This blog post is brought you in sponsorship with REI
Did you know hiking can help you nurture relationships with your friends, family, and significant other?
That's right: the benefits of hiking go far beyond the physical body. In fact, spending time in nature can have an incredibly positive effect on your health, happiness and relationship building.
In this blog, you will discover 8 powerful ways hiking with your friends, family and loved ones can bring you even closer together.
Read on to learn more now.
Hiking With Friends, Family & Loved Ones Encourages You To...
1. Solve Problems Together
You never know what you’ll encounter on the trail. From thunderstorms to wrong turns, you’ll need to learn how to work together as a team. Couples, colleagues and cohorts can all benefit from hiking as a key way to develop strong team building skills. Plus, you will learn how to use your problem solving skills in a real-life environment.
2. Communicate Effectively
Whether you’re monitoring your hydration or deciding where to pitch or tent, hiking can be physically and mentally challenging. As a result, it demands that you communicate with your hiking partner. You should let each other know when you need to take breaks and make sure the pace of the hike serves everyone in your group. This way, you will all stay in good health while on the trail.
3. Enjoy The Little Things
A rewarding vista, a wildflower in bloom, a wildlife sighting… All of these trail moments mean that much more when you share them with someone you care about. Hitting the trail gives you and your hiking buddies an opportunity to step away from your daily lives. Together you will enjoy all of the amazing sights and sounds that nature has to offer.
4. Compete Together
Instead of competing against each other, compete together. Set hiking goals and accomplish them together. From thru-hiking long trails to conquering high peaks, or achieving record speeds, hiking offers you endless challenges and rewards.
5. Be Vulnerable & Challenge Yourself
When you go on a hike, you put yourself out into the unknown. In nature, anything is possible. When you share that feeling of vulnerability with another, you relate to each other on a whole new level. As a result, you bring your relationship to a whole new level as well.
6. Unplug From Your Daily Life
In a day, how often do you pick up your phone? Hiking is a great way for you to unplug and enjoy the nature around you. It’s proven that going offline can help improve your mental health, so you and your hiking partners will better yourselves, and you will love the results together.
7. Spend Quality Time
The bustle of our daily lives often gets in the way of spending quality time with the ones we love. When you're on a hike, you have no choice but to spend time with whoever you choose to share the trail with. This creates space for engaging conversations and cherished moments of silence.
8. Live Even Healthier & Happier
Hiking is healthy. Period. We all know this. It builds strength and endurance. It decreases depression and anxiety. According to health experts like WebMD and Harvard Health Publishing, hiking literally makes you feel healthier and happier. And when you share health and happiness with your hiking crew, you're bound to build bonds unlike any other.
Find a Hiking Group Near You Now
Here at 52 Hike Challenge, we are committed to helping you to #OptOutside with new friends. Click here to join a local hiking group in your area. Already have a hiking group? Add yours to our list now. We look forward to hiking with you!
I want to join local hiking group!!