Thoughts on My Arctic Trip

For my entire life I have lived by a schedule, even the pattern in which I slept was dictated by a schedule. I have been firmly entrenched in a circadian rhythm of a 24- hour cycle based on daylight. My physiology and behavioral patterns have been based around accepting this notion into my being.

My dad and I hiked hundreds of kilometers, both vowing to not watch the time. We soon learned that with 24 hours of sunlight, it was impossible to have any sense of time at all. If you have not been to the north and experienced the constant sunlight it is very difficult to understand just how much daylight influences you. Our biological clocks were completely messed up. We would start hiking at what we thought was 1 PM but it was actually 2 AM. We would sleep for 2 hours and think we got a good night sleep. You can’t help but wonder, is this the way it is supposed to be? Are our bodies better adapted to deal with a lifestyle that has no schedules? Is it best to just eat when we are hungry rather than eating because it is time to eat? Being separated from all schedules was one of the most relaxing and profound experiences of my life and I can’t wait to go north again. It was just what I needed to clear my mind after an intense school year.

When my dad and I were hiking out in the Arctic wilderness by ourselves, there was no one else for many miles. This sense of total isolation becomes apparent very quickly as we were indeed isolated from the rest of the world. Even if we desperately needed help there was no reliable way to contact civilization. In this remote environment we both had a very interesting experience. We went into this “survival mode” where we just focused on keeping warm and eating. We were always on polar bear watch, 24/7. When one of us slept, the other was on watch.
It felt as if a new part of our brain was activated for the first time. This primitive part of our brain needed for basic survival was there all along but we just never needed to use it in the city. We found ourselves in this focused state of awareness where survival was paramount. When it was pouring rain thousands of miles above the treeline, we still managed to make a fire because we had to. Our entire being was focused on survival.

Everyone when placed in the right conditions is capable of going into their own survival mode. People with serious diseases go into this same survival mode where your body is focused on one thing: survival. This is an innate capability that all of life shares. We all have the potential to maximize our healing by getting more in touch with this survival instinct mode within ourselves.

See Arctic trip pictures and video