Don't Forget About Your Mental Health
As many of you know this site regularly discusses things you can do to better physically prepare yourself for the hunt and be a more healthy person in general. One thing that is often overlooked is taking care of ourselves from a mental standpoint. If you follow HuntingFit.com on social media then you probably saw some of my posts from late this week where I was taking Friday off for an attitude adjustment and going fishing. Technically my attitude was fine, I do my very best to always maintain a positive and optimistic outlook on life, but I was carrying an extreme burden of stress.
Stress is good to a certain extent, it's part of what makes us want to do better and improve ourselves. However, as I'm sure most of you can relate to, too much is not good! I was feeling the strains of too much stress from my day job, managing this website, coaching softball, yard work, family, volunteer work, farm care, fishing cabin maintenance, etc. The list could go on but you get the point. All these things are positives in my life, so don't take this as a complaint or a sob story.
I wouldn't trade any of them as they are part of what makes my life so great. It was just time to let everything go for a few hours and recharge my mental battery. That escape for me was taking a vacation day from work so I wouldn't be missing out on any family time, getting up at 4 AM, and spending the day on the lake fishing. Just me. Nowhere to be. A thermos of hot coffee. I saw the morning sun peak over the tree line and light up the trees on the South side of the lake. I felt that unmistakable tug on my line after just the first few casts. I was on nobody's time but my own.
When I left the lake on Friday my "attitude" had changed. With each cast, the stress was lifted just a bit more until it was gone and I had a cooler full of fish. At the end of the day, I couldn't wait to see my family. I was so excited that I even picked up a strawberry pie (which I never do ask my kids!) to complement the fish!
I reached the clarity I needed to get back on track mentally and focused again. It may have only been a few hours but I was fully charged and ready to get back after life full throttle. Don't feel guilty for taking a little time for yourself every now and then. It's healthy and your family will appreciate your renewed enthusiasm. Be sure to take care of your mental health along with the physical aspect of hunting fit.
