May 16, 2024 • 49 mins
In this riveting episode of Answers Network, host Allen Cardoza welcomes Sydney Williams, author and founder of the nonprofit organization, Hiking My Feelings. Sydney shares her deeply personal journey from struggling with type 2 diabetes and unresolved trauma to discovering the transformative power of hiking. This transformation is not just a tale of physical endurance but also an inspiring story of emotional liberation, detailed vividly in her book, "Hiking Your Feelings."
Sydney's narrative begins with her battles against emotional eating and drinking, a struggle that took a significant turn when diagnosed with diabetes. Determined to take control of her health, she embarked on a life-changing hike across Catalina Island, which spanned 80 miles over two trips. These hikes were not merely physical challenges but pivotal moments of emotional clarity and healing. Throughout the episode, Sydney eloquently describes how each step on the trail helped her peel back the layers of her trauma, reconnect with herself, and foster an indomitable spirit of resilience.
"Hiking Your Feelings," Sydney's book, serves as both a memoir and a guide. It is enriched with affirmations, reflection prompts, and practical exercises that encourage readers to embark on their own journeys of self-discovery and healing. The book distills the lessons learned on the trails into actionable insights that anyone can apply, whether on a remote mountain path or a walk around the neighborhood.
This episode dives deep into how Sydney's personal healing journey evolved into a broader mission to advocate for the mental and physical health benefits of nature. Through her nonprofit, she aims to inspire others to explore the healing potential of the outdoors, promoting both environmental stewardship and equitable access to natural spaces.
Listeners will be moved by Sydney's story of overcoming adversity and empowered by her practical advice on using nature as a therapy and a playground for personal growth. This episode is not just a conversation; it's an invitation to transform your own "trauma pack" into a tool kit for life, using Sydney's journey as a roadmap for navigating the complexities of emotional and physical health through the simple act of hiking.
Sydney's narrative begins with her battles against emotional eating and drinking, a struggle that took a significant turn when diagnosed with diabetes. Determined to take control of her health, she embarked on a life-changing hike across Catalina Island, which spanned 80 miles over two trips. These hikes were not merely physical challenges but pivotal moments of emotional clarity and healing. Throughout the episode, Sydney eloquently describes how each step on the trail helped her peel back the layers of her trauma, reconnect with herself, and foster an indomitable spirit of resilience.
"Hiking Your Feelings," Sydney's book, serves as both a memoir and a guide. It is enriched with affirmations, reflection prompts, and practical exercises that encourage readers to embark on their own journeys of self-discovery and healing. The book distills the lessons learned on the trails into actionable insights that anyone can apply, whether on a remote mountain path or a walk around the neighborhood.
This episode dives deep into how Sydney's personal healing journey evolved into a broader mission to advocate for the mental and physical health benefits of nature. Through her nonprofit, she aims to inspire others to explore the healing potential of the outdoors, promoting both environmental stewardship and equitable access to natural spaces.
Listeners will be moved by Sydney's story of overcoming adversity and empowered by her practical advice on using nature as a therapy and a playground for personal growth. This episode is not just a conversation; it's an invitation to transform your own "trauma pack" into a tool kit for life, using Sydney's journey as a roadmap for navigating the complexities of emotional and physical health through the simple act of hiking.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Thank you for joining us. I'myour host, Alan Cardoza, and you're
watching or listening to Answers Network.Today's show is something that we can all
benefit from because our guest today sharesher healing journey from eating and drinking her
feelings to hiking her Feelings. Whenshe was diagnosed with type two diabetes,
(00:28):
while grappling with grief and unresolved trauma, she set out on a quest to
turn her pain into power. Now, two hips across Catalina Island and eighty
miles later, Sidney Williams learned todisconnect from distractions and reconnect with herself,
all through the power of nature.Now she's encouraging others to get outside and
(00:53):
blaze their own trail to self love, turning buried traumas into healthy coping mechanisms
with affirmations, prompts, and reflectionexercises. Throughout her new book, Making
Your Feelings, Sydney offers a toolkitto unpack your trauma, pack and set
into the best version of yourself now. Sidney is now the founder of Hiking
(01:19):
My Feelings, a nonprofit organization dedicatedto healing powers of nature. Now,
her fifteen year and counting journey incommunications has run the gamut from launching Oscar
Meyer's social media channels and working withFortune five hundred brands to educating the public
(01:40):
about the importance of steward easy forme to say, stewardship, and equitable
access to recreational opportunities. She isalso a certified wilderness first responder and has
been nominated for the Woman of theYear Award by San Diego Magazine. Sidney
Welcome to Answers Network. Hi,Alan, Thank you so much for having
(02:02):
me. Well, it is mypleasure. I have enjoyed learning more about
you. I've enjoyed being able togo through your book. And in my
introduction, you know, I mentioned, you know, your eighty mile hike,
and you know, I think aboutthe things that I do when I'm
(02:23):
feeling stressed and things like that.But what did you think was going to
happen during that journey? Well,to be to be fair, the eighty
miles was split across my two hikesacross Catalina Island, So I wasn't eighty
miles in one shot for my firsttime. I'm not that hardcore, But
honestly, I didn't know what Ithought would happened I just knew. The
(02:45):
first hike in that series that justradically transformed my life was in December twenty
sixteen, between Christmas and New Year'sand at the time I was probably gosh
sixty seventy pounds heavier than I amtoday. I did not train. I
had just been through like two ofthe hardest years of my life, stacked
on top of a difficult section oflife coming before that, and I just
(03:06):
needed to get somewhere off the grid, away from technology, away from the
world, and just walk. AndI deeply, deeply underestimated how much training
I should have done that I didnot do until I got on the trail
and I was like, oh,I'm in trouble. But from an emotional
perspective too, on that second hikein twenty eighteen. Once I had done
(03:29):
the hike in twenty sixteen and Ididn't complete it because I was out of
shape, the weather was terrible.I have a list of excuses a mile
long. When I went back toCatalina in twenty eighteen for my second attempt
at the trail, Emotionally, itwas just I you, if I had
tried to predict that, I wouldn'thave been able to and if you had
told me, hey, between thesetwo hikes, the first one you won't
(03:51):
even recognize the body you live in, and the second one you have no
idea what kind of stuff is swirlingaround in your brain that you need to
get rid of. Probably never wouldhave set foot on the trail, if
I'm being honest, like if Ihad if I had a road map or
if I had a hiking map forthe journey I've been on, I don't
know that I would have willingly signedup for this if I'm being completely honest.
(04:13):
Well, it's interesting you mentioned aboutthe as far as the weight loss,
and one of the one of thequestions that came in, and again
I want to thank those that takethe time to send in questions, And
this one actually came in last night. So it said, you know,
can you make sure and speak aboutthe physical health benefits of walking in nature.
