Yesterday overwhelmed me and I didn’t get to play in the mountains and now today it is raining. Like really raining, not the kind of rain where you can still venture out under the canopy and return home with wet socks and muddy boots. It’s the kind where you have to hold your steering wheel with two hands while driving on River Road to keep your car from venturing off into the Ottauquechee.
It’s the kind of rain where it’s not enough to trigger your Vermont flood PTSD and just enough to keep you in bed for just a little longer than usual. Where the sun does not seem to rise in the morning, like a permanent night might just be upon us. It’s a good morning to spend some time half groggy in front of the computer getting some busywork done before my brain fully wakes up.
But my body is craving the repetitive movements of hiking or paddling or skiing (only three months away). Studies show that repetitive movements enable to the brain to calm, allowing it to reset and heal in miraculous ways. The nervous system gets reset, stress is reduced and the brain can enter into an almost meditative state of mindfulness. Have trouble sitting still and focusing on a flame after a long day of sitting at your desk staring at a blue screen? Go for a walk around the block. Or in the case of Vermont, go hike up a mountain.
Why does this work? Repetition calms our brain by giving it the opportunity to relax. It knows what’s coming — just another hour of putting one foot in front of the other. Sure, if you’re freaked out looking for bears or snakes, hiking might not put you in that meditative state, but otherwise you should be good to go. I find the work roads up Killington and Pico to be oddly soothing, but they often allow my overactive brain to wander about too much.
Instead, I often find myself sneaking off into the single track hiking trails to focus my brain on foot placement, where a wandering brain ends with a face first on the ground kind of experience. It all depends on what I need on a given day in a given situation. But I love the intensity of these trails — there is absolutely no room for lack of focus or blurriness of the mind — a simple mistake in focus can have severe consequences. Trust my ACL to remind me of that…
Walking first thing in the morning allows my brain to wake up on its own time. After resting through the night, the morning repetitions enable my brain to begin the day fully healed rather than strung out. I have discovered that I am a better person, with clearer thoughts, a more organized work day and a much better diet than when I roll out of bed with no loading time. By lunchtime, I still will not have woken up and by the end of the work day I have nothing left in me but Netflix. I don’t like that.
So instead I walk. Or run. It just depends on whether I want to fly or simply exist. The length doesn’t really matter for the most part, although some days it takes longer to get into the groove. Other days, I can simply walk to the mailbox for a five minute hit of mediation. But most days, I need at least 2 miles to calm down. A quick jaunt up to the top of Snowshed (the long way) can change my entire lookout on life and transform me into the kind of person I want to be rather than the one that simply rolled out of bed.
A lot of “Morning People Conquer the World” type of literature claims that it only takes 15 minutes of morning exercise to change your whole day. I believe it has to be repetitive exercise and not weird variations, like an ab routine or something like that. Sure, that will get you out of bed and wake you up, but it doesn’t give your brain, body and nervous system the opportunity to breathe and relax before getting on with your day. A 15 minute ab workout is like demanding you jump out of bed and sprint for the fire. No thank you.
I encourage all of you to try a simple walk around the block to start your day. A trip down the driveway to your mailbox. A journey to the top of Snowshed or Ramshead or Pico or Bear Mountain. Anything that gets you outside and moving in a repetitive manner. Just try it. And see how much better the rest of your day is. Because no matter what happened, you just spent at least 15 minutes outside connecting with yourself and the Earth.
Merisa Sherman is a long time Killington resident, town lister and development review board member, real estate broker and Coach PomPom. She can be reached at Merisa.Sherman@SothebysRealty.com.
