There are two things mental health experts agree on if you want to feel less stressed: Spending time outside and exercising is crucial for your mental health. But unfortunately, most of us are busy, and we go to work and come home in the dark, especially during the cold, dark winter months, leaving little time for fresh air and exercise. Luckily, you can combine physical activity and the outdoors by going on a hike.
Many people hike because it’s enjoyable and they love spending time in nature, but it can also benefit their mental (and physical) health. Wondering how hiking can change how you feel and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression? Before you grab your favorite hiking accessories, check out these benefits of hiking on mental health:
Reduces Anxiety
When you experience anxiety, your body produces adrenaline and cortisol, which can leave you feeling more stressed. Hiking is a great way to release adrenaline while increasing endorphins and happy hormones to improve your mood, effectively reducing anxiety. In addition, when you go on a hike, you get the benefit of fresh air and exercise, allowing your body to produce more happy hormones that can enhance your entire mood, reduce stress, and even prevent stress from becoming unmanageable.
Prevents Rumination
Rumination is when you dwell on something and let it take up a lot of your mental energy, constantly thinking about it even though there’s nothing you can do about it. Individuals who engage in exercise and spend time in nature are more present in their lives and spend less time ruminating or dwelling on negative thoughts and feelings. Of course, your surroundings can play a major role in this, too. For example, you might feel the most significant benefits of taking a hike in nature instead of walking around the block close to home.
Improve Problem Solving Ability
Hiking can improve problem-solving skills because it allows you to disconnect from technology and forces you to use your brain to answer complex questions. Of course, when you hike, you’ll still use your smartphone for a variety of tasks, like listening to music or counting your steps. However, you’ll be too busy enjoying yourself or focusing on your hike to use your cell phone for other, less productive tasks like scrolling social media. If you’ve ever tried texting and walking, you’ll know how difficult it is, and since not paying attention to your surroundings in nature can be dangerous, you’ll have no choice but to keep your phone in your pocket and focus on what’s happening in the present.
Improves Cognition
Hiking can potentially prevent dementia by improving cognition. Exercise of all types can prevent or slow dementia because it provides your brain with more blood and oxygen. In addition, when the air you exercise in is fresh, such as the outdoor air while you’re in nature, you can ensure your brain is getting only the most natural, healthiest form of oxygen.
Inspires Positive Thinking
Hiking boosts your mood in several ways, but perhaps the most significant is that it inspires positive thinking. So not only does it prevent rumination, but it can replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
The reason why it allows you to easily replace bad thoughts with good thoughts is because of many of the same reasons we’ve already discussed, such as boosting happy hormones in your brain and providing your brain with the oxygen and blood it needs to function properly. While brain health and mental health are two different things, having a healthy brain can promote better mental health.
Increases Happiness
Hiking makes people happy. Well, actually, hiking doesn’t make most people happy. If you don’t enjoy spending time in nature and dislike bugs, hiking can actually be quite stressful for you. However, individuals who love nature (and don’t mind the bugs) are happier when they’re hiking than when they’re indoors. When you’re hiking, you get to live in the present and leave all your stress behind at home, so it’s much easier to focus on positive feelings and happiness.
Many people who hike have happier feelings when they hike than when they exercise at home or at the gym, and anyone of any age can benefit from it because it’s easy, and it doesn’t have to mean climbing mountains. Instead, you can go on a hike at your local nature park, where there are paths already created for you.
Increases Confidence
Hiking can boost your self-esteem to make you feel more confident, and you don’t have to hike every day for this benefit. Instead, consider going on a hike once a month to improve your health and wellness, including your endurance levels, and make yourself feel healthier. Hiking can even help you lose weight and build muscle, improving how you feel when you look in the mirror.
In addition, hiking isn’t always easy, and you can make hiking harder the better you get at it by choosing more challenging trails. After completing trails, you’ll start to feel better about your abilities and strength, improving your confidence in other areas of your life.
Can Be a Coping Method
Hiking can be a coping method that allows you to deal with your problems. For example, when you’re feeling stressed, hiking can give you the outlet you need to think about your problems without distractions and come up with the best solutions. Stressed people may go on walks to help themselves calm down. Hiking is similar but allows you to take it a step further because you get to experience nature, which has a way of forcing you to slow down and reflect.
Final Thoughts
There are so many benefits of hiking, especially mental health benefits that can improve every aspect of your life. Whether you’re hoping to reduce anxiety or boost confidence, hiking just once a month and spending time in nature while getting exercise can improve your mental health and help you feel your best. Of course, hiking has several physical benefits that can also impact how you feel about yourself.
Ashley Nielsen
Ashley Nielsen earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration Marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. She is a freelance writer who loves to share knowledge about general business, marketing, lifestyle, wellness, and financial tips. During her free time, she enjoys being outside, staying active, reading a book, or diving deep into her favorite music.
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