(04:39):
I'm forty seven years old and Istarted walking in nature about three years
ago, and I've lost thirty fivepounds and my doctor says that my heart
has not been in this good asshape for about fifteen years. And this
is from Kevin in Cleveland, Ohio. Kevin in Cleveland, thank you,
that's such a good question. Andhonestly, when I first set out on
(05:02):
the journeys that I've been on,I wasn't specifically going out there with any
intention of losing weight or getting inbetter shape, like I just needed some
time for myself and disconnect from thedistractions of everyday life and the hyper connected
world we're living in. And tobe completely honest, when even when I
was in this experience and having it, I didn't have language to articulate the
(05:27):
benefits that I was experiencing because Ididn't grow up in a community where people
found healing in nature. I knowI'm certainly not the first, and I
hope I'm not the last. Humanshave been healing in nature since time memorial,
but I didn't even know how todescribe it. I knew how it
felt, and I understood what washappening, but the how was so foreign
to me. Now I know,and I started hiking more after that first
(05:51):
trip in twenty sixteen. When Iwas diagnosed with diabetes in twenty seventeen,
and at the recommendation of my doctor, they suggested walking at least fifteen minutes
a day, three to five daysa week, and so I was like,
well, I can walk for longer, I can go further, so
I'll just do that. And soit really and like I also want to
say for anybody listening, when wehear the word hiking, right, like
(06:14):
we have this vision and you're like, you need a backpack and really sturdy
shoes and all this equipment to beable to go and have an expedition in
the wilderness. Nah man like hikingfor me. Like in our programs,
we don't give a definition of whathiking is other than this one the intent
behind the motion, like there isurban hiking is a thing my husband and
(06:34):
I for diabetes awareness in twenty twentyone, we hiked around the city of
Chicago two hundred twenty miles. That'snot remote wilderness. That's nearby nature and
that's existing pedestrian walkways the Cook CountyForest Preserves. We walked across the state
of Michigan, same thing, anold railway system that was converted into a
multi use trail. So when Isay hiking, it doesn't have to be
(06:56):
rugged remote wilderness. It can startwith something that's nearby, like your neighbor.
You could just go sit under atree in your yard or at a
local park. You don't have tohave access to state parks or national parks.
Are just rugged remote wilderness that isso prevalent out here in the Western
Yes, you don't have to haveaccess to that to be able to do
this, but one of the mostimportant things for me is advocating for people
(07:17):
to have access to that. Sothe benefits are the benefits of hiking are
the same as benefits of walking,specifically if you're able to get disconnected from
devices, and it's more beneficial tome. And I'm not a scientist,
nor am I a doctor, Sotake all that with a grain assault.
But like for my lived experience andwhat we know to be true versus like
(07:39):
any attempt that I've done to tryto get into shape or to find fitness
in some capacity has always been indoorspunishing myself on a treadmill. There's not
a lot that's healing about going toa gym in my perspective. Like the
fluorescent lights not as great as naturalsunlight, the sterile environment not as great
(07:59):
as for air, the people gruntingand dropping weights and like making a lot
of noise nowhere comparable to bird song, and the crunchy trail under my feet.
So I think when we talk aboutthe health benefits of hiking, it's
important to think about them in thecontext of spending time outside, but also
finding something that works for us andlayering up from there and laddering up from
(08:20):
there. Because I started with walksaround my neighborhood. Well, first of
all, I went out for theBig Journey in twenty sixteen with no training.
Would not recommend that path to anybodyunless you like challenging yourself. And
then I started with walks around myneighborhood. And as the walks around my
neighborhood got to be too easy,air quotes if you're listening, and air
quotes you can see them if I'mwalking, if I you're watching those those
hot walks. As they got tobe easier, then I started looking,
(08:43):
okay, like, what are thelocal trails around me? How do I
learn more about the hiking opportunities thatare accessible to me here in San Diego.
And that's where I started to likegraduate into what I now do,
which is multi day long distance backpackingtrips. But you can start with just
walking around your cul de sac inyour neighborhood or your apartment complex, or
(09:03):
whatever. It doesn't have to besome big adjourent adventure. Well I love
that. And when I for thosethat are watching, when I smiled at
one point it was it was thesentence that you said, was my doctor
said that I should walk for fifteenminutes a day, and you said,
(09:24):
and I realized I could do more, So you tried to do forty miles.
I thought that was great. Yeah, why not you said fifteen minutes?
How about multiple days on end?That sounds great. There you go.
I like that. You know.One of the things that I one
of the blessings that I've had inmy life is one of my businesses that
(09:48):
my son is now running and doinga much better job than I did,
was working with that risk youth.And so I spent much of my younger
years working with that risk youth.And many of the programs that I worked
with were set up in nature,and the biggest difference in a lot of
(10:09):
these kids' lives was the fact thatthey were coming out of a situation where
they had gotten in trouble for whatevertheir situation was. So as a young
detective, I was taking them toa place. And what I realized when
I would get there is. Firstof all, it was out in the
(10:31):
middle of nowhere. But the secondpart was was that all of a sudden
it was a much calmer environment.And when I would go over what was
you know, what's the agenda hereof what these kids are going through?
And much of it was, yes, they would go through therapy, and
yes, if it was a drugrehab program, that they would deal with
some of those issues, but they'dalso just go for hikes and come back
(10:56):
and talk about their feelings. Youknow, if you think about it,
I mean, this is very similarto what it is that you're doing right
now. What's your thoughts on thiswith starting starting our kids younger? Oh,
I just I love all of thisfrom this perspective for the sheer fact
(11:18):
that, if nothing else, ifwe're thinking about how we can integrate this
into our family environment and how wecan introduce our kids to the healing power
of nature and all of the benefitsof spending time outdoors, I think coming
into it from a communication perspective isone of the most profound ways to start
to move through this with your children. And that when we're hiking, whether
(11:39):
we're walking side by side or ifwe're walking in front or in back of
each other. We don't have toworry about expending the energy to scan facial
expressions or body language. We don'thave to worry about how intimidating it can
feel to maintain eye contact when youhave done something that you don't feel proud
of, or you're recovering from somethingthat was really difficult. Like we can
(12:00):
harry a lot of shame as asociety, and sometimes it's hard to look
somebody in the eye and talk aboutthe things that are hard. So by
the just the sheer mechanics of howspending time on a trail works, like
we're not walking one person walking forwardand one person walking backward, right,
Like we're usually not even looking ateach other. So that breaks down the
(12:20):
defensiveness that we can feel, Thatbreaks down our sense of like self protection,
and it opens up a channel forconversation. And I think also the
thing that really struck me as profoundwhen it comes to like the tools that
I used to heal and how hikingmade the difference. I have tried.
So when I grew up, Igrew up in a really tight knit Midwestern
(12:41):
household. We were super close.We told everybody, told each other everything,
But and I would walk on eggshellsbecause my dad had an explosive temper.
I don't know what he's been through. I still don't know to this
day if there's some kind of diagnosisthere. But I learned really early how
to manage adults' feelings. So overthe course of my life trying to heal
(13:05):
from that, I tried meditation,I tried journaling exercises, I tried everything
that I could in the absence ofaccess to traditional talk therapy. When I
had access, I was terrified ofit and I didn't want to do it,
and when I was ready for it, I couldn't afford it. So
I collected all these different tools tohelp me find healthy coping mechanisms. But
what would happen was I'd be ina seated meditation, for example, and
(13:28):
I would be activated by some kindof trauma that my body has endured.
My body would go into fight orflight, and I would just physically shut
down, and I would never returnto what I was trying to heal from
because I couldn't get past the physicalreaction to remembering the thing that I'm trying
to heal from. And it waswith hiking where I realized, oh my
gosh, like I'm deploying all thesetools and I'm actually getting to the other
(13:50):
side of the physical response because Ihave somewhere to put that energy. So
for kids that are fidgety, orkids kids being kids, I mean like
not even like a die ignosable thing, but kids just being kids with excess
energy to be able to have theseconversations without eye contact, without having to
scan body, but also in motion, then you have somewhere to put the
(14:11):
discomfort when you're bringing up these difficulttopics. And I think for whether that's
at risk youth or our own children, or just as adults and friends,
like we are all we have beenthrough so much, and I think the
through line in everybody's story on thisplanet is that we all have trauma.
And we can pretend like we don't, but that doesn't really serve us.
(14:33):
So the second that we realize yes, we all carry trauma and no it's
not a competition, we can startto look at our shared experience of being
through something and like the worst dayof my life, Alan is very different
from the worst day of your life. I already know that to be true,
but we're both still here and wecan both still talk about it.
