Mindfulness in Nature

My sister’s friend from Oregon visited Spain in the summer, and came to Madrid. I accompanied and toured him around Madrid and Segovia. He loves nature and hiking and he encouraged me to start hiking as well.

At first, I told Jose, “Hiking looks dangerous."

He answered, “Dangerous to a girl who moved to a new city all by herself!"

I laughed and said, “Moving to a new city is fun and exciting!"

He told me that hiking is fun and exciting!

So…that stirred a new interest for hiking :)

I was feeling quite depressed the past few days due to unfortunate events and I knew, I needed to breathe some fresh air outside of my normal routine. Just right in time when my friends invited me to hike at Navacerrada on the Hispanic holiday.

Hiking, nature, friends and conversation completely cheered me up! I thought, “Maybe there are things I can’t control but all I ever have is the present moment; I might as well enjoy this day!"

In this frenzy period, I have contemplated on my feelings and I've learned something; We are not here to understand everything nor figure out why things happen to us. The most important thing is to live and focus in the present moment. It’s natural to feel joyful, energetic, and assured of life, and the next - to feel lonely, torpid, and confused-- wondering if the decisions you have made in life are correct. It isn’t crazy to feeling blissful and grey at the second, to feeling strong and weak at random, to be certain and also doubtful at times. We are humans – having different feelings – experiencing the highs and lows of everything. Imagine if everything is perfect – life can probably be so boring!

As I went through with this experience, I was able to understand Mindfulness better. Mindfulness is recognizing, and allowing each thought and feeling to permeate our being and pass through us yet never dwelling on it. Mindfulness is permitting what is, and not questioning what there is. It's seeing and feeling the experience in a deeper level. It’s simply living fully and peacefully right at this moment, no matter how delightful and unpleasant the experiences we are having.

I meditated, “I feel so lonely right now, I feel crying.” And so I Iet the feelings be and just cried for days in my bed. After two weeks, “I feel fine now. I am so much blessed, I feel grateful more than ever." So I went out wary, faced my days with more courage and determination.

After all, we are all just walking through the uncertainty of life. We better seize the day with the momentariness of feelings and pursue our goals, one step at a time.

#hiking #mindfulness #meditation #navacerrada