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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nature provides us as humans with an endless amount of beauty to lay our eyes upon. Not only can the word beauty be used to describe pleasurable objects, but the word can also be used in reference to negative connotations to turn them into something with positive impact. For instance, one can find beauty in a tedious process because they find happiness in traveling down the path of the process itself as well of the end result of the object coming from the process. A great example of this comes from the narrative in the following paragraphs, Which the inspiration comes from the most recent post of Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

As the clock hits 3:00 AM, loud siren like noise blare from the phone to wake me up. I hurry to get dressed and hop into my car to make it to my girlfriend’s house at the designated time. We head on our way with the stars overhead shining ever so bright. Heavy are my eyelids as I focus on getting to Clingman’s Dome. It seemed as if I made a mistake decided to watch the sunrise three and a half hours away on top of the highest point on the eastern seaboard. Once we were in the Smokey’s a gravitational shift occurred in my mood almost as if the nature around me uplifted my spirit. Winding up the mountain with nothing but the beautiful landscape of wilderness surrounding me, placed me into a tranquil state of mind. More and more appreciation for the nature around started to arise within me, leading me to an internal debate over whether the decision to watch the sunrise was worth it. The dark sky with the radiating stars shining bright battled against the deep sea of trees clashing like two opposing sides at war with each other resulting in a distinct line of dark and light. This naturalist scene conveyed a deep-rooted beauty that has been on earth far before humans existed. As I continued up along the winding road, every possible moment I would sneak little peeks at the beautiful scene before me. The battle of light and dark was not the only beauty to be seen. It seemed as if in an instance a bold strong red outline over the mountain peaks put the war between light and dark at peace.

Adventuring is one of my favorite ways to past time, and when you include friends in your grand adventures so many fun memories can come out of the experience. One of the hardest things for me when it comes to hanging out with friends is the initial part of making the plans. Creating a plan that appeals to each friend in the group is the hardest task to achieve, but once the plan is established a carefree flow overcomes everyone in the group. Since my friends and I all have active lifestyles, hiking and various other forms of exploring is our go to plan of choice and what we fall back on if other plans can not be established in time. Some of my fondest memories come from the spontaneous adventures that have occurred because previous plans fell through. A lot of memorable adventures stem from going on adventure and visiting places that have not been explored by every friend. Joining friends in adventure can strengthen the friendship and develop a comradery creating strong bonds between each other.

A great example of strong bonds being developed occurred recently between and one of my good friends. We made plans to go hiking together earlier in the week on the one specific day because both of us were super busy with work and school. As the day came closer and closer, we realized the weather was going to be horrific due to it being 100 percent chance of rain throughout the day. Both of us still longed to see each other as well as spend time adventuring a new hiking spot that both have not been too. Finally came the day of the actual hike. It was raining the whole way to the base trail, and once we got there the parking lot was completely muddy. We decided to explore the surrounding area to gather our bearing with rain pounding down on the both of us completely getting soaked in the process. Once our bearings were gathered, the adventure began. Each step was a leap over huge puddles of rainwater, eventually my friend and I made a game out of seeing who could avoid the most puddles while hiking the fastest. In that moment I realized it was not the end goal and result of the hike that was the adventure, but that the real adventure was the process itself. When adventuring with friends, sometimes we forget to realize the actual adventure is the path and being present with your friends and not the plans you established for everyone. For me and my friends, hiking and exploring aimlessly through the woods allows us to escape the rigid plans we set, and it allows us to be present with each other fully immersing ourselves in companionship.

As kids most of us would spend much of our time in our own little word living out are own adventures, but as adults we grow up and out of the stages of life where it is acceptable live in our own adventure world. What if I told you there was still places left that could link you back to your childhood self, allowing you to reflect upon those childhood memories as well as indulge in the making of new memories. This so-called magical place left for us to go indulge in our adventures is the wilderness. Wilderness can mean many different things for one it might be a vast forest of trees and streams intertwining through mountains and to others it might be as simple as anything untouched or modified by humans. Both are correct explanations of the word itself and depending on the person depends on how they view the wilderness. Whenever I am hiking, I think of off the designated path as “wilderness” and a potential expedition waiting to be taken. It might take a little courage to take that first step off the trail but once you do there are endless opportunities and experiences at the helm waiting to happen.

Allowing yourself to indulge in your wild side and allows you to connect with yourself on a deeper level. Nature is a great tool to connect oneself with past adventures whether they are in the imaginary childhood world or real world past experiences. Wilderness is the raw version of nature where you can dive into your adventurous side maybe even meditating while taking a leisure trek through the woods. Connecting the external wilderness of the world with the internal wilderness of your mind can bring about new discoveries of oneself. The nature in the world brings out the true nature of ourselves whether that be our true emotions, feeling or thoughts. Bolstering up enough courage is the first step towards plunging yourself into the wilderness oh so eagerly waiting to be explored right off the marked path. For safety reasons the path is marked off to serve as a guide.