So through the power of shared story, doing this in motion and also not
having to like regulate ourselves or thepeople that we're with and like constantly scanning,
(14:58):
which for children from traumatic upbringings isa thing, then we take off
a lot of the pressure and wecan move through these conversations in a much
more sustainable, healthy and regulated way. Well, Sidney, I am so
glad that you brought this up,and especially the eye contact part. Now,
(15:20):
for everybody out there, you heardSydney say, you know, I'm
not a doctor, So for thoseof you that like to have things that
are reinforced a little bit more so, I'm going to tell you about a
doctor, a psychiatrist that worked withmany of the families that where we were
transporting their young person to a programto get some help, and the doctor
(15:45):
would do the aftercare with the familyand he talked to the parents and he
would say, one of the bestthings that you can do to stay in
contact with your team is to gofor a walk somewhere and talk to them
and again and mention. And it'sfunny you brought this up. I haven't
thought about the eye contact party yearsuntil you just brought it up. But
(16:10):
what this doctor said was almost verbatimwhat it is that you've said, and
added because you have parents that willsay, yeah, but I don't have
time for this and stuff. Headded, and he said, you know
what he goes when you're driving themto school in the car, you're still
all looking forward. So then doit. Then if you can't get out
(16:33):
and do it, He's was saying, first choice, go out, go
for a walk, quiet place andstuff. But if you can't still utilize
that lack of eye contact part tobe able to bond with your children.
And it was one of the firsttimes I had heard that when I heard
it from the doctor. And nowyou're bringing up the same thing. So
(16:55):
so for anybody out there, ifyou feel like you need a little more
a little more proof, there yougo. Now you have it well and
that and I love that this issomething that you heard forever ago and haven't
thought about in a while, becauseit's still true, like this is this
is not new news? Yeah,no, exactly, And yeah, anyways,
I just thought that was a greatpoint. Now one of the one
(17:19):
of the things that I wanted totouch on. So let's let's kind of
go through the book a little bitbecause, uh, the book and as
I said in the introduction, thebook is set up to where you know,
there are examples, there are thereare things that you know, you
feel like you're learning something, you'reyou're enjoying it, but you're also gathering
(17:44):
information. So share a little bitabout the book and why you wrote it
the way that you did. Yeah, thank you. And it's such a
cool opportunity to kind of share thestory of how the book came to be
as well, because, like Ithe for anybody that's listening that hasn't interact
with my work at all, I'vewritten two books and if you're wondering,
like where do I start, startwith hiking your Feelings. And the reason
(18:07):
that I say that is I selfpublish my first book in twenty nineteen,
and I was a week into mybook tour in twenty twenty when the pandemic
hit, so for me personally atthe time. When I wrote it in
twenty nineteen, I was clear onthe story, I was clear on the
lessons I wanted to share that Ihad gathered from the trail, but I
wasn't confident enough to write the versionof the book that I've now published here
(18:29):
this year for hiking your feelings,because like I said, like I wasn't
a doctor, I'm not a therapist. I don't At the time, I
didn't really believe that me experiencing somethingwould be enough, and that I needed
to have like letters after my nameto be able to talk to this and
that's not true. So first andforemost, for anybody listening, your lived
experience is yours, and you're freeto share about it and glean the lessons
(18:52):
from it whenever you feel like itand whenever you're ready to start. So
don't underestimate your own potential to healyour self and understand yourself because you don't
have a white lab coat or acouch that people sit on. So that
version of the story, the firstversion, is just my story straight through.
I didn't want to go for aliterary agent. I didn't want any
rejection because I had rejected myself andmy own story for decades and I just
(19:17):
wanted to write it. So thisbook is the book that I wish I
wrote in twenty nineteen, and it'shere and it's on time, and I
love it. So we're following thestory of the two hikes I did on
Catalina Island. So from a timingperspective, we're looking at the years that
led up to these trips just togive some context in a frame for what
(19:37):
had I endured and what did Ineed to move through? And in twenty
sixteen was the first hike, intwenty eighteen was the second hike, and
that's kind of the time window thatwe're discussing my story. And so we
use my story, my very personalexperience on the trans Catalina Trail to illustrate
the concepts that we've been teaching andthe programs that we offer through our now
nonprofit organization called My Feelings. Soin each chapter, we start with my
(20:03):
story, where was I on thetrail, what was I dealing with?
How did I move through the thingsthat I needed to move through? And
then we take a step back anda step we like kind of zoom out
from my very personal, very specificexperience in a section called Trail of Life.
And in the Trail of Life sectionin each chapter, we're zooming out
and we're just talking about, like, what is the theme that I'm moving
through here? So each chapter hasits own theme. Chapter one Grief and
(20:26):
loss. We also talk about bodyimage, we talk about relationships, we
talk about career stress, like wetalk about everything. So Trail of Life
is like zooming out, so youcan find your version of your story in
mind. And then we have asection called Mindful Miles, and Mindful Miles
serves two purposes and two audiences.One as an individual. These are prompts
(20:48):
that you can use to reflect onyour own experience. And there they are
the questions that I was literally askingmyself as I was moving through these different
topics, and they also serve asa really great way to start discussions on
the trailer off. So if you'rein a book club, I've already written
the prompts for you. If youknow that you have a friend that is
just really grieving after the loss ofa job or a pet or a human
(21:12):
that they love, then you cantake chapter one and you can use those
prompts as a way to discuss whileyou go for a hike with your friend.
One you're getting the healing power ofnature. Two, you're connecting on
a deeper level. And three,the power of self reflection knows no end
Because we have to do this workfor ourselves. I can't ask you like
(21:33):
I can give you the prompts,but I can't answer them for you.
Much like your doctor can prescribe medication, but you have to take it.
They can prescribe you an nutrition plan, you have to eat it. So
while this work is so deeply personal, we don't have to do it alone.
So Mindful Mile serves as like thatfrontline for your own personal self reflection,
but also expands out into your communityas well. And then the last
(21:53):
section of each chapter is called nextSteps, and that is exactly what it
sounds like, how can I takethe next steps to heal this area of
my life? And I offer aritual or some kind of activity or things
to think about, tasks, actionitems that you can take to take the
next steps in your healing journey.So throughout all of that, we've got
(22:17):
prompts for self reflection, we've gotphysical action you can take to then bring
that and integrate it on the trail. And all of this from a mental
health, physical health, spiritual healthperspective, all of it is beneficial because
you're getting that fresh air, you'regetting your body moving, you're feeling seen
and supported, whether that's just inyour relationship to self because you're actually asking
(22:37):
yourself, hey, how am Idoing. You're taking time with yourself instead
of wearing all the hats that youwear. You're not being a dad,
you're not being a mom, You'renot being a partner. You're not a
teacher, you're not whatever your professionalroles are, or you're not a parent,
you're not a spouse, like you'rejust you, And we don't give
ourselves enough time and space to justbe us without the hats that we wear
(22:57):
and the roles that we hold.So it's a really beautiful frontline. But
then also the benefits of spending thiskind of time in this deep level of
community and connection with the people thatwe care about most. Like when I
do this work for myself, Ishow up as my best self and my
(23:17):
most expressed self, and my mostconfident self, and my most ground itself
and my most healthy self, whichthat inspires literally everybody that I interact with.
When I am having a great daybecause all my needs are met,
that carries it into every interaction thatI have. And the opposite is true
when I know I'm not feeling great, but I like try to push through
it and go out and get stuffdone. It never goes the way I
(23:41):
want to, and then I'm doublydisappointed because I'm like, I knew I
should have listened to myself, andalso this didn't work out. So it
just gives like a really beautiful frameworkto start a self reflection practice. But
also, don't keep this healing toyourself. If it's working for you,
it's going to work for your friendsand family too, So share it absolutely.
