How to Change Your Mindset When Life Feels Heavy: Lessons from the Trail

“The most powerful tool you’ll ever take on the trail is your mind.”

The First Step Isn’t a Trail—It’s a Thought

You might not believe me yet. That’s okay.
Honestly? I wouldn’t believe me either if I hadn’t lived it.

I’m not a guru.
I’m not going to give you a 10-step plan to ultimate happiness by next Tuesday.

I’m just a man who got tired of dragging the same old pain into every new day.
And the first thing that had to change wasn’t my job, my schedule, or my body.
It was my mindset.

What Even is a Mindset Anyway?

Forget the buzzwords for a second. Let’s strip it down.

Your mindset is just the story your brain believes most often.

It’s the lens you see everything through. It’s how you explain failure, or frame success. It’s what you say to yourself when no one’s around. It’s your default setting—the one you didn’t even know you chose.

And the crazy part?

Your mindset doesn’t just describe your reality. It creates it.

Your Brain: The Believer-in-Chief

Here’s the wild part.
Your brain is ridiculously powerful—and ridiculously gullible.

It takes your repeated thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and says:

“Okay, got it! I’ll start building a world where that’s true.”

If you constantly think:

• “I’m stuck like this.”
• “Nothing is ever going to change.”
• “I’m too broken to change.”

Your brain goes: “10-4. Let’s find evidence.”

But if you flip the script—even slightly:

• “I might not be stuck. I just don’t know the path yet.”
• “I don’t need to have it all figured out. I just need a direction.”
• “Healing doesn’t have to be loud. It just must be mine.”

Your brain still goes: “10-4, I’ll start looking for that instead.”

It’s not magic; it’s biology.

Mindset in Motion

This is where Hike and Heal really begins.

You don’t have to fake positivity.
You don’t have to ignore your pain.
But you do have to be willing to walk with it, instead of letting it lead.

Movement helps.
Nature helps.
But none of it matters if your mind is still shackled to the old script.

The trail doesn’t change you. Your mindset does.

The hike just gives it room to breathe.

A Simple Shift to Try Today

Next time something hard happens (a missed goal, a bad mood, an argument, a wave of doubt), try this:

Instead of asking:

“Why is this happening to me?”

Ask:

“What is this showing me?”

You don’t need to solve it. Just change the focus of the lens.

No journaling required. No expensive guide to purchase. Just curiosity over judgement. That’s how you change your story.

To the Skeptics (and the Doubters and the Curious)

You’re not wrong in questioning me. In fact, I welcome it.

I know some of you are thinking, “Who is this guy? What gives him the right to talk about to anything other than which hiking boots to wear?

Honestly, I’ve asked them myself.

All I can tell you is this:

I lived most of my life stuck in the “what’s the point” mindset.
Then one day, I traded it for a backpack, a little bit of faith, and a willingness to keep walking even when I didn’t feel like it.
And now?
I’m still not perfect.
But I’m not stuck anymore.

Now, my approach is, “Why not try and find out what happens?”

Final Thought

Mindset isn’t about pretending things are okay.

It’s about choosing a thought that says “Maybe I’m not stuck. Maybe I’m just interested in starting something better.”

That is the trailhead to healing.

Not with a breakthrough.
Not with a book.
But with a single, stubborn, brave little thought:

“Maybe I don’t have to stay like this.”

If you can hold that thought long enough to lace up your shoes and go for a walk…
Hike and Heal is already working.

Drop a comment, share your thoughts, or just sit with it in silence. Any way you engage—it’s part of the walk.”