August 23,2024
“Part of mental training is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. There will be days when you don’t want to hike, when it’s raining and your pack is heavy from resupply, and you have to keep going anyway.” The Trek
Every phrase in this statement begs questioning for me. I can’t remember if I thought this when I walked the Appalachian Trail – twice!
What does being comfortable with being uncomfortable mean??? One place this could be true is being comfortable with having wet feet. I remember a gradual shift in my acceptance of wet feet, wading through water with my shoes on, putting on wet shoes and socks in the morning, until that seemed normal. Now, I recognize being ok with wet shoes as a turning point from day hiker to long-distance hiker.
Carrying weight, sleeping on the ground, wearing the same clothes, showering only occasionally, toileting in the woods, eating simple food could be on a list of “discomforts” to accept – if they are new habits, that is.
My rebuttal is to consider focusing on why we are on trail in the first place. For me, my reason for being on the AT is to walk in Nature day after day. The luxury of the trail is that the nature walk can go on for more than 2,000 miles! If THAT is my focus, being comfortable while doing it arises from a different set of conditions than being comfortable sitting in a house.
The question about comfort becomes how to adjust my choices – of food, clothing, distance, timing – to enjoy the walk in comfort!
I can be comfortable on trail because I embrace the different conditions. I don’t see sitting on a log, toileting in the woods, sleeping on the ground, walking all day, collecting stream water, carrying food and eating out of a pot, hanging my food bag in a tree, walking with an umbrella, wearing the same layered clothes day after day as discomforts to endure. They ARE the lifestyle habits that keep me on the path of beauty, quiet, solitude and adventure!
I also have a rebuttal for “you have to keep going anyway.” It is simply “No I don’t!” I NEVER have to stay on a trail! Walking the Appalachian Trail is NEVER going to be a requirement for me. It will always be a choice that I can make freely. It is a recreation trail.
The trail could be a happy, comfortable sojourn for many more people if we adjust our attitude about it’s pain, it’s drudgery, it’s requirement to be miserable. Let it be comfortable and find how to achieve that for yourself!
The trail is a blank canvas on which we paint our fulfillment. We get to choose what fulfillment is.