And I love the fact when youget to the end of each chapter,
(24:02):
and I'm one that develops mantras,so I'll think about things and then
I'll I'll develop a mantra that fitsfor me. And that's what I felt
that you were setting up for Youknow, it's whatever it is. It
individually people will find whatever it isit works for you. But I feel
like you're giving them all the toolsto pick the mantra that's going to work
(24:23):
best for you. And then Iutilize that for the rest of my walk
or the rest of my meditation orwhatever it is. But I'll put a
mantra in and that will set meup for the rest of that day or
for however long is left in thatday. So again, everybody out there,
so the first book was hiking myfeelings. The new book is hiking
(24:45):
your Feelings. So Sidney, let'stalk a little bit about self love.
You talk about it a lot inthe book, and I think it's probably
one of the most powerful things thatyou go into. So share a little
bit about and you know, maybesome of some of the struggles and then
how you've been able to focus onself love through the book and through your
(25:11):
uh you know, your group now, yeah, thank you. I it's
you know, self love gets abad rap, and I think, uh,
the reason that it gets a badrap is because it's been commercialized and
commoditized and turned into a product thatyou can purchase. Granted, I'm selling
a book, so that is whatit is. But like, self love
is so much deeper than bubble bathsand candles and like the things that we
(25:37):
think of when we think of selfcare or self love, like to love
yourself is a radically transformative act.And and in today's day and age where
we're so just aligned to meeting otherpeople's needs first, whether that's business or
family or anything, to take timeand carve out time for ourselves to be
(25:59):
with ourselves and buy ourselves and forourselves is radical in and of itself.
To be able to carve out timeto do this work is also a really
deep privilege. To be able tohave time to step away from whatever your
other responsibilities are in life, evenif it's only for a few minutes at
a time per day, is stillit's still a layer of privilege that I
(26:19):
don't think that this industry gives enougharticulation to. So for me, the
struggle has been all right. Ibought the bath bombs, I bought the
candles, and I still don't lovemyself right, Like I signed up for
the program. I started a business. This was way before this chapter of
my life. I started a business, and I still don't love myself.
(26:41):
Like I I'm following all of thelike coaches and influencers and like all the
people that say, like, dothis, here's the formula. Do this
thing, then you'll love yourself andthen life is never hard. Again,
That's not how this works. SoI think when I talk about self love
and the struggle of it, firstand foremost, we got to talk about,
like, let's break down what thisactually is. It's on a movie
like life is not a rom com, Like it's not you don't get discovered,
(27:04):
you don't get saved, like tosome extent, we have to save
ourselves. And that's not to sayfrom a selfish perspective. Again, we
have to do this work for ourselves. And actually it wasn't until I was
diagnosed with type two diabetes that Ilearned what that meant. Because you hear
that and it sounds nice, you'relike your phrases like everything is a choice
or everybody has a choice. Firstof all, that's kind of bypassing,
(27:25):
like we are not all born onthe same foundation from which to make choices.
So yes, we always have achoice, but like the choices that
you're presented with alan are very differentfrom the choices that I'm presented with.
I live in a nineteen ninety eightChevy van that's old enough to buy beer,
so I can afford to go dothe work that I do. Like
we are on the precipice of everythingthat we've ever wanted. And also we
(27:47):
aren't the well resourced group. Likeyou can do self love at a budget.
You don't have to buy all thethings. You don't have to send
yourself on a ten day silent retreatto get to this place. It can
be a Simils And this is anexample I given the book. If you're
going out on the hike and you'dlike to give self love and self trust
a little try, if you gota p GOP. How many times do
(28:08):
we ignore our body's signals when weneed to use the restroom and we're like,
nah, body, you don't knowwhat you're talking about. I'll just
hold it. The second that wejust allow ourselves to figure out a way
to relieve ourselves physically, we werealready starting to reconnect that self trust,
in that mind body connection. Sothe struggle for me initially was like I
followed what all the salespeople told meto buy, and I'm still not happy
(28:33):
and I'm still not healthy because thepositionality of the things that I was trying
was by this solution, and thenlife will never be hard anymore. What
I've learned in this journey, especiallyover the last six years, and I
was trying to do this for likedecades before, and hiking was the missing
piece that clicked it all together.As I mentioned before the break, but
it was in this space of okay, I thought that I would stop learning
(29:00):
these lessons once I learned them,and I thought once I do the thing,
then everything is fine and I willnever feel pain again. I will
never experience struggle again. It willbe all sunshine and rainbows. And for
the last six months, definitely,since the beginning of this year, I
have felt like a petulant toddler becauseI'm like, no, I was told
I shouldn't have any more pain.Once I learned these skills, and what's
(29:22):
actually happening is and I don't havechildren. I'm child free by choice,
but I liken myself, love,my self, growth, my self trust,
journey to contractions. So like inprior chapters of my life, I
would have some kind of thing thatactivated me, and then it could take
weeks or months or years or decadesuntil I figured out, like, what
(29:42):
was that thing that activated me?And why does that impact my life today?
And as I started to pay attentionto these things, I started to
understand the signals that I'm getting frommy body and what and like actually feel
my feelings instead of numbing them.And I was like, oh, oh,
okay, I get it. Likeit's not that I'll never ever experience
(30:03):
struggle or doubt again, it's thatnow those contractions are getting shorter. So
now I'm so in tune with mybody that if my needs are met and
i'm regulated before something comes at me, I can identify the feeling in my
body before it takes over my wholelife. So the struggle of moving out
of like a commercialized, capitalistic viewof self love and into a journey that
(30:26):
works really well for you is themechanism here. And to the point that
you've made before the break, youwere saying about how this offers a lot
of resources and there's so many differentactivities you can do, and how you
set personal mantras. I love that, and I love that you find that
inspiration from here. And one ofthe mechanisms that was kind of holding me
back from expressing my work in thisway was like, I don't want to
(30:48):
tell people what to think. Iwant to encourage them to think differently.
And the way that I draw inspirationfrom the wilderness that surrounds me and how
that mirrors what's happening in my body, mind, and spirit, that inner
wilderness, outer wilderness, dot connecting. That's the that's the magic, and
that's where the profound growth and healingcomes from. Is being able to draw
(31:10):
that inspiration from the places that I'mexperiencing and think of life through that lens
rather than through the lens of mypain and my past. I mean,
I first five, I just lovewhat you just said. And it brought
so many different thoughts to my mind. One of them, I think has
to do or that I got alsofrom the book was along the lines of
(31:34):
self love. Was also self appreciation, to appreciate the things that we have
and to appreciate what we bring tothe table because it is going to be
something different. And for some reason, it's I feel like through whatever,
you know, whatever forces that areout there are just focusing so much on
(32:00):
on on the negative, on fear, on not trying to to figure out
what is the best. And I'veI've said to my own sweetheart, and
I'll say something and I and Isaid, I said, you know,
if I say something and if youdon't quite get it and you think,
(32:20):
wow, I could take it likethis, which would be very positive,
or I could take it like thisand it'd be very negative. I said,
always take the positive, because that'swhat I meant. But for some
reason, you know, I feelthere's been a conditioning or something out there
that if it can be taken twodifferent ways. People will will slide towards
(32:42):
the negative and it's affecting them ina negative way. So I'll say,
assume it was the positive. Andthen if you're not sure, ask you
know, you know, And butthese are the things that again when we're
out there and again your high andyou're talking and we go on hikes together,
uh, you know, to beable to you know, communicate on
(33:08):
a level that you know that we'remaking sure that that there isn't a misunderstanding
and that we're not being slanted towardswhat seems to be society slanting towards whatever
it is is negative or whatever itis that should be fearful. I know
that when we first got on thiscall, we talked about how beautiful the
(33:32):
weather is. Right now, theweather is just incredible. It's to me,
it's perfect. And yet last weekthere was some rain or whatever.
