Nature taught me to appreciate simple little things
Author: Hossam Serag - Sept 2021 | Hiking - Philosophy - Psychology

"A healthy person has a thousand wishes, a sick person has only one"

A true powerful fact that never calls to aim low, rather it is a true 'reminder' not to be drowning in resentfulness to the endless list of unreachable desires. It is a call to be 'truly' grateful for whatever we have while pursuing what we aim for.

Naval Ravikant, one of the admirable people said once ‘Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.’. As humans we desire what is more and what is better, we desire more money, more compliments and higher social status. We desire more and better & more and higher. And that is okay if we put effort to be grateful than resentful.

Now the question is what if we committed ourselves to 'too many' contracts? How 'too many' would influence our contentment? Do we ever reach saturation to our desires eventually? The answer is simple, no we don’t. Too many contracts with desires is a paved road to resentfulness.

But there is a way out to reach contentment; the first miles of this way requires us to 'truly' appreciate whatever we have and to aim for only specific desires that seem achievable. If we are not fully aware of the blessings we have and the number of ‘contracts’ we make, resentment is going to cage our souls by all unreachable desires. It is a trap, and nature is a way out. Nature is where we can practice awareness and appreciation of the little simple things we have in life. More particularly through hiking.

Hiking: a way to practice true appreciation to little things

Hiking drains you physically, you may walk more than 30 km straight in the wild. With such distance or any relative long distance, your muscles cry silently asking for rest and your body asking for a comfy bed. Those are some simple things and simple desires. But you can’t get them because you are basically in the middle of nowhere -such as life- and you don’t have any choice but to continue your struggle and enjoyable journey.

And after a very long hike you literally -believe me- going to appreciate the little small things. A warm shower that falls on your dirty skin and refreshes you as if you escaped from Shawshank with Andy Dufresne; a cup of tea that tastes incredible even if it is horrible as if you drink it for the first time in your life; and a bed where each of your exhausted muscles adjusts itself and finds its way to rest and comfort.

At this moment, laying down in your bed, a quick flashback starts and walks you through this experience with its unpredictable events that happened along the way, good or whatever. Including the miles of horse poop you walked through and could not avoid. It is life my friend. But you will also remember moments of gratefulness while finding a free good apple in the middle of nowhere. A different kind of happiness because it is an unpredictable little gift that is never taken for granted. Then you remember all of the simple little things you have and enjoy in life with a true sense of appreciation.

Nature has guaranteed that with every single time you do a proper hike and you go back home, you would feel content and you would experience the best sleep and cup of tea ever, every single time. This is happiness.

That feeling of content after each hike is indescribable! We all seek happiness, as much as everyone, and happiness is a state of mind when feeling content and at peace; and this state of mind comes from awakening some of the feelings and meanings of appreciation and gratitude to the precious little things we have.

Nothing corrupts this state of mind as much as a vulnerable human soul that surrounds itself with what is missing from the list of its endless desires. It is a trap and nature is a way out. Nature has taught me to be aware of this trap and put effort to be grateful for the things I have and the things that really matter. It taught me, the less we are resentful about the things we don’t have, the more we find things in life worth living for.