THE UNEXPECTED WAYS HIKING A TRAIL CAN BE SPIRITUALLY TRANSFORMATIONAL

[DAWN GABRIEL]
Hi, I’m Dawn Gabriel, host of Faith Fringes. Podcast, recording live from Castle Rock Colorado, not only where I love to live, but I also work as the owner of a counseling center in the historic downtown. This podcast is a place to explore more than the traditional norms of the Christian culture. For those desiring deeper connection with God and engaging their spirituality in new ways, this will be a safe place to allow doubt, questions and curiosity, without judgment. We will be creating intentional space to listen in on other’s faith journeys, whether that is deconstruction or reconstruction, with the hope of traveling alongside you on your own spiritual path. If you’re interested in getting even more out of this podcast, grab my free email course Spiritual Reflections on my websitefaithfringes.com. Welcome to the podcast.

Hello, welcome back. I’m so excited you decided to join me here today. I want to say if you could rate, review and subscribe to Faith Fringes Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, that would be great. I also have a free email course for you if you’re wanting to really connect more with your spirituality and just to kind of engage. And when you sign up for my email course, it’ll be an eight-week course, you’ll get just one email a week and along with it, you’ll receive some kind of journal workbook that you can work right alongside it. It’ll help you just dive deeper into your spirituality. So sign up today for that at faithfringes.com.

Today, I’m so excited. We are going to be talking about transformational trail moments. And I know some of you are probably wondering what in the world is that. I just want to share my passion for hiking and how being on hiking trails has literally changed my life. And I just wanted to share my passion and share some stories and then see what you guys think and see if you have a transformational trail moment that you want to share or even if you want to start that. I think it’d be a great thing to start. So have you ever, maybe, have you ever found yourself overwhelmed with the daily demands and you think, “I really want to connect more with God or more spirituality in my life? I just can’t find the space for it, or I just don’t even know how to do that.” Maybe the old ways you’ve been trying, isn’t working. I know some people church isn’t really for them. Especially with COVID heading. I know it’s been really hard for my family to connect on a church level again.

A lot of people are not happy with wearing masks in church. And I know you might be listening to this and hopefully when you’re listening to this COVID might be over and we don’t have to wear masks all the time, but in case this is still happening while you’re listening, I just want to give an option of, I honestly feel like I connect more with God outside in nature, on a hiking trail than I do in church. And I’m not trying to say don’t go to church or anything like that, but I really just, even before COVID, I’ve always connected more with God outside in His beauty and nature, especially in the mountains and especially hiking. Yes, so I’m going to share some stories.

The main one, which is really funny that I want to share about is when I was, it was actually 20 years ago this week. I was looking up in my journals. Actually I kept a journal when I would go on big hikes and I realized it was 20 years ago. The first transformational trail, I was actually working at a university in Midwest and one of my, one of the, I was in student development and one of the main mentors there and one of the leaders there, he was actually the chaplain at this university and he pulled me aside one day and he said, “Hey, I’m thinking of taking a group of college students to the Grand Canyon. We’ll hike in and we’ll hike down to the bottom, we’ll camp there for a couple of days and hike back out over spring break. Do you want to lead it with me?”

And I was like, “Really? I’ve never done that.” You know, you just backpack in and everything you need is on your back. And I thought, “Let me think about it.” I was really nervous. I’d never done that before. It was going to be physically challenging and I was going to be leading with him. I mean, he was going to be leading also, but it was going to be all college females. So I was going to be leading the group of girls going. So I eventually said yes, and we started planning for it and I started getting excited. I was still nervous but once we got there, even the van ride was pretty phenomenal. It was a 14-hour drive through the Midwest all the way to Arizona for the Grand Canyon. And it was, we camped at the top and it was still freezing. I remember like waking up with frost on my head from, we had to sleep at the top to get ready to start hiking down. And I just remember thinking, “What have I done? This is so cold. I’m so uncomfortable. I should have brought more clothes,” and just kind of in a bad mood when we started.

Oh, and because I forgot to say the week before I came down with the horrible sinus infection and head cold and I had to get on like antibiotics and it was crazy. So I was just coming off of that. So it was kind of grumpy and then driving for 14 hours straight. I think I only got three to four hours of sleep the whole time. So we were starting on this huge like five-day hike down the Grand Canyon but yet when we got to the edge and we looked at the trail and saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, it was so amazing. It’s breathtaking. I don’t know how many of you have ever been to the Grand Canyon, but it’s breathtaking. I mean, it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World. So we, but that was just the top. I’m fascinated looking back at how much the terrain changed all the way to the bottom, to the point where we were wearing shorts and t-shirts, and it was still snowing at the top. And we were down at the bottom with the Colorado River and it was just beautiful.

