Beating the Backcountry Blues: Foria Wellness Review
Understanding Your Body’s Stress Response in the Backcountry: Natural Recovery Solutions for Adventure Athletes, with Foria Wellness
The hardest thing about backcountry adventures is not the actual doing of the hard thing. It’s not the climb, the pedal, or whatever other strenuous activity you’re pushing yourself through.
At least, that’s what my experience has been.
Recently, a friend reflected back to me that one of the values he loves most in me is my unwavering integrity. Curious, I asked where he sees that show up in my life. His example was the pure love I have for pushing my limits: that my love for doing hard things isn’t about putting on a performance. It’s a true devotion to testing my limits and stepping into my discomfort to expand them.
So to me, the backcountry adventures I go on aren’t exactly “hard.”
Building Resilience Through Chosen Challenges
This is partly because I have walked through my own personal Hell a number of times. I’ve faced my demons, and known what it’s like to lose it all. I have fought for my life in ways that have thrown me to my knees, and I have rebuilt the strength to unfurl my spine with more strength than ever before.
It’s the challenges in life that we don’t plan for that have the tendency to destroy us. But when we choose to lean into discomfort in small ways, we slowly build resilience… So that when life throws something our way, we’ve prepared some amount of armor to protect ourselves.
So for me, stepping into a chosen challenge like climbing a majestic mountain… That isn’t hard. That’s a life of (earned). privilege.
No, the hardest part for me comes with the return home and managing the dopamine dip that inevitably comes after.
Understanding Your Body’s Stress Response in the Backcountry
When we are climbing mountains, fueling our bodies with bars, and our body is working hard to keep us warm – our nervous system is focused on surviving. Even if we are fully immersed in enjoying the hard thing we are doing, the N.S. is in a stress response.
(Yes, there are both good and bad kinds of stress!)
And when your body is in stress response, what is its priority? Surviving. Which means: libido goes out the window.
The Post-Adventure Dopamine Challenge for Outdoor Athletes
This has been something I’ve struggled with over the last couple of years as I’ve immersed myself in the high intensity, adrenaline-fueled backcountry adventure lifestyle of the PNW.
I internalized this as something that was wrong with me, something that was broken in my hormonal makeup. But, eventually – I started talking about it with my lady friends. Many felt the same, & I began to accept that guys & gals are simply built different.
Our nervous systems need different things to regulate and build the bridge back to emotional safety to open up to intimacy.
Natural Solutions for Post-Adventure Recovery
My answer to the dopamine dip? To titrate. To create stillness in ritual where you can settle in to the space between the moments of go-go-go.
This is one reason I love Foria Wellness products (I’m wearing their limited edition socks after pond-skimming Mount Baker). Whether you’re solo or with a partner, pleasure is your nature. Carving out an intentional pause to sit with what has been & what is, is the perfect way to slow down between the adventure reps.
Foria Awaken: A Natural Support for Adventure Athletes
Foria’s Awaken blend combines organic botanicals specifically chosen for their restorative properties:
- Kava root for relaxation
- Warming spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom)
- Refreshing peppermint
- Nourishing cacao and vanilla
- Premium MCT coconut oil and hemp
Can you ask for a better pleasure partner?
So, this is my solution to backcountry blues: taking a little more time with myself, leaning into self-acceptance, and loving myself exactly where I’m at.
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