But we live in this place wheremost of the time it's great. And
yet I was around some friends whileit was it was raining, and there
were two issues. One was wasthat they didn't say it was raining,
(33:57):
they said it's pouring down, sothey were pushing it to a negative.
And then the second part was Ihate this, and I was like,
well, you know, actually therain is good because we haven't gotten any
in a while and stuff, andyou know, there is a positive to
so many of these things, andwe shouldn't spend so much time focusing on
(34:17):
those little negatives. So anyway,that's as you were speaking, these are
the things that were popping into myhead. And I hope that everybody out
there that's listening or watching is recognizingthat as Sydney's telling us these things,
which you would also get from thebook, it's going to make you think.
And if it makes you think,you're going to start making decisions,
(34:38):
you're going to start communicating, andit's all going to benefit all of us.
Yeah. Well, and there's acouple of things in your reflection of
my reflections that I wanted to touchon because it's worth calling out. When
we talk about appreciation, I thinkone of the things that is the most
detrimental to society, especially to womenand girls, is this concept that you
(35:02):
can't nobody else can love you unlessyou love yourself. And I lovingly and
respectfully and forcefully call bs on thatbecause it wasn't until my relationship with my
husband that I felt that I had, true unconditional love mirrored back to me
and I could understand how to providethat for myself. And it was at
(35:22):
his suggestion of backpacking that I startedto have this relationship with the world around
me in the way that I do. And the thing that I want to
call out about the appreciation side iswe don't when we're in the forest.
We don't go around looking at thetrees and being like, did you see
that fat tree? Look at thebranches on that thing? Gross? Did
you see what that tree is wearing? Nasty? We don't listen to bird
(35:44):
song and we're like, oh mygod, that bird is so annoying.
We're like delighted by how different thebirds sound and how the different the trees
look. If we can take inspirationfrom that, And that's where stuff started
to switch for me, talking abouttaking inspiration from our surroundings. I walk
through the forest and I just appreciatethe heck out of those trees. Thank
you for the oxygen. Thank youfor pulling the carbon out of the environment
(36:05):
or out of the atmosphere and givingit so so we can breathe it.
Thank you for all the stories andall the things that you hold you,
big, wise son of a gun. I love you. I do a
lot of work in Sequoi National Parkand those trees are ancient and they are
my friends. And I'm not kidding. The other thing that I think is
interesting that you pulled out was likethe positivity side of things, specifically for
those of us that are in southernCalifornia that don't know what to do with
(36:27):
rain. Y'all, good things happenwhen it rains, whether you live in
Seattle or you live in Southern California, Kentucky or main Like, good things
happen when it rains. And ifyou allow yourself to remember that, that's
how plants grow, that's how badthings go away. They get washed away
in the rain. The earth iscleansed, however you want to frame it.
(36:50):
If we take inspiration from that andwe just stop hating the rain,
like that's gonna be hard for alot of us, But if we just
stop feeling inconvenienced by things that wedon't have control over, like the weather,
and we instead are like allow ourselvesto be curious and delighted by a
shift in weather, specifically rain,then if we know that it's true when
rain happens, good things happen.What else is like that? If that's
(37:15):
true, what else is true?And then you can follow that positivity rabbit
hole through every facet of your lifeand just reframe really quickly all the things
that you think about negatively first.And I learned this for my skydiving career.
I did not anticipate that skydiving wouldgive me silver lining capacities and superpowers.
But when I was a competitive skydiver. On my first training camp,
(37:37):
we got down from our first trainingjump, we watched the video and I
watched my performance on that skydive andI was just like I immediately, I
was like, I missed this,I miss this. I screwed this up.
I didn't perform well. And mycoach was like, hold hold on
a minute. We have a systemand you are directly going against it because
you're so negative automatically. What wasthe system? And I was like,
(38:00):
hey, coach, I'm sorry.The system was. We watched the video,
We don't say anything. We pickout two to three things that went
well. We pick out two tothree things we'd like to improve on,
and then we figure out how wecan improve those. And if we don't
know how to improve them. Thenwe ask you as our coach, to
guide us through that. Sometimes ona skydive, the only things that were
(38:21):
good was that I woke up,I exited the plane, and I landed
safely, and I was still breathing. And the same is true for life.
You don't have to go skydiving tolearn that lesson. You can learn
it right now. Welcome to itCity's classroom on Answers Network. You can
whenever you want to decide to juststart to look for two or three things
(38:43):
that went well first. And it'shard because we grow up with the fear
prioritized. There's a lot that weneed to keep ourselves safe from. There's
a lot that is being done onour behalf, on our behalf to protect
us. Like it's just so muchfear and so much negativity. So similar
to like how self love is kindof a radical thing to do. Thinking
(39:06):
positive, especially in this day andage, is also kind of radical too.
And if it starts with, well, I woke up today, I'm
breathing, and as of right nowtoday specifically, I have all my needs
met. I have shower, Ihave or I have shower, I have
a shelter, I have food,I have enough money in the bank to
buy whatever I might need to buytoday. Am I going to go buy
a boat tomorrow? No, Butlike that's not my priority. So when
(39:30):
we think about that very specific tous work that we must do, if
we can take inspiration from the worldaround us and start to appreciate the things
that are naturally occurring in nature,like there's no there's no opinion about this.
We're not like, Wow, thatgiraffe little too tall for me.
(39:50):
Giraff's giraffe. That's what they do, right, So it's just like I
just want to like really hone inon the fact that, like, if
you can go out and appreciate andobserve instead of judge, then we can
look at that from a curiosity perspectiveversus a judgment perspective, and life when
you're curious is way more fun,way more warm, and way more rewarding
(40:13):
when we're coming at it from curiosityrather than judging and reacting. Well,
first of all, I think Ithink that your book and your speech right
now should be should be mandatory inschools. Oh, if we can have
this and I would put it in, I think i'd put it in.
(40:34):
Maybe about sixth seventh grade and go, Okay, this is going to be
one of the lessons that you're goingto get that you're going to take with
you, and it is going tobenefit you throughout life, and believe me,
far more than trigonometry is. Ican't still can't say I've ever used
trig in my life outside of theclassroom. That's my point. All right,
(40:59):
I'd like to talk a little bitmore about the community driven platform now,
which is Hiking my Feelings. Howdo you envision its future and its
impact on individuals seeking personal growth andhealing. That's a great question. So
Hiking my Feelings started in twenty eighteen, and it started just as a mountaintop
(41:20):
idea, Like I had discovered thatI was hiking my feelings instead of eating
or drinking them, and that framingfor that opened up this container for healing.
