The Social Distancing Antidote: Nature Immersion

Solace in nature, always. At least that’s what I’ve always said. And yes, you can say I’m an outlier as social distancing is my default mode anyway. However, I’ve always maintained that our lack of connection with nature and our physical selves is at the root of so many of our 21st century ailments—physical and emotional. We are wired to spend 8+ hours a day being active, outdoors and I believe that is the key to really thriving.

Of course, for most of us, that’s not practical. But certainly, squeezing in some form of outdoor activity every day is. Probably, if you’re reading this, it’s because you’re like-minded and already reap the benefits of outdoor activities. It’s our indoor, sedentary neighbors we need to convert.  Perhaps, the silver lining of social distancing is that people will get stir crazy enough to venture outside and explore their corner of the natural world.  #optoutside

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s suburban hike in San Marcos. What a pleasant surprise to find a little network of trails right behind Palomar College. You can take a steep, direct approach to the “P”, or opt for the more, roundabout, meandering one. (You can probably guess, which one I took.)

up

Once at the top, you can trace your way across the ridges as long as your heart desires.

P

Either way, you’ll be rewarded with lovely views of the surrounding mountains and out to the Pacific.  The air was so fragrant and clean. The red dirt and delicious post-rain scents reminded me of hiking in Hawaii.

flora

Pacific Views From the P

Apparently, this area is popular with the off-roaders as evidenced by the debris. It appears many of them have lost control—careening and crashing through the rocks and scrub.

truck

The social distance—just right for a suburban hike.

L on P Trail

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s