Life in the city feels gloomy. The sense of impending doom that is all around you. The rat race serves no purpose. You think about everything you want to buy and spend the rest of the time planning how to do it. Maybe some people are thrilled about this, but Yash Birla feels that it drags people down. If we have souls, living in cities does not satisfy them. Without knowing how to stop feeling uneasy, we wander around with something gnawing at us. We use consumption to try to fill the void. That feeling returns by the next week. The cycle never ends.

The point of it all changes as we venture outside of the city, away from the asphalt, and away from mobile service, believes Yash Birla. Time abates. Time flies by. The passage of the sun across the sky determines the rhythm of life there instead of alarm clocks, board meetings, hustle and bustle, or the daily traffic. We relax when we are in nature, the backcountry, the sea, or wherever we are “out in the wilds.” We beam with joy and experience childlike wonder once more, says Yash Birla.

Yash Birla’s love for hiking, especially in the Himalayas, is infinite. It is not difficult to get away from the city; to stand at the base of a roaring waterfall, or in the solitude of the rocks and forests without another human in earshot; where things are ideal, lovely and terrifying. This is what it feels like to be alive and amazed. It is the ingredient that makes you buzz and leaves you out of breath. Even though our limbs are dragging like stones after a hike, our thoughts are happy. We benefit from a small taste of travelling silently through less developed areas since an honest day of exploring somewhat fills that hole.

To escape from the tensions of the city and experience the joy of nature, Yash Birla makes sure that he visits Rishikesh and sits and meditates at the banks of Maa Ganga. He suggests that everyone should experience this once in while, and it would certainly turn out to be one of the most life-changing experiences of their life.

Wandering in the woods and taking in the positive energy is the joy of being in nature. It is undeniable that exercise, including hiking, can help people feel less stressed and anxious. Being in nature, though, has a certain quality that can enhance those effects. The benefits of nature to humans are beyond count. If you’ve been using your brain to multitask, like the majority of us do throughout the day, and you then put that aside and go on a walk without any technology, you’ve allowed the prefrontal cortex to recover. And that’s when we observe these spurts of innovation, problem-solving, and happiness.