An excerpt from The way of the hermit by Ken Smith.

Silence that little voice asking for rest. Just keep moving. Keep those arms and legs pumping. Flex your fingers and toes. Keep that blood flowing and retain all the body heat you have, and all that you can generate. Even if you’re going as slowly a snail, every step forward is one step closer to your safety.

You have got to arm yourself with some tools to shut out and silence those negative thoughts, though. Devastating death aside, every time you give in and stop, you are psychologically conditioning yourself to stop every single time it gets hard on the trail. I’m sure you have been there before, on a run or a long walk, and you just feel dark tired and not up for it; and then you get distracted by something as you move along your way. You see an interesting plant, a nice view, or an animal; maybe you have a daydream, hum a little tune, or give yourself a talking to and hey presto, before you know it, you just knocked off a mile or two without even really thinking about it.

Give in to the nagging voice and you will struggle with your walking forever. It will always feel like a trial and you won’t find what you need to push through when times get truly tough; but, more than anything, you’ll never achieve your full potential in the outdoors.

I say silence the negative thoughts, but if you feel the need to shut out and curse, then do it! I don’t think it’s a good to keep any extreme emotion bottled up in the body anyway, so if you have the opportunity to release a forceful “F” into the wind then take it. Don’t ever be afraid to let all those emotions out. Sometimes, you might find yourself laughing at the daftness of it all too. Or, if you’re religious and the depth of your desperation is making you want to speak to your god, then go ahead and pray.

Use all that raw emotion and instinct as energy to fuel yourself upward. Right into the source of your suffering and right out the other side to your safe place. Do whatever it takes. Just don’t stop.