing suicidal tendency among the kids of today’s generation. This is because their mind in not trained to cope with ever-growing stress and are mentally weak. Treks help you to be tough mentally and overcome challenges. Imagine you are stuck in the middle of a path where you cannot go back. You have to generate ideas and build toughness in mind to overcome the challenge.
7. Helps to get social and help the people in need: If you are one who likes to work for the social cause, then nothing stands in front of the treks. When you trek, you access the remotest part of the country where you can see there is a lack of even the basic amenities. Hence, these people look up to you to help them out.
8. Explore culture: When you are on a trek, you land in the villages where you can find the culture there different from the locality we live in. Normally, when people in these villages see you are on a trek, they are most welcoming and you can have an opportunity to stay at their house and eat local food there. Believe me, food such bhakri, pithla, (Maharashtrian local food) etc cooked by the locals on chullahs goes through your soul before going to your stomach and it’s really very tasty. Even a five-star hotel food cannot stand in front of this. Come with me, you will get to experience that .. 😉
9. Allows you to see virgin nature: As we can go to the remotest places when trekking, we come across an untouched nature and we can see a lot of magical phenomena which we could hardly see in our regular life. Experiencing such untouched, raw nature is truely satisfying.
10. Learn glorious historical past: I remember the days when my dad used to take me to different forts and narrate the story of all maharajas, their clans, how they fought, etc. This used to get embedded strongly in my mind that no book helped me and history was one of my favorites subjects. I feel why children are subjected to only textual knowledge when they can actually see and experience that through their own eyes.
11. Discover your own self: This is one of the biggest plus point of trekking. When you make ways through dense forests, tough rock patches, toil yourself mentally and physically and reach the top, you get to know your strengths and weaknesses.

There are lot more points about trekking, but restricting myself to these top points. I would love to know your opinions on this topic and would love to learn any point that I missed in the comment box below.