So as I started, the first day I actually found my journal and I want to read a couple of things because I think it’s really funny and it also proves how I think trails can be spiritual and transformational. Some of it, I think when you think of being outside in nature, a lot of times it’s really good to unplug and you’re just getting away from the daily demands of your day and you put your phone away, or at least put it on silent mode if you want to take pictures. But you’re practicing mindfulness when you’re outside on a trail, because you’re just soaking in the sounds and the sights and the air. And you’re just really being mindful with your body and with nature and with what you see, what you smell, all the senses and how your body feels. And so mindfulness is so important and really kind of gaining back a clarity and a grounding, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed with life.

I really recommend mindfulness. And then also it can just be calming and inspiring when you’re surrounded by beauties, surrounded by things bigger than yourselves, like mountains or the Grand Canyon. And you guys know, like you’ve probably heard it a lot, exercise increase endorphins and hiking is a form of exercise. So really it’s just like a literal and figurative way to change the pace and perspective of your life. And so, so much can happen on a trail. So going back to the Grand Canyon, my first transformational trail moment, I was looking at what I wrote the first day. At the end of the first day I wrote, “I have never, ever been so physically exerted and exhausted in my life.” And I was pretty in shape. I was what, 25 probably. So I was in shape and I also was writing. It’s amazing how much your body can do if you put your mind to it. Your body can do way more than your mind thinks it can.

So I really felt like we all pushed hard, because you have to, you’re kind of on a time limit. When you’re hiking the canyon, you have to apply for like a license to go in with a certain amount of people. That’s how they keep it regulated and so you have to decide we’re going to do this whole thing in two days down and then one day out. Usually it was or one day down and two days out so you had to figure that out. So I think we did it in one day down and then two days out, but, and then we spent two nights at the bottom. So I started off physically, just exhausted plus coming off of being sick but at the end, this is how transformational it was. I’m going to read a little bit more from my journal.

I put, “Wow, what a sense of accomplishment? Yesterday we finished the hike out of the canyon.” As I look back, I realized I became sad. I looked at the beloved valley. I missed being at the bottom. It was so peaceful and quiet. And then later I wrote, “The sun shining through the clouds yesterday was like, God’s showing a glimpse of the secret. You must go to the bottom. You must endure the pain, the risk to see the beauty. To stay at the rim and see the splendor is nothing like experiencing the canyon’s beauty. To live and drink in that atmosphere, the pain was definitely worth it. The journey will never be forgotten.” So that right there kind of encompassed and embodied what my relationship with hiking started and what I still to this day think of hiking, whether it’s short hikes with my kids, or a lot of times my husband and I do, we call it a day date. We do, our favorite thing is hiking and then lunch together rather than anything else.

That’s our favorite because so much we just love hiking. And so whether it’s a short one or a solo hike, or a long track with yourself or a beloved friend, I just feel like it’s so transformational and actually spiritual. And so I want to challenge you guys to think through, like, what does spirituality mean to you and when have you felt spiritually connected to God or however you define spirituality? I actually looked up some definitions of spirituality because I wanted to say, is there any research on if spirituality actually happens outside? And so I’m going to read some definitions. So spirituality as a noun, it’s the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things and then it also says the shift in priorities allows us to embrace our spirituality in a more profound way.

And so what more than being outside in nature on a hike, and it doesn’t have to be a hike. You can, some of you may be living by a beach, and I know water is super spiritual to people or woods, and anything could be spiritual in nature. So just when I say hiking, you can put that in when you’re thinking about it, whatever you think makes you come alive. Another definition of spirituality, the dictionary says is the quality that involves deep feelings and beliefs rather than the physical parts of life. Spiritual means relating to people’s thoughts and beliefs rather than to their bodies and physical surroundings. Although I feel like when you’re going to nature, you’re kind of combining both. You’re combining your body sensations and what you’re taking in with your senses and if you allow that to interact with your spiritual feelings and beliefs, that can be super powerful. And so it basically gives you like peace and purpose and really connecting different parts of your holistic self.

So that’s why I think transformational trail moments are so important. And as I went on for that was 20 years ago, there are plenty more opportunities I was able to look at. One of them was team building. I was a resident director when I worked for the university and I had a team of 10 college students who were my resident assistants. I took them on a fall break and we hiked, actually it was the Knobstone Trail in Indiana. If some of you live there, you might want to go check it out. And it was so powerful watching how it connected my team and just really, you can really see how people do life on a trail, which it just kind of condenses everything and it gets like laser focused on how you do life. In fact, I was laughing as I was reading my journals today and I realized, apparently my control issues come out when hiking or leading a trip like that because I was constantly like struggling with keeping my control issues back and letting people just be and letting people figure things out on their own. So yes, all your stuff is like in your face when you’re on a trail, I think when you’re with people and working as a group.

Another thing it can do is like the bonding and the stories that come out when you’re walking. I don’t know if you’ve ever walked or ran with someone or trained, and just think back to those times when you had half hour or an hour, and you’re just walking side by side with someone. It’s so powerful. I think some of the best talks I’ve had have been on a trail or even just walking. In fact, going back to, again, my time when I was a resident director, I was in charge of discipline, which is the part I didn’t like about my job, but I remember one of the students got in trouble for something and I had to talk to her and I just really hated bringing people into my office. I felt like it was so forced and they didn’t know me very well, and I just didn’t like it. But I knew she was a runner. And so at the time I was running also, so I said, “Hey, do you want to go on a run? We have to talk about this stuff, but let’s just go on a run.”

