I’ve mentioned a few reasons why long distance hiking helped Cindy’s mental health. Exercise in the sun is the biggest reason, the one for which we’re even raising funds and awareness. Previous blog posts also touched on sunshine, simplicity and beauty. This post, coming on the heels of announcing there are people coming out to join us, focuses on the camaraderie found out on the trail.
There are lots of things we belong to in the context of civilization. We belong to communities, yes, but we also belong to interest groups, political parties, ideologies, nation states, anonymous forums of all manner and even our careers. None of those civilized belongings brings the health and happiness benefits that have been proven for social bonding.
Is it any surprise that a species that survived through cooperation in small bands should have their health and happiness contingent on social bonding? Other kinds of bonding or belonging serve only to distract from this most important of all bonding. Out on the trail those distractions don’t exist. People belong to each other, bond with each other only. The other stuff doesn’t matter. That’s why camaraderie provides yet another avenue out on the trail for mental health healing.
