Teach us to number our days!

Physical activity and exercise is a great way to enhance our wellbeing and manage our mental health. This is why I look forward to any opportunity to get out, breathe clean air and burn some energy through walking, running, hiking and sometimes pushing or pulling weights.

The best part of weight training for me is not just for the amazing benefits I have seen in my body, *wink* *wink*, stamina and pushing my limits but the new relationships I’ve started to build with my workout buddies and my trainers. When in the zone, I sometimes feel like my trainer is an agent from hell sent to kill me! But then, when we are done, I feel amazing and can only thank him/them for pushing me beyond my so-called limits. So when my trainer invited me to join the hike to Kieni forest on 3rd July, I felt obligated to participate as a show of support for his side hustle and test my fitness level. All this panting, sweating and carrying metal cannot be wasted just like that.

Little did I know that this would be a weird lesson in survival or healing.

Let me tell you a little about Kieni forest.?

Kieni Forest presents an uncommon spectacle to its guests in the most polite manner possible with a fusion of natural and human activities. It is located on the southern side of the renowned Aberdares – home to the famous Lake Naivasha and Mount Kenya. It winds through a well-manicured tea plantation called Gakoe tea estate, with its stunning green carpet covering roughly 400 acres and into a thick forest. Additionally, indigenous plants function as the ideal air fresheners. Several deep inhalations of this newly created air will prepare you for the breathtaking sight of three waterfalls as brilliant as daylight. If you aspire to be the ultimate hiker, the 18-kilometre Kieni Forest route is the ideal place to start.

This is the beautiful part of Kieni forest. To friends I hiked with who had hiked Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro and Elgon, they all confirmed this terrain was the most challenging terrain they had ever hiked. When you go online to check for pictures of this forest, all you see are the beautiful waterfalls, the amazing tea plantation and the beautiful sunset. You realize the only reason there are no pictures of the rugged terrain is that all you are trying to do is survive and stay alive! No time to take photos or slay. Your fingers are adjusting to the freezing temperatures fluctuating between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius. You are trying to keep your eye on the trail, so you don’t slip as it changes so fast… one moment, you are sliding down on your behind because there is no way you can survive going downhill without rolling all over and the next, you are clinging to shrubs close by to pull you up the trail. At a point, we were at 2,240 metres above sea level with an elevation gain of 465m!?

When you go on some hikes, you get a few meters or even kilometres of respite before it gets tricky, but we were already sliding downhill at Kieni less than 50metres into the hike, holding on to our dear lives. It didn’t help that it had rained the night before, and the ground was so slippery.

High energy, major endorphins, my friends!

When you exercise and go through intense body conditioning, it sometimes feels like a survival game. You feel like asking yourself ‘how can I put my body through this much torture’? The first time I tried the weight sled workout, I thought I was going to pass out. For a moment, I felt I had an idea of what it meant to run out of oxygen, and the only thing I could do was pull (tear) off my outerwear to give me some relief and desperately breathe in air to recover.

This continuous pushing of your body to demand more air repetitively, go through pain deliberately (especially on leg day when it hurts even to use the bathroom), counting your reps and hoping you can complete the routine scheduled is a form of conditioning that develops your body and mind for both physical and mental survival when you need it the most.

When going through complex or unusual life experiences, you sometimes get confused and are unsure how to survive and make it through. In my personal experience, embracing all the emotions you experience on the journey to survival and healing is a big step forward; however, staying there is never a choice.

For a moment, while on the hiking trail, I saw myself asking questions; what am I doing here? Why put my body through this much pain just because I want to say, “I have conquered Kieni forest”? At a point, I felt that same “passing out’ feeling, with shortness of breath thanks to the altitude. And then I thought, I have been here before, and I survived. I survived the weight sled. I lived, and I go back every Wednesday, and I survive.

The good book says – teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

This quote is not just for birthdays; it’s for you to remember the days you won the little and big battles and survived. The enemy is not just the devil, even our minds sometimes keep us in that battle where we fight and blame ourselves, hold on to what does not help us and wonder if we can survive or heal. My dear, you’ve fought and won. You made it out. You have been here before!?

Learn to remember those days you survived. Learn to count and celebrate your small wins and remember when you defeated the weight sled and won! Love yourself and learn how to be kind to yourself.?

By the way, in a few months, I will be attempting to climb Mount Kenya. Watch me survive this!

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