And normally when I’d interacted with her before she was very closed off, but she was super excited about the run. So we ran, I forget how long it was, but as we ran, like she just opened up and talked and it was so much easier to talk to her because you’re side by side. You’re not looking straight at her, straight out the person face to face. There’s just something about being side by side, but then also just exerting the physical, the endorphins that come with physical activity. It was just so powerful. And that actually led me to, fast forward when I was starting a private practice and counseling, especially my group practice. I decided to offer a trail therapy. So instead of doing therapy in the office, we would do it on a hiking trail or just even a walking path. It didn’t have to be huge trail. And I noticed it was really good for people who were like stuck and stuff that maybe whether it was depression or anxiety, or they just couldn’t get past something on a trail. We were able to get to that, get to whatever that issue is faster.

It also was really good for teens who were really didn’t want to sit and look at you face-to-face. They loved it. It’s just great. All my therapists, we have nine therapists on the team and they all love doing it too. And of course we’re in Colorado. So I feel like we have an outdoor Mecca so to speak, but it’s, you can, I know you can do it in New York City. I’ve heard of therapists who do it in Central Park, just walk and talk is what they call it. So that’s when I kind of noticed, was 20 years ago, how much just walking and talking and hiking just really can bond people differently than just sitting across from them. And so, as I noticed that, I started integrating it into my life, even personally, on how can I just connect in like let down, like let the overwhelm of the day down and connect with God in a way that I really felt was super spiritual and connecting.

And so a lot of times when I’m stressed, my number one self-care or soul care is to go on a long hike by myself and just let whatever is troubling me or whatever’s coming up, I just let it go. And I mean, I process it and I just keep walking. I think there’s a quote and I wish I would have wrote it down for this, but it was something about anything in life can be solved by walking. And I think that’s a little over exaggerating, but I do think so much can be figured out on a trail. And so a lot of times when I’m going to be interviewing guests, I’m going to ask them for a transformational trail moment and then also to kind of just shout out some favorite hikes in the area. So wherever you’re listening, maybe you’ll hear a hike that’s near you and you can go try it out. That’s one of my favorite things. Whenever we travel as a family or with friends, I always try to find a trail and if it has a waterfall in it, it’s a bonus because I love waterfalls.

So here in Castle Rock, for those of you who live in Colorado and are near Castle Rock, which is south of Denver and north of Colorado Springs, one of my favorite trails is the Mitchell Creek Canyon Trail. It is a hidden gem, probably not so hidden now that I just broadcasted it. It’s actually in a residential area in Founder’s Village, in Castle Rock, but it is a great trail and it’s shocking. Like it’s a canyon and it’s a quick one. You can do it within an hour or less. You can do with kids. I think my youngest was two when we went hiking and they’ve loved it. It’s one of our favorite trails and you pass some tiny, tiny water trickles, which we call waterfalls. There’s a change in the terrain but it just feels like you’re not in town and you’re not in residential.

You like transform and you feel, you’re looking over a canyon, especially in the fall, the leaves. So I highly recommend that if you’re in Castle Rock, but yes, I’d like you guys to maybe try, like what would it be like for you to just take a 20-minute walk or a 20-minute hike? And then what would it be like to take a longer walk, a longer hike, like an hour or two hours or half a day and just see, see how it’s transformational for you and allow yourself to put that phone away. Allow yourself whatever comes in your mind is fine. No judgment. Just walk and see what happens. Just notice what thoughts you’re having, notice what feelings you’re having and just notice what comes up. No judgment.

So, yes, I think, why is hiking spiritual? I think well, in nature. It’s creation. It’s nature. It’s beautiful. It’s bigger than us. I feel like I can feel God’s presence there. It’s super meditative if you allow it, if you can clear your mind or just let your mind g. And then also it’s super powerful to connect with someone else on a trail. So whatever it is, I just want to challenge you guys to go out there, try a hike and see if it really connects with you spiritually. I will be talking more about trails as we go on, and I’m so excited that you were here today listening. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review to Faith Fringes wherever you listen to podcasts. I’m so excited to have you here looking forward to our next time.

Thank you for listening today at Faith Fringes Podcast. If you want to explore more of your own faith journey, I offer my free eight-week email course called Spiritual Reflections, where you take a deeper dive into your own story included as a journaling workbook that has guided exercises. So if you want to explore more of what you were brought up to believe, or even look at where you may have been disillusioned or hurt, but yet still deep down you desire to authentically connect with God, then this course is for you. Just go to faithfringes.com to sign up.

Also, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email and tell me what’s on your mind. You can reach me at dawn@faithfringes.com .

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