That this framing for healing that reallyspoke to me and felt approachable and
understandable. So after my experiences onthe Trans Catalina Trail, I was like,
(41:43):
how do we replicate this? Likethe first call that I made in
twenty eighteen when we got back tocell service, wasn't my friends who were
curious about my progress on the trip. Wasn't my family, who like wanted
to know I didn't die in thewilderness. It was to the Catalina Island
Conservancy because what I had discovered formyself was, Oh, for the period
of those two hikes, I hadtwo transformative experiences, and the first thing
(42:05):
I wanted to do was figure outhow can I protect and promote these places
so more people have the awareness thatthey exist and access to these experiences for
generations to come. So it startedwith a speaking tour that we did in
twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen. Wehosted more than one hundred and forty events
that year, and I spoke atlike sixty different ARII stores around the United
(42:27):
States. We hosted hikes in everyplace that we went. And then at
the end of twenty nineteen, afterI self published my first book, we
incorporated as a nonprofit organization and wereceived our IRS exemption the week that the
pandemic hit, so all of thethings that we thought would be funding our
programs were actually all of those fundswere redirected to COVID relief, as they
(42:49):
should have been. But I waslike, this is wildly inconvenient we've been
taking people outside off their devices intothe wilderness, and now I got to
figure out how to flip that modelon its head and make everything we do
in the field available virtually. Okay, So that was a lot, and
I have to interject in regards tothat particular point. And as it turns
(43:09):
out, with all of the knowledgethat we now have after the fact,
that had they just allowed everybody tobe outside and do the things that you
were doing, it would have beenbetter for everybody thousand percent. So that
and that's what was deeply frustrating.I was like because for myself personally,
before the pandemic, I completely,like eradicated the capacity to have a panic
(43:35):
attack. Like I became so balancedand so aware and developed so many healthy
coping mechanisms that panic attacks were likenot a thing for me anymore. I
reversed the type two diabetes that Iwas diagnosed with within a year of being
diagnosed. So, like, thehealing power of nature is real. It's
not just like some hippie tippy stuffwe do out here in California. It
is scientifically proven. But to thatend, that was the first moment where
(44:00):
I was like, Okay, whatdo we want to do here because like
the touring model and hosting events outsidewas then thwarted by the pandemic. So
we took everything that we planned todo through the US and Canada on that
tour in twenty twenty that got squashedand we condensed it into a twelve week
program called Blazier on trellal Self,Love, absolutely Lovely, all kinds of
workshops building resilience, encouraging people nowduring the pandemic, like go out for
(44:22):
a hike by yourself, soleame,but get outside. And so that like
bridged the gap between where we wereand where we wanted to be an accommodating
for the way that our business hadchanged as a result of the pandemic.
Now, since twenty twenty, twentytwenty one, we've had the honor and
distinct privilege of hosting events in someof our most beautiful public lands here in
(44:45):
America. So we we've been partneringwith the Joshua Tree National Park Association,
which is the official nonprofit arm ofJoshua Tree National Park. Since twenty twenty,
we developed a series of events forthe Desert Institute called Wilderness Wellness,
where we host our events in partnershipwith the Joshua Tree National Park Association.
We also do work with Sequoia andKing's Canyon National Park in partnership with the
(45:07):
Sequoia Parks Conservancy. And when Ithink about that moment that I had on
the dock in two Harbors on CatalinaIsland getting ready to board the ferry back
home after that hike in twenty eighteen, and that question in my mind,
like can we replicate what just happenedfor me? Can I create an environment
that mimics what I had, thesupport I had from my husband, from
(45:30):
myself, the resources, and alsothe nature that's holding me through these experiences.
And what we've done in Sequoia NationalPark for this will be our third
season now is exactly that. Soit's taking three organizations that are doing really
profound work and getting out of oursilos and coming together in collaboration. So
we're working with the Volunteers and ParksDepartment at Sequoia King's Canyon National Park,
(45:53):
which is a function of the NationalPark Service. We also work with the
Sequoia Parks Conservancy, which is theofficial nonprofit partner from a philanthropic and educational
perspective at Sequoia Kings Kannon National Parkand then hiking my feelings. As our
nonprofit, we bring in our programming. So the way that our work is
expressed now is the most creative workI've ever done. It's the most aligned
(46:15):
I've ever felt, and it's byfar the most impactful. And the way
that we do this is the Volunteersand Parks Department assigns my group a conservation
project. So for the last threeyears we've been supporting a meadow restoration in
Sequoia National Park where back between IndigenousDays and National Park Service officially designated the
(46:36):
boundaries of that park, there wascattle grazing in the early nineteen hundreds,
late eighteen hundreds, and at somepoint along the way a species of grass
came and just infiltrated this meadow.They've been working on this meta restoration for
seven years, which is already abeautiful metaphor to say, you don't just
come to one retreat, you don'tjust listen to one podcast, you don't
read one book, and then everysign forever, it's a continual tending to
(47:01):
and so what we do and thereason why this is so profound is one
for me it's not enough to goto a place and experience healing. If
I say that I have a relationshipwith the outdoors, relationships ideally are both
both parties bringing one hundred percent together. But say it's fifty to fifty.
Whatever the division is, when wasthe last time I gave back to the
(47:22):
places that helped me heal? Sowe tie in this conservation project and I
develop a program that mirrors what we'redoing in the field to connect the dots
between inner and outer wilderness. Soas it pertains to sequoia and our metal
restoration, we're removing an invasive speciesof grass. So I teach about invasive
invasive thoughts and limiting beliefs, andwhen we do that, we're able to
(47:44):
connect these dots so profoundly that peopleare not only giving back to the park,
but they're giving back to themselves.And when we have a deeper connection
to place than we want to protectit and we want to share it.
So what we've seen is increased creativity, increased productivity, increased resiliency, increased
emotional awareness, a deep connection toself, community, and planet. And
(48:07):
it is by far the most profoundwork that we do, and we're really
excited to be expanding that into otherareas this year and beyond now and unfortunately
we've run out of time. Butwhere can people get more information? If
people want to get involved at somelevel, what's the website or what is
the best way for them to getin contact with you? Hikingmyfeelings dot org.
(48:29):
Okay, there you go, everybodyhikingmfeelings dot org. There is a
comment that came. I just wantto read this comment before we sign off,
and this one says, as amom of four children between eleven and
seventeen years old, I can saythat moving from the city to more rural
area is one of the best decisionsmy husband and I made for our family.
Instead of hanging out on the streetsand getting into drugs and trouble as
(48:51):
are too oldest did before we moved, they enjoy and exploring the woods right
out our backyard. I believe thatwe are all happier and healthier as a
family in this environment. This isfrom Samantha in Helena, Montana. So
Samantha, thank you for sharing thatwith us. Sidney, thank you so
(49:13):
much for coming on. Thank youfor everything that you're doing. And the
next time that you have an eventcoming up. Please let me know if
I can share it on the line, if I can help get it out
to more people, I would loveto do that. Fantastic. Thank you
so much for having me Alan,It was a pleasure to speak with you
today. All right, So foreverybody out there, just be good human
beings and be with us again nextweek on Answers Network.
