Breathe in. It’s the middle of the week, and here you are, trying to finish everything that must be done before the deadline.
Breathe out. There you are again, caught in things you cannot fast-forward through—traffic, people you’d rather not be around, and all those negative feelings long suppressed within you.
And while these are the very things you wish to rid yourself of, their grip tightens, making it almost impossible to steady the ordinary cadence of living. Then you repeat these motions over and over again until they begin to choke you.
While preparing for our Mt. Baloy-daku climb from May to June, I decided to walk my way home to exercise and ready my legs for the multi-day hike ahead. Instead of joining the bandwagon of complaining commuters who endure hours on the road just to get home, I opted to make the journey on foot. What began as a simple choice soon turned into a small comparative experiment between commuting and hiking.
With the construction of the underpass in Mambaling, the thirty-minute travel time we once had has stretched to two hours or more. Imagine how many chapters of a dream I manage to finish inside a jeepney. HAHA. Walking home, on the other hand, only takes an hour and fifteen minutes. Though it can be quite taxing, it has become a welcome way to sweat it out and see the city from a different perspective.
Walking home gives me time to observe the daily dwellings of every individual in the city—the vendors lining the streets, drivers racing against the traffic lights, and beggars surviving on the mercy of each passerby. Each week, I change my routes to lengthen the distance and add more ascents (yes, I’m talking about using the skywalks), and this, too, gives me a bounty of things to reflect upon. Regardless of the heat and the dusty air, walking has proven to be a resounding outlet after a day’s work. My regular playlist became a constant companion that kept me moving, and even now I find it difficult to delete it.
For most people, what I did might seem pointless. For me, however, it became more than preparation for a climb. It made it easier to understand how a simple stroll can redirect a stream of negative thoughts—just by witnessing how others struggle to survive their battles each day. It offered a quiet reassurance that life is indeed a series of ascents and descents and that the daunting tasks, deadlines, and heartaches we carry are only temporary in this ever-moving world.
To keep moving forward, we must remain in motion. Come to think of it, depression hates a moving subject. Would you rather be stuck in the traffic of negativities, or would you choose to reroute? Your choice. See you on the streets.
*** Last night, while scrolling through my saved TEDx videos, I chanced upon a fascinating talk by Daniele Quercia about Happy Maps. Google has long been providing us with the fastest routes to our destinations. But what if taking a five-minute detour could actually make you feel better and more energized?
Dakilanglaagan 