I’m pretty sure it was Yogi Berra who said ninety percent of hiking is half mental. Don’t fact check me on that. The point he may or may not have been trying to make was that you can be as fit as possible and have your loadout as ultralight as possible, but if the space between your ears isn’t where it’s supposed to be you will struggle on your hikes. If I was Yogi I would have said a good hiker needs to be resilient.
The best way resiliency has ever been described to me is trying to make yourself like a tennis ball. It is easy to slam a tennis ball and see the thing deform, but it always bounces back to basically its previous state. When adversity occurs it can mess with you in horrible ways, and that is okay. Resilience isn’t invincibility, resilience is the knowledge that you can survive adversity and the ability to come through on the other side.
In the Army we did a lot of resiliency training to help withstand the difficulties of everything we’d do and be able to train our brains to cope with overcoming unexpected obstacles. In every unit you had (or were supposed to have) at least one Master Resiliency Trainer, who took a ten day course to become the subject matter expert and give the required training to Soldiers. Resiliency training was twelve modules, so once a month, and after a year you started over again with the first module. Therefore, if you were in for more than a few years you got really used to the training. In fact, the resiliency tactics you learned were valuable to handle having the same resiliency training for the sixth or seventh time. In the most recent AR 350-1, resiliency training was scraped after the service labeled it as “outdated”.
I agree that a fair amount of the mandatory training we did was tedious and unnecessary, but a good deal of it was extremely advantageous. I was never a Master Resiliency Trainer but, as an NCO, I frequently dealt with issues where resiliency helped Soldiers tremendously. I had many fellow NCOs and junior Enlisted who told me they gained helpful insights and ways of looking at problems and opportunities because of the training they received.
Of those twelve modules I mentioned earlier, four seemed particularly beneficial. They are delineated in Table 4 of this academic paper about how to improve resiliency education:
- ATC
- Avoid Thinking Traps
- Detect Icebergs
- Hunt The Good Stuff
I’d like to briefly go over each of these concepts as sort of an introductory course in resiliency for hikers. Maybe the training skills you learn can help you find the inner resolve to keep going on that inevitable day when it is pouring rain and your poncho has a hole in it and you get poison ivy on your junk and ants get in your last package of Oreos.
ATC
ATC stands for Activating Event ↦ Thoughts ↦ Consequences. This is the model for how we get into bad mental habits that undercut our ability to handle stressors. Inopportune things happen, no amount of mental or physical training can prevent that. What leads to bad results isn’t the fact that something happened as much as the bad thoughts we have about those things. The undesired consequences are the result of negative thought processes, not of the events themselves.
The consequences referenced in the ATC model can be binned into emotions and reactions. Emotions are the primary feelings you feel after your initial thoughts. These emotions, like anger or frustration, can also be accompanied by physical changes like sweating or feeling numb. Reactions are how you express your emotional response to the world. Do you lash out like a Karen and make things worse? Can you be self-aware and keep a cool head?
So, the obvious question is how can you control these thoughts. That leads right into the next resiliency concept.
Avoid Thinking Traps
Thinking traps are the preconceived notions we apply to scenarios in our heads immediately after activating events occur. These traps lead you down the roads with bad consequences at the end. Being conscious of traps allows you to mentally sidestep them. One of these is called “mind reading”. We either expect others to be able to read our mind or try to read someone else’s mind instead of just talking to them to find out what they think. Another one I know many people deal with is “always, always, always”. It is the thinking trap that assumes bad things will happen to you no matter what, so why try and fight it. Psychologists call this one “learned helplessness”.
The thinking trap I deal with the most is “me, me, me”. The belief that everything negative that happens to me is due to my personal failings. The hardest thing for me to do is not blame myself whenever something goes wrong. I have to aggressively remind myself that other people can sometimes fail. I’ve seen Mariano Rivera blow saves. I’ve seen Dan Marino overthrow completely open receivers. I’ve even seen Nathan MacKinnon whiff on a wide open net. Trigger warning on that link for my Canadian friends.
Detect Icebergs
Okay, stop me if you’e heard this one before. The thing about icebergs is that there is a large portion above the water, and there is an even bigger part of it below the water where you can’t see it. Truly mind blowing, for those of you under the age of 13.
Kidding aside, the Detect Icebergs module is all about how your core values and beliefs can affect your actions. These core values and beliefs are embedded so deeply into your psyche that they are basically hidden away from your conscious. The way you detect them is by asking “what” questions instead of “why” questions.
“Why” questions focus on feelings but stay on the surface level of an issue. “What” questions force us to go deeper to find the root cause. For example, if someone says something that upsets me I can ask myself “why is that upsetting”. This will lead me to defend the fact that I am upset without getting any more insight. Asking “what part of that is upsetting” compels me to critically evaluate what happened and look further within my own beliefs and values for an answer.
Icebergs are not all bad, in and of themselves. Let’s say you have a core belief that you should save as much money as you can. That is an admirable goal, especially in today’s economy. If something goes wrong with your car, your core belief might lead you to find the cheapest, dodgiest mechanic you can find. That might cost you even more in the future. Better to recognize your iceberg, decide to spend a little more on a more competent mechanic, and get your car fixed right the first time.
Hunt The Good Stuff
Resilience isn’t found only in mitigating the bad. There is joy in acknowledging and celebrating the good. Sometimes the exact thing you need when times are tough is to remember when they weren’t tough. Or maybe thinking about the good things that are the reason you suffer through the bad things.
Reflecting on good things doesn’t just feel good. Being in a good mood leads to better outcomes in physical health, relationships, and mental health. The same psychologist who coined the term “learned helplessness” wrote a book called Learned Optimism about the power of positive thinking. Hey, that would be a pretty good book title too.
Resilience is more than just these four modules (obviously). If you are interested in more information about resilience, whether for hiking or any other reason, here are some helpful resources:
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