تفسیر درس

Camping – Coaching Lesson

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to our coaching lesson this month, Camping. Camping’s one of my favorite activities in life and as we mentioned in the conversation, there are many different kinds of camping: car camping, backpacking, RVs, mobile homes, all of these different kinds of things. And I think back to my early days of backpacking.

I can remember the first time I truly backpacked. Now, backpacking means you carry everything. So you’re not camping in a tent near your car. You’re actually putting everything on your backpack and then you walk into the woods, into the mountains, whatever. And you walk a while and then you camp there. So you’ve got to bring everything with you. You must carry everything.

I’ve noticed online, when I’ve mentioned going camping, on Twitter, for example, that some people have said that they’re afraid to do it. It kind of surprises me. But they’re afraid, they’re nervous it. They’re afraid of nature. They’re afraid of wild animals attacking them or a big storm coming and freezing them to death, or just being really, really, really miserable and uncomfortable.

And unfortunately, especially among people who grew up in cities, there is a kind of fear of nature, which I think is very unfortunate because, y’know, nature, meaning the wilderness, plants and mountains and the seaside and all that, is such a healing, wonderful environment to be in. Anyway, let’s go back to my story, my first backpacking trip.

So many years ago I decided I’m going to go backpacking. I’m going to take everything in my backpack and I’m going to walk into the woods, into the mountains, and I’m going to spend a few days in the mountains. So I started planning my trip. I had a backpack, first of all. So then I started packing. And I started thinking what do I need to bring with me.

And I went to an outdoors store and started asking them about it and they said, oh well, you need hiking boots, you need big heavy hiking boots to protect your ankles and if you step on a rock or something you won’t hurt your ankle. So, oh, okay. So I bought these big heavy heavy-duty hiking boots. And then, y’know, they told me, oh, I needed a tent and I needed something to cook with, so a whole stove set.

And I needed a complete first aid kit because what if something bad happened. And, oh, what if a snake bit me? I needed a snake bite kit. And I needed extra clothes in case a surprise storm came so I wouldn’t get rained on or freeze or something. And so, they just kept going on and on and on. And I kept thinking about all the possible dangers I might possibly face going into the mountains in the springtime.

And based on this list of possible dangers and discomforts, I made a packing list. And I packed my backpack full of all this stuff to prepare me for all of these dangers and difficulties. The final pack

weighed about 45 pounds, without water. So the water was extra. And, of course, I had to carry 5 to 10 pounds of water as well. Now that’s 20 to 25 kg, kilos, of weight in my pack.

So, ugh, I said well, I thought this was normal, I thought this was what I needed to do so I put on this big heavy pack. I was ready. So I drove to the mountains, put on the pack and hiked into the mountains. And, of course, mountains, that means there’s uphill. So immediately from the parking lot it was uphill. And it was a tough, tough thing, 45 pounds, 20 or so kilos on my back, walking.

I mean I could feel the weight on my knees, I could feel it in my ankles and my feet. I could certainly feel it in my shoulders and my back. And I trudged on. It was…errr…this ordeal to be trudging, marching through the woods and the mountains, errr, until I reached the campsite finally. And then I unpacked everything, set up my tent, made my dinner, slept…fair exhausted.

The next day I got up, I was sore already. My muscles were sore from carrying that huge heavy pack. So I packed everything back up, went hiking for the rest of the day. But it was a miserable experience, gruesome. I mean it just required so much willpower to be moving along with that heavy pack and I just felt like I was being crushed down by this super heavy weight as I went up and down mountains.

And going up was really difficult, of course, but going down was tough, too, because when you go down you have to stop yourself with each step and I had all that extra weight I had to stop so it would kind of push down more on my shoulders and my hips, ugh. So I survived another day, had another campsite at night. And then I was really done. I was just so exhausted and miserable and sore.

The next morning I got up and walked all the way back to the car. And I thought to myself at that time, this sucks. This is terrible. This is no fun. Why do people do this? I can’t imagine. And I’m not going to do this again. So that was my first real backpacking experience. It was not fun at all. It was more of a tough, gruesome, physical challenge that I endured and survived.

Now, there’s a few interesting facts about that trip and about nature and backpacking, in general. Number one, I realized later, when I got home, that I never used most of the stuff in my pack, most of it. I had a bunch of clothes that I never changed and wore, so they were in my pack but I never used them. I had a whole bunch of extra stuff that I didn’t need. I had extra pots for cooking, never used them. And that got me thinking. How much of this do I really need and how much of this was really unnecessary?

Another fact, very, very, very few people are actually hurt or killed while backpacking, especially going on a known trail, which I was and which I almost always do. So I’m not walking into the unknown wilderness that no one has ever gone to before. Most people don’t do that. Most people go and they follow an

established trail and the trail even has little marking so you know where you are, highly unlikely you’ll get lost. So, very rare for people to get hurt or killed, especially on those kinds of trails.

And this leads to the other fact and realization I had which is most fears are just totally exaggerated. I realized that the dangers that the outdoor store me about, the staff there, and the dangers I had imagined in my mind, were extremely exaggerated and unlikely. For example, some…in the spring a surprise snowstorm coming and dumping snow on my location.

I realized, number one, that was very, very, very unlikely to happen in the location I was hiking. And number two, I realized that even if it did happen, it wouldn’t really be a big deal. I mean I can walk in snow. I didn’t really need a lot of extra equipment to handle that even. So I realized that, in fact, what I was doing on that trip, that initial trip, that weight, that burden on my back, in many ways what I was carrying were my fears.

