How to relieve stress with an easy nature hike
Beat the Winter Blues: Discover Queens' Hidden Hiking Trails
Three years ago, my family started a new tradition—getting outdoors within the first 15 days of January by exploring hiking trails in and around Queens. If you're looking for something to do after work or on the weekend, check out one of these beautiful and well-preserved natural areas.
Why This Has Become One of Our Favorite Activities
The city's demands, schedules, and rhythms create unnecessary stress. What exactly is stress? It's a physiological response that increases blood flow to the heart, lungs, and large muscles, preparing your body to move. This natural response protects you and helps the brain decide what's most beneficial in any situation.
There are two kinds of stress responses—short-term and long-term—and both change the body in different ways. One powerful way to overcome the negative effects? Learn tools to manage these responses. You can create weekly patterns of rest and rejuvenation that work for you.
Nature as Medicine
An easy hike in nature is one of the best ways to relieve life's stresses. Short hikes help reset the mind and soul. Personally, I find it deeply spiritual. Hiking helps to build you muscles and bone, improves your heart, your balance and better breathing.
Incorporating breathing exercises along the hike amplifies the benefits—reducing heart rate and calming negative stress responses. According to Dr. Andrew Huberman of Stanford University, breathwork is "the fastest and most thoroughly grounded in physiology and neuroscience for calming down in a self-directed way." Check out the Huberman Lab Essentials on Stress & Anxiety for detailed scientific explanations and practical tools.
Forest Park: A Hidden Gem One Subway Ride Away
The NYC Parks Department has ample resources to help you plan a simple hike. This year, I invited my church family and friends for a hike through Forest Park. It's only a subway ride away—take the E or F train to the Kew Gardens/Union Turnpike stop, then walk about 10 minutes to the main trail that connects to many smaller paths. As you enter the park, you step into the remnants of the Brooklyn Forest, as it was commonly known more than 100 years ago. The park lined with trees like orthern red oak, scarlet oak, tulip tree, shagbark hickory and many others. When you walk the outer trail you will eventually hike past a Pine grove that planted in 1914. These were once the lands of the Lenape people, who eventually moved away, were effected by disease, conflict or sold their lands to New York's early Dutch settlers.
The Sensory Experience
Mark your calendars and bring a few friends. The sounds and feel of walking on soft soil, gravel, grass, or thin broken pieces of ice in January is spectacular. Within the first few minutes of entering the trail, you'll notice your heart rate and blood pressure dropping.
The visuals—natural colors, open spaces, towering trees—bring a level of joy and comfort that's hard to compare. Screens and manufactured things can never recreate these feelings. For me, nature points to a God who sees and protects.
Ready to explore Queens on foot? Chai Bhai Walking Tours offers guided hikes through some of the most gorgeous parts of Queens. Let us show you the trails, share the stories, and help you discover the nature hiding in plain sight.