Obviously, taking safety into account is the priority. Aimlessly wandering off into the wilderness without any prior knowledge of the surrounding area, wildlife, landscape is not smart, and I would definitely recommend against it. If have prior experience and the knowledge to be safe in situations nature might throw onto you, by all means join your own little expedition of the wilderness exploring all the possibilities nature has to offer. Speaking from personal experience, roaming in the wilderness of both your mind and of what nature has to offer you can be a little uncomfortable at first, but once you indulge in it the positives are never ending. After a couple of times of getting over the comfortability, the easier it gets to take that first step in the direction of exploration of the wilderness. I have learned many things about myself when walking off the beaten path such as learning more about the deep rooted internal happiness that everyone has in them but just has to reflect positively on themselves to gain. Being alone with your thoughts mind sound chaotic and scary to some people. Once you are surrounded by nature along with the peace it brings, one can truly see that there is not anything to be afraid of when it comes to their mind. So go out into the “wilderness” next time you are on a hike whether it be into your mind or the literal wilderness off the marked path.

In the world today, one of the biggest problems for individuals is stress. Stress is the main cause of many problems in people such as anxiety, heart attacks and high blood pressure. Dealing with stress in productive ways is crucial to healthy mental health and can prevent mental health issues especially anxiety from arising in individuals constantly drowned down by internal and external stressors. Many people resort to temporary fixes such as alcohol or drugs to “fix” their stress when in reality these individuals are deferring their stress to come back later after the effects wear off. Permanent solutions of stress relief are out there freely floating around for the taking, all one must do is look.

Meditation is this permanent stress relief solution that can alleviate the natural stress the world places amongst us. Many different forms of meditation are sought after and used by individuals to accomplish an internal peace. Transcendentalism, which is often associated with nature, is a type of meditation used by people to lift themselves above the stress of society that holds them down. Another form of meditation that can be used practically anywhere at any time is mindfulness meditation. This type of meditation the individual connects themselves to the present and remain aware of the moment. Other notable types of mediation are Zen and Transcendental meditation. Yoga has a meditative component to it where the individual connects their breathing with their body movements while being mindful of receiving positive energy throughout the process. Each of these meditations result in stress relief if practiced correctly. All these meditation practices can have an added benefit when practiced outside especially when in nature. I personally love Yoga because it involves three different types of meditation into one “practice”. By focusing and using mindfulness to connect my breath to my movements, I am using mindfulness and breathing technique meditation to achieve an internal peace.

Hiking has always been an important activity to partake in especially while growing up. My memories are filled with numerous adventures related to hiking. Growing up in a neighborhood with woods piqued my interest in exploring nature and immersing myself in nature. Some of my best childhood memories are of me and my friends building forts in the woods, or playing hide and seek tag causing many of us to run freely about the woods and allow time to fly by. This strong interest of nature allowed me to connect to something deeper than oneself at a young age. When I was surrounded my nature or the woods, I was at complete peace. It was as if there was a subconscious linking between me and those who came before me. This sense of peace surrounded me causing all my anxieties and worries to dissipate leaving in a state of bliss ignorant to any external negativity.

As we get older, slowly we lose free time to explore and participate in activities that feed our soul. My oldest brother experienced this before I did and took on the responsibility of preparing me for this. Even though he had a full-time job while being a full-time student at Kennesaw State University, he would make time to take me hiking on the weekends at Kennesaw Mountain. These hiking excursions not only allowed me and him to connect with each other on a deeper level; we were simultaneously able to connect with the earth beneath our feet, trees, wind, and wildlife around us. The connection would have a residual effect on me causing me to be happier and peaceful throughout the day after the hike. This led to a yearning in me to deeply root myself to the earth and draw in all the positive clean energy being produced from nature. As I look back onto those memories the specific feeling of joy and peace arise in me causing me to want to get back into nature. This goes to show that there is still a residual affect from memories that are ten years old.

Once my brother graduated college and moved out of state, I felt as though I would not still be able to connect with nature and receive that internal peace. For a while, I refrained from going hiking especially at Kennesaw Mountain because I felt that it would not do the same effects as before. My curiosity and yearning to achieve internal peace through connecting with nature prevailed over the anxieties of not being able to connect without my older brothers helping hand. I got back into hiking once I turned sixteen and was able to drive on my own. Hiking alone allowed me to connect even deeper with the surrounding nature of the hike, and I was able to transcend my mind into new mental spaces. Some of the strenuous hikes that I have done since getting back into hiking would not have been accomplishable if I was not in a transcendental mindset.