Larson Institute of Self-Mastery » Nature

Hiking vs. Running

Gary N. Larson — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:14:16 +0000

As part of my quest to achieve self-mastery, I have made the goal to exercise every day except Sundays. I have done a lot of running in the past with my wife and she definitely was a motivational force for me. She and I have completed nine marathons together. They each were amazing experiences. Talk about Self-Mastery! Running a marathon takes an enormous amount of self-mastery.

However, I have found it very difficult at times to get myself out in the mornings to do a daily run. So a couple of years ago I began hiking and trail running and have since fallen in love with it. I am blessed to have a mountain with several different hiking trails within a mile or two from my home. So now my daily exercise consists mainly of hiking.

I find hiking to be so much more interesting than running on the streets. Running consists mainly of watching asphalt go by, mile after mile. Boring! Hiking and trail running, on the other hand, have so much more to offer as far as keeping it interesting. Yes, you do have to keep your eye on the trail, but you are also surrounded by nature. And nature never stays the same. It’s always changing. The transitions from each season to the next are wonderful to witness. The change from hiking in the morning daylight of summer to hiking in the dark, like I do now in the fall, is stimulating and challenging.

So, most every day I go out in the early mornings for about a half-hour hike in the foothills and canyons near my home. On Saturday mornings I go on longer hikes for about two hours in length. Here are some photos from last Saturday’s hike. The fall colors were dazzling!

This morning’s hike was marvelous. It was dark yet there was enough light from the quarter-moon to light my trail to where I didn’t need my flashlight. There were thin clouds moving quickly past the moon in the dark that were simply beautiful.

I have to admit, I didn’t feel so great this morning when I got up at 5:30 a.m. In fact I felt lousy. I was so tired and had a headache. So it took a lot of self-discipline to get myself going. I was amazed that as I went on my hike I began feeling better and better and by the time I was done I actually felt great and still do. That just goes to show you that you have to stick it out and don’t let aches and pains or fatigue stop you from your daily workout.

Have a great day!

Life – Don’t Miss It!

Gary N. Larson — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:50:34 +0000

Good morning! I’m standing in the foothills above my home. Just last night it was pouring rain. We had a big storm come through. This morning as I stand in the foothills it’s not raining on me, but as I look across the valley I see heavy rain and lightning flashes from one end of the valley to the other. What I’m witnessing is an amazing and wonderful light show. It makes me feel like God is putting a show on for me. It’s a delightful thing to watch. Wow, there went another one! It lights up the whole sky and valley. It’s a beautiful thing.

What does this have to do with self-mastery? Probably nothing except for the fact that if I wasn’t up here on my hike I wouldn’t get to see this. There are a lot of things I wouldn’t get to see if I didn’t get out every morning and go hiking. I get to see a number of amazing things that I think a lot of people don’t see. I feel blessed for it and I feel that’s one of the reasons that it makes it worth it for me to get up early and to get outside and exercise my mind and body. It allows me to be among nature and not miss the unexpected and wonderful things in life like this wonderful light show this morning.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Thank you.

The First Snow of the Season

Gary N. Larson — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:04:56 +0000

Good morning! As I mentioned recently, part of my quest to achieve self-mastery is to exercise every day, no matter what. As I looked outside this morning I saw that it was pouring rain – cold rain! I must admit that thoughts of climbing back into bed went through my mind. How was I supposed to go hiking up the mountain in this?

Then I thought of my amazing wife. I call her amazing because she is! She goes out running every morning with her running partner Ramona, no matter what. Rain, sleet, snow, wind, darkness or extreme cold doesn’t stop her. As I looked out the window this morning I knew that my wife was already out there in this miserable storm doing a 10-mile run.

So with that thought I forced myself to get on my hiking gear and drove up to the trailhead for my hike. I pulled on my rain poncho and headed up the trail. By this time it was beginning to get light.

Yesterday I shared some photos of the beautiful fall colors I encountered on a recent hike. Today I was met first with rain and then with SNOW! Since the leaves haven’t all fallen yet they were covered with a heavy coating of wet snow. This weighed the branches down causing them to bend across the trail. It made it a challenge for me to plow through the branches that were blocking my path.

Of course the wet snow soaked my legs and arms that weren’t covered by my rain poncho. So I was cold and wet and you would think – miserable. But I wasn’t miserable! In fact I had a great time. It was a fabulous morning. I loved the crisp air and the snow covered trees.

There is something magical about the combination of exercising your body and being out in nature. You just can’t help but feel good. I noticed as I came down the mountain that I had a huge grin on my face. It came so easily and naturally. It just couldn’t be helped.

It makes me wonder how much depression in the world could be alleviated by being on a program such as this. Instead of drugs and counseling, perhaps all that many people need is daily exercise and a daily experience among God’s creations. What a concept! Maybe you should give it a try.

Have a great day!