Thank you for joining us. I'myour host, Alan Cardoza, and you're
watching or listening to Answers Network.Today's show is something that we can all
benefit from because our guest today sharesher healing journey from eating and drinking her
feelings to hiking her Feelings. Whenshe was diagnosed with type two diabetes,
(00:28):
while grappling with grief and unresolved trauma, she set out on a quest to
turn her pain into power. Now, two hips across Catalina Island and eighty
miles later, Sidney Williams learned todisconnect from distractions and reconnect with herself,
all through the power of nature.Now she's encouraging others to get outside and
(00:53):
blaze their own trail to self love, turning buried traumas into healthy coping mechanisms
with affirmations, prompts, and reflectionexercises. Throughout her new book, Making
Your Feelings, Sydney offers a toolkitto unpack your trauma, pack and set
into the best version of yourself now. Sidney is now the founder of Hiking
(01:19):
My Feelings, a nonprofit organization dedicatedto healing powers of nature. Now,
her fifteen year and counting journey incommunications has run the gamut from launching Oscar
Meyer's social media channels and working withFortune five hundred brands to educating the public
(01:40):
about the importance of steward easy forme to say, stewardship, and equitable
access to recreational opportunities. She isalso a certified wilderness first responder and has
been nominated for the Woman of theYear Award by San Diego Magazine. Sidney
Welcome to Answers Network. Hi,Alan, Thank you so much for having
(02:02):
me. Well, it is mypleasure. I have enjoyed learning more about
you. I've enjoyed being able togo through your book. And in my
introduction, you know, I mentioned, you know, your eighty mile hike,
and you know, I think aboutthe things that I do when I'm
(02:23):
feeling stressed and things like that.But what did you think was going to
happen during that journey? Well,to be to be fair, the eighty
miles was split across my two hikesacross Catalina Island, So I wasn't eighty
miles in one shot for my firsttime. I'm not that hardcore, But
honestly, I didn't know what Ithought would happened I just knew. The
(02:45):
first hike in that series that justradically transformed my life was in December twenty
sixteen, between Christmas and New Year'sand at the time I was probably gosh
sixty seventy pounds heavier than I amtoday. I did not train. I
had just been through like two ofthe hardest years of my life, stacked
on top of a difficult section oflife coming before that, and I just
(03:06):
needed to get somewhere off the grid, away from technology, away from the
world, and just walk. AndI deeply, deeply underestimated how much training
I should have done that I didnot do until I got on the trail
and I was like, oh,I'm in trouble. But from an emotional
perspective too, on that second hikein twenty eighteen. Once I had done
(03:29):
the hike in twenty sixteen and Ididn't complete it because I was out of
shape, the weather was terrible.I have a list of excuses a mile
long. When I went back toCatalina in twenty eighteen for my second attempt
at the trail, Emotionally, itwas just I you, if I had
tried to predict that, I wouldn'thave been able to and if you had
told me, hey, between thesetwo hikes, the first one you won't
(03:51):
even recognize the body you live in, and the second one you have no
idea what kind of stuff is swirlingaround in your brain that you need to
get rid of. Probably never wouldhave set foot on the trail, if
I'm being honest, like if Ihad if I had a road map or
if I had a hiking map forthe journey I've been on, I don't
know that I would have willingly signedup for this if I'm being completely honest.
(04:13):
Well, it's interesting you mentioned aboutthe as far as the weight loss,
and one of the one of thequestions that came in, and again
I want to thank those that takethe time to send in questions, And
this one actually came in last night. So it said, you know,
can you make sure and speak aboutthe physical health benefits of walking in nature.
(04:39):
I'm forty seven years old and Istarted walking in nature about three years
ago, and I've lost thirty fivepounds and my doctor says that my heart
has not been in this good asshape for about fifteen years. And this
is from Kevin in Cleveland, Ohio. Kevin in Cleveland, thank you,
that's such a good question. Andhonestly, when I first set out on
(05:02):
the journeys that I've been on,I wasn't specifically going out there with any
intention of losing weight or getting inbetter shape, like I just needed some
time for myself and disconnect from thedistractions of everyday life and the hyper connected
world we're living in. And tobe completely honest, when even when I
was in this experience and having it, I didn't have language to articulate the
(05:27):
benefits that I was experiencing because Ididn't grow up in a community where people
found healing in nature. I knowI'm certainly not the first, and I
hope I'm not the last. Humanshave been healing in nature since time memorial,
but I didn't even know how todescribe it. I knew how it
felt, and I understood what washappening, but the how was so foreign
to me. Now I know,and I started hiking more after that first
(05:51):
trip in twenty sixteen. When Iwas diagnosed with diabetes in twenty seventeen,
and at the recommendation of my doctor, they suggested walking at least fifteen minutes
a day, three to five daysa week, and so I was like,
well, I can walk for longer, I can go further, so
I'll just do that. And soit really and like I also want to
say for anybody listening, when wehear the word hiking, right, like
(06:14):
we have this vision and you're like, you need a backpack and really sturdy
shoes and all this equipment to beable to go and have an expedition in
the wilderness. Nah man like hikingfor me. Like in our programs,
we don't give a definition of whathiking is other than this one the intent
behind the motion, like there isurban hiking is a thing my husband and
(06:34):
I for diabetes awareness in twenty twentyone, we hiked around the city of
Chicago two hundred twenty miles. That'snot remote wilderness. That's nearby nature and
that's existing pedestrian walkways the Cook CountyForest Preserves. We walked across the state
of Michigan, same thing, anold railway system that was converted into a
multi use trail. So when Isay hiking, it doesn't have to be
(06:56):
rugged remote wilderness. It can startwith something that's nearby, like your neighbor.
You could just go sit under atree in your yard or at a
local park. You don't have tohave access to state parks or national parks.
Are just rugged remote wilderness that isso prevalent out here in the Western
Yes, you don't have to haveaccess to that to be able to do
this, but one of the mostimportant things for me is advocating for people
(07:17):
to have access to that. Sothe benefits are the benefits of hiking are
the same as benefits of walking,specifically if you're able to get disconnected from
devices, and it's more beneficial tome. And I'm not a scientist,
nor am I a doctor, Sotake all that with a grain assault.
But like for my lived experience andwhat we know to be true versus like
(07:39):
any attempt that I've done to tryto get into shape or to find fitness
in some capacity has always been indoorspunishing myself on a treadmill. There's not
a lot that's healing about going toa gym in my perspective. Like the
fluorescent lights not as great as naturalsunlight, the sterile environment not as great
(07:59):
as for air, the people gruntingand dropping weights and like making a lot
of noise nowhere comparable to bird song, and the crunchy trail under my feet.
So I think when we talk aboutthe health benefits of hiking, it's
important to think about them in thecontext of spending time outside, but also
finding something that works for us andlayering up from there and laddering up from
(08:20):
there. Because I started with walksaround my neighborhood. Well, first of
all, I went out for theBig Journey in twenty sixteen with no training.
Would not recommend that path to anybodyunless you like challenging yourself. And
then I started with walks around myneighborhood. And as the walks around my
neighborhood got to be too easy,air quotes if you're listening, and air
quotes you can see them if I'mwalking, if I you're watching those those
hot walks. As they got tobe easier, then I started looking,
(08:43):
okay, like, what are thelocal trails around me? How do I
learn more about the hiking opportunities thatare accessible to me here in San Diego.
And that's where I started to likegraduate into what I now do,
which is multi day long distance backpackingtrips. But you can start with just
walking around your cul de sac inyour neighborhood or your apartment complex, or
(09:03):
whatever. It doesn't have to besome big adjourent adventure. Well I love
that. And when I for thosethat are watching, when I smiled at
one point it was it was thesentence that you said, was my doctor
said that I should walk for fifteenminutes a day, and you said,
(09:24):
and I realized I could do more, So you tried to do forty miles.
I thought that was great. Yeah, why not you said fifteen minutes?
How about multiple days on end?That sounds great. There you go.
I like that. You know.One of the things that I one
of the blessings that I've had inmy life is one of my businesses that
(09:48):
my son is now running and doinga much better job than I did,
was working with that risk youth.And so I spent much of my younger
years working with that risk youth.And many of the programs that I worked
with were set up in nature,and the biggest difference in a lot of
(10:09):
these kids' lives was the fact thatthey were coming out of a situation where
they had gotten in trouble for whatevertheir situation was. So as a young
detective, I was taking them toa place. And what I realized when
I would get there is. Firstof all, it was out in the
(10:31):
middle of nowhere. But the secondpart was was that all of a sudden
it was a much calmer environment.And when I would go over what was
you know, what's the agenda hereof what these kids are going through?
