Tag Archives: hiking as stress relief

The First Of Many

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“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.”–John Burroughs

 “You can visit the same trail twice, but you’ll never take the same hike – We Dream of Travel

“I could never resist the call of the trail.” – Buffalo Bill

Today is a beautiful day. Why? It was the official start of my spring/summer hiking season! To start things off, I decided to head to Ward Pound Ridge to hike a loop that covered portions of several trails so I could test out my legs. Although I have been walking on the treadmill for several months, it is never the same as being out on the trail. I’ll let you guess as to which one is better!!!

Since it is still early spring, the landscape still had the cold and barren look of winter. I imagine that in a few weeks things will change drastically, which will make every hike new again.

Although the park still looked like winter, spring was definitely in the air. At 7:20 am, the temperature was an incredibly comfortable 62 degrees. I don’t know about where you live, but temperatures like this, although not unheard of in mid-April, are certainly not the norm. My biggest surprise were the gnats that I thought were a summer time phenomena. Being eaten alive by these airborne piranhas was not fun. Of course, I didn’t think that I needed to bring any bug spray. Big mistake.

So how did the hike go? It was awesome. I can’t put into words how nice it was to be out on the trail again. I usually turn my phone off while I am hiking, but today I sent a celebratory text to my daughter to let her know the old man was back on the trail! The dirt under my feet felt so much better than the treadmill that I have become used to, and being able to listen to the wind in the trees was mesmerizing.

The verdict? It was an excellent hike on an excellent day. I couldn’t have asked for a better day at Ward Pound Ridge. Three years and three months after my heart attack, I felt great physically and continue to be incredibly thankful that I am still able to hike. I am looking forward to the next few months of hiking in the Hudson Valley!

HAPPY HIKING!!!

Hike #1-4/12-4.0/4.0

Feeling Offended? Take A Hike!!!!

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Offend: to cause (a person or group) to feel hurt, angry, or upset by something said or done.

Every Monday, Chase bank sends out a Motivational Monday tweet to get its followers ready for the week. Apparently, yesterdays didn’t go over so well. Here it is summed up from an article from NBC news:

“The since-deleted tweet offered a hypothetical conversation between a bank customer and the bank. The customer asks, “Why is my balance so low?” and the bank account replies: “Make coffee at home … eat the food that’s already in the fridge … you don’t need a cab, it’s only three blocks.”

Now for me personally, that sounds like pretty good financial advice. I’ll bet if you add up all the food you buy during your work hours as well as coffee from D & D and Starbucks, it could literally be in the thousands. After looking at their menu, let’s just say I get a Grande Cafe Latte and a Chocolate Croissant for breakfast every day. Let’s see, that $3.95 for the drink and $2.75 for the croissant. Every day you would spend $6.70 before tax. Multiply that by 5 (days in a work week) and then by 50 (work weeks in a year minus two weeks vacation) and that comes $1,675 dollars a year.

That’s not even counting lunch and seriously folks, if you are taking a cab for three blocks, we gotta talk. I see this tweet as a good way of pointing out that people could be saving much more money than they currently are. $6.70 may not seem like much every day, but when you add it up and look at it yearly, WOW!!! That is a good amount of cash.

So why am I writing this post? We have become a society where people are offended by everything. People on Twitter actually referred to this as “Poor Shaming.” If you are that poor maybe you should be making coffee at home. Just saying…Is this really what offends you? Seriously??

Here is the real reason why I have written this. We have to get away from being offended every time somebody opens their mouth. My parents always used to say, “Engage your brain before you engage your mouth.”

So for all of you mindful folks out there. If you read or see something that you believe may be offensive, head out to the woods immediately before something bad happens. Get that fresh air, get those legs moving, make it count! A good hike will clear your head and you will definitely be thinking more clearly. But please, please, don’t join the parade of people who immediately jump on that PC bandwagon.

Heading out to the woods is the best way that I know of to cure a case of political correctness. You have to be thinking straight in order to mentally survive!!!! I know that it works every time and will continue to work in the future. You know why???

It’s a long slow ride to Stupidville.