The Fresh Beginning

Gary N. Larson — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:18:58 +0000

(Note: There are many great works in the public domain containing wonderful gems of wisdom. I will be sharing several of them from time to time. This entry is by Ralph Waldo Trine from his book THIS MYSTICAL LIFE OF OURS written in 1907)

When one awakes from sleep and so returns to conscious life, he is in a peculiarly receptive and impressionable state. All relations with the material world have for a time been shut off, the mind is in a freer and more natural state, resembling somewhat a sensitive plate, where impressions can readily leave their traces. This is why many times the highest and truest impressions come to one in the early morning hours, before the activities of the day and their attendant distractions have exerted an influence. This is one reason why many people can do their best work in the early hours of the day.

But this fact is also a most valuable one in connection with the moulding of everyday life. The mind is at this time as a clean sheet of paper. We can most valuably use this quiet, receptive, impressionable period by wisely directing the activities of the mind along the highest and most desirable paths, and thus, so to speak, set the pace for the day.

Each morning is a fresh beginning. We are, as it were, just beginning life. We have it entirely in our own hands. And when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all yesterdays should be yesterdays, with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient is it to know that the way we lived our yesterday has determined for us our today. And, again, when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows, with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient to know that the way we live our today determines our tomorrow.

“Every day is a fresh beginning, Every morn is the world made new; You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, Here is a beautiful hope for you, A hope for me and a hope for you.

“Ah the past things are past and over, The tasks are done, and the tears are shed. Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover; Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled, Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

“Let them go, since we cannot relieve them, Cannot undo and cannot atone. God in His mercy receive, forgive them! Only the new days are our own. Today is ours, and today alone.

“Here are the skies all burnished brightly; Here is the spent earth all reborn; Here are the tired limbs springing lightly, To face the sun and to share with the morn, In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

“Every day is a fresh beginning, Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning, And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain, Take heart with the day and begin again.”

Simply the first hour of this new day, with all its richness and glory, with all its sublime and eternity-determining possibilities, and each succeeding hour as it comes, but not before it comes. This is the secret of character building. This simple method will bring anyone to the realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, and there is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannot be realized somehow, some-when, somewhere.

This brings such a life within the possibilities of all, for there is no one, if really in earnest and if he really desires it, who cannot live to his highest for a single hour. But even though there should be, if he is only earnest in his endeavor, then, through the law that like builds like, he will be able to come a little nearer to it the next hour, and still nearer the next, and the next, until sooner or later comes the time when it becomes the natural, and any other would require the effort. . In this way one becomes in love and in league with the highest and best in the universe, and as a consequence, the highest and best in the universe becomes in love and in league with him. They aid him at every turn; they seem literally to move all things his way, because, forsooth, he has first moved their way.

Step Back and See the Big Picture

Gary N. Larson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:05:14 +0000

Good morning! Have you ever taken a digital photo and zoomed in on it until all you could see were a bunch of little squares? As you look this closely at a picture you will find that it’s difficult to tell that it’s even a picture. When you are so close you just see a bunch of simple squares of different shades and colors with no apparent order or meaning. It’s not until you zoom out from the picture that you actually see the image. Here is an example. Can you tell what this is?

Now here is the entire photo:

The close-up was of my face. I’m the baby in my father’s arms. What a difference it makes to step back and take in the whole picture.

My hike this morning reminded me of this. I live in my little house on my little street and that becomes my world. Sometimes I forget there is a whole big world out there. When I go hiking in the morning I go up the side of the mountain by my home and suddenly I have this magnificent view of my whole community. I see things I never could have seen at the street level. There are ponds in my community that I didn’t know existed. There are neighborhoods, golf courses, and churches that I didn’t know were there. It’s a whole different perspective when I get the Big Picture from on the mountain.

You’ve heard of the saying:

You can’t see the forest for the trees.

Sometimes we get that way with our own lives. We are so into our own little world that we don’t realize that there is a whole, big world out there. We are blinded by the things that are so close to us.

I find that I periodically need to get away from the nitty gritty details of my life. I need to step back and look at the Big Picture to get a true perspective of life.

One of the ways my wife Lisa and I do this is to go away to an educational conference every year or so. It is held in another city several hours from our home. It’s called Education Week and as the name implies, it is a week long conference and is held at a university. They have classes all day long each day on subjects like marriage, parenting, money management, stress management, journal writing – you name it and they have a class for it. We stay there the whole week and take all kinds of classes together, taking voracious notes in each one.

Some people think we’re strange to do this with our precious time, yet we have found it well worth it. And every time we have done it and are on our way home, I always get the feeling that I have been lifted high above the detailed cares of the world and have a grand, panoramic view of life. It helps me get my life in perspective.

I suggest that you find ways to step away from the details of your life and allow yourself to see the Big Picture. Take a break. Go on a needed vacation. Retreat to the mountains or the beach or the desert and take time to think and ponder. Let’s not miss the beautiful forest while we are staring at the roots of the trees.