Why Everyone Should Experience Living In The Hills

"It is always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape.” - Ruskin Bond

While cities are choking under the extreme pressures of rapid urbanisation, overpopulation, pollution and reduced life quality, a lot of people are opting to move out and to live in the hills either temporarily or permanently. The cities offer benefits that most people are used to and find hard to give up. However, for these people, escaping into nature is pure bliss.

When time stands still

Photo source: HaYoung Ryu

A great advantage of residing in the hills is the absolute freedom to venture outside of the mainstream, monotonous living. Another one being, an escape from the rising temperatures. Moreover, whatever part of the world, whichever hills you go to, all the landscapes feature beautiful fruit-laden orchards, exotic plant varieties, terraced fields, and breathtaking lakes and waterfalls. Also, there is always a new horizon of other great adventures that you can undertake. Life, anywhere, isn’t easy. But, in the hills, it is simple and beautiful. There are a large number of people who, despite their well settled life in the city with fat pay cheques, fancy malls and eateries and high speed internet services, take this path and make a major shift in their lifestyle.  

Ruskin Bond in his book, A Book of Simple Living, wrote, that from his lifetime’s experience of residing in small towns and hills of northern India, he believed that “many small moments that constitute a life of harmony - with the self, the natural world, and friends, family and passersby”.

Advantages at a glance:

• health benefits from higher elevations
• year-round activities – hiking, biking, fishing, skiing, snowboarding, sledding
• milder summer temperatures
• privacy
• nature
• snow

Take the plunge onto a beautiful experience

Photo by Akshdeep Malhi

Also, if you like cooler summers and snow in the winter, then the mountains are your perfect place to be. There are different types of mountain lifestyles, just as there are with lake lifestyles. So, don’t hold back, take the plunge. Visit the hills, live there if you want to, feel the breeze and cherish the simple moments. At the end of the day, it is a heart warming, soul satisfying kind of a feeling.

Also: How The Hills Help Us Heal

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