5 Things The Mountains Have Taught Me About Life
Travel + Adventures
“You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you.”
I grew up in a city- in fact one of the lowest-lying cities in the world: Singapore. Like most city-dwellers, we have more exposure to skyscrapers, shopping malls, television and concrete tiles than getting dirty in the outdoors and communing with Mother Nature.
I have always identified myself as an ocean person after all, it was the path I have chosen. Having lived in remote and obscure islands around the world as a diving instructor, the ocean grew to become my backyard, my solace and the building block of the person I am right now.
Growing up on an island in Singapore, I have never been exposed to the grandeur of the mountains since childhood and have always been fascinated by them through magazines, films and documentaries. It wasn’t until I moved to New Zealand for university that my affinity with the mountains truly began.
In the brilliant, late autumn of 2014, my friends and I decided to trek Mount Hikurangi, the highest non-volcanic mountain of North Island, located on a spur on Raukumara Range in New Zealand. A highly sacred and spiritual significance for the Ngati Porou people of the East Cape, it was also inarguably recognized as the first point on mainland New Zealand to witness and be greeted by the first sight of dawn. The idea captivated and propelled us to embark on the trek- except we had no idea what Hikurangi looked like. The unassuming adventure spiraled into an adventure of triumphs and fully embracing the notion and essence of silence.
In early December of 2017 when the defining winter season began, I finally arrived in the revered soil of Nepal. I set out for this trip as a promise to a friend who just passed away. As we got onto higher elevations, no networks worked and we ceased every form of contact with the world. It was a beautiful detox that was deeply soul-healing. We were traversing into deep forests, across alpine creeks and ravishing valleys. We summited two peaks. We stayed in tea houses and spent time conversing with modest Nepalis and having vegetarian “dal bhat” every single day. We saw how life can be so simple, joyful and present with Nature- a theory so far-fetched and forsaken as a life for most urban-dwellers.
5 Things The Mountains Have Taught Me
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Slow Down
For anyone who has hiked or trekked up a mountain, being aware of your own physical capacity and capability is imperative than arriving at the destination itself.
As we are dealing with challenging, sometimes abnormal conditions that our physical body is not normally conditioned to, such as like high altitudes- we do risk ourselves of Acute Mountain Sickness (ACS) like Altitude Sickness. It is essential to learn the art of pacing yourself. For most bit, it means to slow down. In the mountains, you will learn the importance of pacing instead of rushing your way to the destination. We do that for our physical body to acclimatize into the altitude, but we do that too for our mental well-being. It is often we bring our habits and norms from our daily life back home in our travels when the essence of traveling in a foreign land was to teach you to slow down. I find the mountains and Mother Nature always have a way to drill that into your adventures.
“I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as a dream.”
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Notice The Little Things
The crookedness of the branches in the woods. The melodious flowing of the nearby river guiding you to the next town. The humming of the native birdsongs. The way two valleys merge perfectly together unfolding a distant mountain in the middle. The distinctive colored roofs of the houses in each village. The gratitude of a hot tea on your palm as everyone huddles together around the fireplace after dinner.
It is usually in Nature we learn to notice little things that we may fail to in our daily life back home. Put away the distractions, the mobile phones, the emails, the Netflix, the woes, the obligations… being in Nature reminds you to be here now. It is like reliving your senses, developing new eyes and deepening the connection we have with Nature, those around us and ourselves.
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Clarity in Nature
There is a profound time for clarity when you hold space for your thoughts in Nature.
The paradox about our mind is that we can never truly control it yet it seems to largely consume us. But it does not dictate our actions- unless we allow the thought and pursue it. Nature is where I find great clarity in filtering these thoughts when I allow them to flow through. It can be compelling times because you are holding space to confront them which you may never have or had the time to do it before. I always find that being in the mountains is elemental in putting things in perspective. They remind us how tiny and ceaseless our problems back home are when what lays to be overcome in front of us are the real obstacles. The beauty of our surroundings reminds you to dump all your worries and thoughts into a dumpster and be heavily present.
Here and now. This is the conversation the mountains have with us and within us. It just awakens.
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It Really Is About The Journey, Not The Destination
In life, one can be so consumed in arriving at the end goal- and when you do get there, what is next? There are always places to visit and higher peaks to summit in Life. But if you take the grandeur in during the journey to get you to these places- including the hardships, the disappointments, the perseverances, the tenacities and determination. You will have a greater appreciation of the destination when you arrive at it.
In life, we will meet many well-paved paths that signify comfort, ease, familiarity and mediocrity. These paths do not necessarily mean they are the best for us. We will also face the need to take it off track or even the off beaten paths. They could signify challenges, anxieties and uncertainties. There is no absolute linear trajectory that is the best for anyone. What we are reminded of especially being in the mountains, is the need to blaze our own trail with resilience- and that is beautiful too.
Being in the mountain ranges is one of the most surreal and life-changing experiences in my life. You spend most of your time on the journey for that short, monumental span of time at the peak. Taking our appreciation to savor every view with gratitude during the journey definitely invigorates those moments a bit longer.
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Let Go Of Control and Adopt Patience
I have always felt a need to be in control and to always have a plan in every pursuit of my life. It wasn’t until in the years I immersed myself heavily in Nature that I learned to let go of the need to be in control. There is always going to be an itinerary designed for you during a trek- either a physical or a mental one. But exercising the need to be flexible because of unforeseen circumstances, weather interference, altitude sickness and so on, are all part of the grand scale of your trekking experience. Patience and trust is the opposite of control. It isn’t a matter of when you get to the summit, it is a matter of what you overcame and mastered in this self-discovery trail that leads you there. For every summit we conquer, we are conquering a summit within ourselves.
Hone your patience, surrender and take your time and the need for control. Relish everything before it is gone too quickly, too soon.
I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did writing it. Climbed a mountain? What do you think it taught you? Let me know if mine resonates with you!
Love and light,
Sylvia
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I am Sylvia— the founder, writer, intuitive healer, and human design reader of Arawme. “Arawme” is basically, a raw me put together.
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