They seem to be a theme in my life, not to mention I love mountains.
People ask the question: "Are you a mountain or an ocean person?" I love the ocean, however it does not give me the same sense of aliveness as being in the mountains.
I have never put much thought into it though. I just knew being in the mountains gave me a sense of happiness I didn't normally feel.
At first I thought it was just being away from society, running away in a sense (my favorite tactic when life seems to be to much).
Then I started recognizing that when I am out in the mountains I am my truest self. Everything is on the surface. From my physical appearance of not wearing make-up, hair pulled up and dirty to my physiological ability of how many miles can I hike or run in the woods until my body tells me no more to my mental capacity of what am I seeing and taking in, how am I processing life without being stimulated by everyday commonalities like my phone, computer, even my friends/family to distract me to my emotional state of how I am truly feeling in my rawest form.
I hiked Dog Mountain the other day with a friend. I was my purest, happiest self. (I felt kind of bad for him, 7am and you get my chipper loud self singing during the drive all the way up to the hike). After the hike we got lunch in Hood River and wandered around and I explained to him my feeling of complete contentment.
I am learning the more time I spend in nature, in the mountains, the happier I am.
This brings me to why I am even talking about mountains.
About a week ago I had an "almost" anxiety attack. There was/is a lot going on. People I love dearly are going through hard times, I allowed a new person into my life (which is always anxiety producing to me) and I started work again working with non-verbal youth which I have never done before.
I was over-stimulated. I could feel my energy, it wasn't positive. I knew I had two options: to keep going and ignore my negative energy I could feel coursing through my body or I could stop and use some skills I have been practicing.
I have been practicing reading my energy levels, sitting and gaging on a scale of 1-10 how cuckoo bananas I feel. At that certain moment I was gaging myself to be about an 8 on the cuckoo bananas scale (once I get to a 9 or 10 I take my anxiety meds, nobody needs a hyperventilating Rosemary) so I stopped what I was doing and went into my "don't go bananas routine" which, depending on the time of day it is, I go for a run or I take a bath and then meditate (which is becoming my nighttime ritual, it really helps with insomnia!)
I took a bath for 20 minutes, I lite incenses, used lavender bath salts, turned on meditation music and turned off the lights and set a timer. This sounds super relaxing but it is kind of like my personal hell when I am amped up. I made myself lay in the bath and breath and try not to overthink. After my timer went off I got out of the bath and went to my room and chose a meditation.
The particular meditation I chose was called "Mountain Meditation". I hadn't done it before but decided to try it out. It was a 20 minute meditation and it first had me envision my favorite mountain (Mt. Hood). It asked questions about the mountain such as what it's physical appearance looked like. The meditation then went in to talking about the seasons the mountain goes through and how there are good and bad days to be on the mountain. After really studying the mountain the meditation asked me to bring the mountain inside myself and to be one with the mountain. It explained that I can be grounded like the mountain and be OK no matter how the seasons change or the storms that shake the mountain.
(You can access the meditation here: http://palousemindfulness.com/meditations/mountain.html )
So I have now been doing the meditation for about 2 week and it is bringing to light why I love the mountains, it is as though subconsciously I knew my time in the mountains gave me the strength and groundedness to proceed with my every day life.
The mountain is my constant reminder that I can be strong and grounded. I can make it through any season and any storm.
And I need that in my life. It is so easy to feel so small in our large world, just as it is easy to forget about mountains when they are not in plain sight, but mountains never lose their magnificence and neither will I.
We all need to appreciate our own beauty and magnificence, even through the hardest times, because like a mountain, we all have the strength to make it through any storm and the beauty that comes after a storm will outshine the darkness.
Climb the mountains to see the lowlands. -Chinese Proverb
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