I was carrying my fears because I packed my bag based on all of my imagined fears about what could possibly go wrong. And then I tried to pack some piece of equipment to handle that fear, to make me feel better about that fear. So in many ways I was being crushed down by my fears. That’s what made the trip miserable. That’s what caused me to take so much unnecessary stuff. My fears were the true burden. My fears were what made the whole experience so miserable, such a burden, such a gruesome challenge to get through.

And that realization led me, then, to do more research about backpacking and to actually find that there are many different approaches to backpacking. And I found especially a group of people that are focused on what’s called ultralight backpacking. And these guys are, as the name implies, they’re focused on taking the minimal amount possible, on having the lightest possible pack.

Now, for them, lightest possible does not mean dangerous. I mean, you still want to be comfortable and you still want to be safe. But you don’t want to take a bunch of unnecessary stuff. And so they focus on taking the minimal amount possible, keeping the backpack light. Why? So that they have a better enjoyment of the experience. So they can enjoy the experience of walking in nature without it feeling so heavy and miserable.

And so I got some books about ultralight backpacking and I began to follow this philosophy. So I started taking stuff out of my backpack. I got a lighter backpack. I got rid of my heavy hiking boots and now I just hike in just regular tennis shoes, running shoes. I changed, instead of a heavy tent I got this little tarp that’s quite light. I only have one little pot instead of several and it’s very, very lightweight and very small. I take the minimum necessary clothes, so I take enough to keep me warm and safe but I don’t take extra.

I don’t mind getting dirty. I don’t care if my clothes get a little stinky when I’m out in the woods. It doesn’t matter.

And all of this transformed my experience of backpacking and made it into something that was extremely peaceful and calming and healing and enjoyable, because as the pack became lighter, the experience became more pleasant. And I could focus more on my surroundings and connecting to nature instead of the pain and the difficulty of carrying a big heavy weight.

And when we think about it, I think you see the metaphor. This is really a great metaphor for life, in general. It’s our fears that weigh us down. And the more fears we have and the bigger they are, the more scary they are, the more powerful they are, the heavier they are. And this is why people have a lot of worry and a lot of fear. They almost move around, y’know, like with their head down.

They look like they’re carrying a heavy weight, don’t they? If you see someone who’s really unhappy and bitter and fearful and always worrying. Y’know, they’re not walking around with their shoulders back and their head up. They don’t look light. They look heavy. They look like they’re carrying this burden. And in many ways, they are, because psychologically fears are heavy. They’re a burden and the more you have the more heavy and burdened you are.

Just like with my backpacking trip. The more you carry heavy fears with you, the less you enjoy your life, the less you enjoy your environment, the less you enjoy the people around you. Why? Because you’re so focused on the burden and the heaviness and the pain of the fears, you don’t have much energy to pay attention to all the wonderful things around you.

So, talking psychologically now, it’s also helpful to go ultralight, to get those fears off of your back, all those exaggerated fears, all those unnecessary fears, all that garbage and worry you’ve been carrying for so long. Unpack it, throw it away, get it off your back. Lighten up your load so that as you walk through life you can look around, you can enjoy it. You can be light on your feet and light in your mind.

Let’s talk about how to specifically do that this month. Number one, as always, you’ve got to start by identifying some, make a list, be honest with yourself. What are your heaviest fears and worries? What are the big ones, the heavy ones that you’ve been carrying for a while? Worries about what’s happening now, worries about the future, fears of loss, fears of failure, all those things. Write them all down and identify especially which ones are the heaviest, the biggest.

Number two, go ultralight. Vow to get rid of them. Make a list, a piece of paper for each one, crumple it up, burn it. Symbolically let it go. Burn it. Throw it away. It’s gone. Let that fear go. Unpack it.

Number three, whatever fears or worries remain after you let go, after you symbolically burn that paper with your list. If any still remain, think of simple, lighter, easier solutions to those fears. See, one problem we have is that we have some big fear in our mind, something that might happen. But that’s all. We just keep worrying about it. We keep staying afraid.

Well, if we just think of an easy solution to it, that maybe it’s not the best solution, but just any little solution. Like, okay, if that happens then I will do…something. I will do this. And at least you have just some little plan. If something bad happens, I know what I’m going to do. That will make the burden lighter, too. Make the solution as easy as possible. And then once you have a little solution you can say, okay, I’ve got a solution. I’m ready. I’m prepared for that. And then you can unpack that fear and let it go, too.

As you unpack more and more and more of your fears, you’ll go light through life. You’ll walk lightly through life. Your mind, your psychology will be lighter, more open, easier. The benefit of that is that you feel more free. Just as I did hiking, y’know, with a big heavy pack I didn’t feel very free. Y’know, I wasn’t free to go explore and run around and check out new trails and try new things because, ugh, I was so tired from carrying that pack, I didn’t want to do anything, just go straight ahead and get to my campsite and rest.

But with a light backpack, light shoes and feeling energetic and didn’t have this heavy thing, I could…I was always looking around. Oh, that’s interesting. I’d walk over, try out a little side trail, explore things. I had more freedom because of that lightness. I wasn’t burdened by all that heavy fear.

You also make faster decisions when you don’t have the big heaviness, you’re faster. Your mind is faster so you’ll decide quicker. When you’re afraid you get paralyzed and you don’t know what to do and you don’t decide fast enough. But when you unpack all those fears you’ll quickly make decisions and that usually leads to more success in life, especially over the long-term.

So your job this month, unpack your fears. Go lighter through life. See you next time. Bye for now.