As little as three days in the wilderness has immense healing value, researchers say.
A week in the remote Big Bend Ranch wilderness has been called “life-changing” by some TPU participants, even “healing”, and science is now beginning to explain that phenomenon.
Trans-Pecos Ultra, in Big Bend Ranch State Park, “the other side of nowhere” immerses participants in a spectacular remote landscape without cell coverage or any other electronic umbilical cords, with only one task: run or hike this pristine wilderness.
When the average daily screen time for American adults has grown to 11 (that’s ELEVEN) hours per day, which is most of our waking lives, you might say we’ve grown screen-dependent. We all need a periodic detox!
Three days to a week in a remote landscape like Big Bend is a throwback to how humans have lived for all of human history (until the last few decades, which is a mere flash, in evolutionary terms.)
The freedom of screenless-ness isn’t the only benefit of TPU, of course. A flurry of research is beginning to show what we instinctively know: that any immersion in nature is beneficial.
Author Florence Williams has conducted groups of veterans with PTSD, survivors of sex-trafficking and cynically, depressed city-dwellers, into the Colorado/Utah backcountry. Her research has shown marked improvements in her subjects’ moods, creativity, and self-confidence after only three days outside civilization.
Outward Bound, an experience-based program meant to develop character and intellect has used EEG technology to measure brain activity in their participants. They found a 50% improvement in creative problem-solving after three days in a remote Utah park.
Japanese researchers at Chiba University sent two test groups, one to a forest and the other to the city center. They were instructed to walk around their assigned venue for an identical period of time. The forest walkers returned with 16% less of the stress hormone cortisol than the city walkers, 2% decrease in blood pressure and 2% lower heart rate.
In what is commonly acknowledged to be the most stressful culture on the planet (a dubious honor) where 70% of the working adults report job-related depression, South Koreans have discovered “forest therapy.” Their government is investing millions of dollars to make Korean national parks places for healing.
So the very people who manufacture so many of the screens (Samsung, LG) whose use causes mental stress, keeping us tethered to devices instead of outdoors, are themselves suffering from long hours indoors!What the South Korean government is developing at significant cost, we have available for nearly free… time away from technology, in remote and spectacular places. For anyone who can carve out the time away from family and work, TPU provides just such healing, amplified by walking or running all day, and the camaraderie and support of “the tribe.”
We all instinctively know that a screen-dependent existence is not ideal. Here’s your chance to ditch it for a time, and come be amazed by the beauty of Big Bend and the Chihuahuan Desert of west Texas. Our veterans, the ones whose lives have been changed by the experience, say, “Come on, y’all!”
The 2019 Trans-Pecos Ultra is two months away. To snag one of the last remaining spots in the 4-stage (82 miles, approx) adventures, visit our Registration Details page, or contact the race director, Chris Herrera at 432-294-5284 or email info(at)trans-pecosultra.com.
