(Family photo by Yelena Rogers at Great Cruz Bay, St John, USVI – August 12, 2016)

 

Why am I drawn to nature and the wilderness, and challenging myself in it? The following essay resonates with me. It was written by Chris Hauth, an endurance athlete and coach, and  former Olympic swimmer, read by Rich Roll on The Rich Roll Podcast, July 5, 2018. I transcribed it from that podcast.

 

Meaning

I feel as though there are so many out there looking for meaning. Not in a deeper spiritual way, but instead that they are missing something, something fulfilling, something that sets their wires straight. I think that is why ultra endurance and endurance adventures, events and expeditions have gained so much appeal of late. I believe it satisfies these needs. This sense of purpose. This sense of living to our potential. This self realization that there is more to us than sleeping, eating, and working/career. Of course there is time for family, and in more rarer cases, unfortunately, for community and church and more. But one thing is missing in all of this. The self. The time for self. The time for self health. The time for spending time with thoughts, reflections, elevated heart rate, muscular activity, and most importantly, fresh air. Nature.

Endurance events allow for this and more. A connection with nature, with the environment, with its beauty, its ability to revive us. We are hardwired for nature, to be outside, to live connected with our environment. To feel it. To play and struggle in it. To be challenged by it, and therefore challenge ourselves. This sense of adventure, challenge, struggle and realization is what pulls people to becoming endurance athletes. To discover their potential. At first, maybe not a huge step, but seeing what we are capable of and growing from there. To a new potential. And all the while connecting to our truest, rawest, inner self. How we are hardwired as animals to nature, to the outdoors, to a sense of feeling of awe in it via activity.

Everything is active around us in nature. And of course, we as humans are part of this nature. Part of this growth and vibrant balance. And as the athlete continues to grow to new challenges which then adds some fear, and curiosity, and uncertainty to it, which again brings us back to our true raw self, that human living with the outdoors, surviving outdoors. And feeling most alive when we are truly challenged physically and mentally via nature and our endeavors in it. Nothing can replace that. As it is, our truest raw self is buried deep down there, but the more athletes connect with it, the more they realize how much that dormant self was in them, and they want to unlock and unleash more, it makes them better. More energetic, healthier, happier, more creative, more efficient, more connected, and therefore, caring.

The stewardship of our environment and nature begins with loving ourself in it, and feeling this connection to it. How can one relate to the environment and its destruction if one is foreign when in it? But when we have felt how we are truly part of it, that is a deeply connected and wired part of us. We begin to unlock this hardwiring and allow it to fire more and more. In order to feel alive, and joyful and happy, and motivated in our days. Not only to get out and spend time in it again, but revitalize for work, and family, and community, and more. Because our own tank of self care is full and we are connected in seeing and feeling our potential, physically and emotionally. We need the fresh air for all of that to fire.

In order to love others, we need to love ourselves. We can’t give more love than we are able to give ourselves. So knowing that we have this emptiness, and missing component in our lives, makes living generously and giving very hard. We are missing something. That huge piece is our hardwired self for outdoor adventure; physical activity. And with that comes curiosity with what we can be capable of, awakening the endurance athlete within. The one that is curious that they can achieve that goal. And once seeing that, growing to a new level of appreciation of that better, healthier, more confident, beautiful, vibrant, and energetic self. That glows outward because on the inside the fire of that missing component has been lit.

The challenge is we feel this imbalance. We just can’t identify what it is. We have become so disconnected with our potential that we don’t know how to explain what it is. But most, once outside in nature, training with a healthy fear toward an event on the outer edge of their current capability start to understand. I was reading the other day how we no longer have these rights of passage that young men and women used to go on, out in nature, surviving on our own, living in the world of our environment, off the land for days. To really feel it, sleep in it, awake in it, live off of it, and immerse ourselves in it. We no longer have this. And it might be leaving a curious hole in our soul that is missing. Why is it we are so curious and mystified by the outdoor life, adventures, raw ability in nature? When we see those pictures, or hear the stories that it tugs at us, that it leaves us daydreaming. Because we are drawn to it, it is who we are. How we are hardwired from thousands of years of living in nature, in balance with it, surviving in it, being challenged by it, being overwhelmed by it. Feeling alive. On the ocean, or in the woods, the mountains, or the desert, it all has its affect on us.

We all think back to the beautiful moments outdoors, alive. Have we been sterilized to our fake lighting, fake transportation, fake shelters, fake space we call our property? We have ignored this fundamental part of us for too long. Where is our danger? Our use of all our senses, or unease? Where are we truly challenged in body, mind and soul? Not at work. Not at home. But in play. In the outdoors, or anything close to it, your senses come alive. Ever so gradually all the components and cells of your body start awakening and firing because that is where we are originally from. Land. Sea. Air. Coming back from this dose, it fires all our senses. No treadmill or gym can replace this. There, time passes slowly, laboriously. In nature, time passes quickly because we get lost in ourselves, in our thoughts, in mind, in spirit, in listening to our body and soul. It’s all happening there.

How do you think we feel after a marathon or a 50K in the woods, mountains, or beautiful terrain? How do you think we feel after a day on the oceans or lake while rowing, sailing, swimming, fully powering ourselves across terrain? Mountain biking through hills and meadows, across streams? Repeat any of these actions for a few days in a row and our sense of self changes. Our priorities shift. Our soul exhales and relaxes to what it knows is an integral part of it. Nature. Challenge. Raw beauty and immersive inputs all around us. We all have an impulse to be more. An impetus we often don’t know why or where it came from, but it is there. Adversity creates morality. It shows our human side, vulnerability, and therefore, empathy.