And much of it was, yes, they would go through therapy, and
yes, if it was a drugrehab program, that they would deal with
some of those issues, but they'dalso just go for hikes and come back
(10:56):
and talk about their feelings. Youknow, if you think about it,
I mean, this is very similarto what it is that you're doing right
now. What's your thoughts on thiswith starting starting our kids younger? Oh,
I just I love all of thisfrom this perspective for the sheer fact
(11:18):
that, if nothing else, ifwe're thinking about how we can integrate this
into our family environment and how wecan introduce our kids to the healing power
of nature and all of the benefitsof spending time outdoors, I think coming
into it from a communication perspective isone of the most profound ways to start
to move through this with your children. And that when we're hiking, whether
(11:39):
we're walking side by side or ifwe're walking in front or in back of
each other. We don't have toworry about expending the energy to scan facial
expressions or body language. We don'thave to worry about how intimidating it can
feel to maintain eye contact when youhave done something that you don't feel proud
of, or you're recovering from somethingthat was really difficult. Like we can
(12:00):
harry a lot of shame as asociety, and sometimes it's hard to look
somebody in the eye and talk aboutthe things that are hard. So by
the just the sheer mechanics of howspending time on a trail works, like
we're not walking one person walking forwardand one person walking backward, right,
Like we're usually not even looking ateach other. So that breaks down the
(12:20):
defensiveness that we can feel, Thatbreaks down our sense of like self protection,
and it opens up a channel forconversation. And I think also the
thing that really struck me as profoundwhen it comes to like the tools that
I used to heal and how hikingmade the difference. I have tried.
So when I grew up, Igrew up in a really tight knit Midwestern
(12:41):
household. We were super close.We told everybody, told each other everything,
But and I would walk on eggshellsbecause my dad had an explosive temper.
I don't know what he's been through. I still don't know to this
day if there's some kind of diagnosisthere. But I learned really early how
to manage adults' feelings. So overthe course of my life trying to heal
(13:05):
from that, I tried meditation,I tried journaling exercises, I tried everything
that I could in the absence ofaccess to traditional talk therapy. When I
had access, I was terrified ofit and I didn't want to do it,
and when I was ready for it, I couldn't afford it. So
I collected all these different tools tohelp me find healthy coping mechanisms. But
what would happen was I'd be ina seated meditation, for example, and
(13:28):
I would be activated by some kindof trauma that my body has endured.
My body would go into fight orflight, and I would just physically shut
down, and I would never returnto what I was trying to heal from
because I couldn't get past the physicalreaction to remembering the thing that I'm trying
to heal from. And it waswith hiking where I realized, oh my
gosh, like I'm deploying all thesetools and I'm actually getting to the other
(13:50):
side of the physical response because Ihave somewhere to put that energy. So
for kids that are fidgety, orkids kids being kids, I mean like
not even like a die ignosable thing, but kids just being kids with excess
energy to be able to have theseconversations without eye contact, without having to
scan body, but also in motion, then you have somewhere to put the
(14:11):
discomfort when you're bringing up these difficulttopics. And I think for whether that's
at risk youth or our own children, or just as adults and friends,
like we are all we have beenthrough so much, and I think the
through line in everybody's story on thisplanet is that we all have trauma.
And we can pretend like we don't, but that doesn't really serve us.
(14:33):
So the second that we realize yes, we all carry trauma and no it's
not a competition, we can startto look at our shared experience of being
through something and like the worst dayof my life, Alan is very different
from the worst day of your life. I already know that to be true,
but we're both still here and wecan both still talk about it.
So through the power of shared story, doing this in motion and also not
having to like regulate ourselves or thepeople that we're with and like constantly scanning,
(14:58):
which for children from traumatic upbringings isa thing, then we take off
a lot of the pressure and wecan move through these conversations in a much
more sustainable, healthy and regulated way. Well, Sidney, I am so
glad that you brought this up,and especially the eye contact part. Now,
(15:20):
for everybody out there, you heardSydney say, you know, I'm
not a doctor, So for thoseof you that like to have things that
are reinforced a little bit more so, I'm going to tell you about a
doctor, a psychiatrist that worked withmany of the families that where we were
transporting their young person to a programto get some help, and the doctor
(15:45):
would do the aftercare with the familyand he talked to the parents and he
would say, one of the bestthings that you can do to stay in
contact with your team is to gofor a walk somewhere and talk to them
and again and mention. And it'sfunny you brought this up. I haven't
thought about the eye contact party yearsuntil you just brought it up. But
(16:10):
what this doctor said was almost verbatimwhat it is that you've said, and
added because you have parents that willsay, yeah, but I don't have
time for this and stuff. Headded, and he said, you know
what he goes when you're driving themto school in the car, you're still
all looking forward. So then doit. Then if you can't get out
(16:33):
and do it, He's was saying, first choice, go out, go
for a walk, quiet place andstuff. But if you can't still utilize
that lack of eye contact part tobe able to bond with your children.
And it was one of the firsttimes I had heard that when I heard
it from the doctor. And nowyou're bringing up the same thing. So
(16:55):
so for anybody out there, ifyou feel like you need a little more
a little more proof, there yougo. Now you have it well and
that and I love that this issomething that you heard forever ago and haven't
thought about in a while, becauseit's still true, like this is this
is not new news? Yeah,no, exactly, And yeah, anyways,
I just thought that was a greatpoint. Now one of the one
(17:19):
of the things that I wanted totouch on. So let's let's kind of
go through the book a little bitbecause, uh, the book and as
I said in the introduction, thebook is set up to where you know,
there are examples, there are thereare things that you know, you
feel like you're learning something, you'reyou're enjoying it, but you're also gathering
(17:44):
information. So share a little bitabout the book and why you wrote it
the way that you did. Yeah, thank you. And it's such a
cool opportunity to kind of share thestory of how the book came to be
as well, because, like Ithe for anybody that's listening that hasn't interact
with my work at all, I'vewritten two books and if you're wondering,
like where do I start, startwith hiking your Feelings. And the reason
(18:07):
that I say that is I selfpublish my first book in twenty nineteen,
and I was a week into mybook tour in twenty twenty when the pandemic
hit, so for me personally atthe time. When I wrote it in
twenty nineteen, I was clear onthe story, I was clear on the
lessons I wanted to share that Ihad gathered from the trail, but I
wasn't confident enough to write the versionof the book that I've now published here
(18:29):
this year for hiking your feelings,because like I said, like I wasn't
a doctor, I'm not a therapist. I don't At the time, I
didn't really believe that me experiencing somethingwould be enough, and that I needed
to have like letters after my nameto be able to talk to this and
that's not true. So first andforemost, for anybody listening, your lived
experience is yours, and you're freeto share about it and glean the lessons
(18:52):
from it whenever you feel like itand whenever you're ready to start. So
don't underestimate your own potential to healyour self and understand yourself because you don't
have a white lab coat or acouch that people sit on. So that
version of the story, the firstversion, is just my story straight through.
I didn't want to go for aliterary agent. I didn't want any
rejection because I had rejected myself andmy own story for decades and I just
(19:17):
wanted to write it. So thisbook is the book that I wish I
wrote in twenty nineteen, and it'shere and it's on time, and I
love it. So we're following thestory of the two hikes I did on
Catalina Island. So from a timingperspective, we're looking at the years that
led up to these trips just togive some context in a frame for what
(19:37):
had I endured and what did Ineed to move through? And in twenty
sixteen was the first hike, intwenty eighteen was the second hike, and
that's kind of the time window thatwe're discussing my story. And so we
use my story, my very personalexperience on the trans Catalina Trail to illustrate
the concepts that we've been teaching andthe programs that we offer through our now
nonprofit organization called My Feelings. Soin each chapter, we start with my
(20:03):
story, where was I on thetrail, what was I dealing with?
How did I move through the thingsthat I needed to move through? And
then we take a step back anda step we like kind of zoom out
from my very personal, very specificexperience in a section called Trail of Life.
And in the Trail of Life sectionin each chapter, we're zooming out
and we're just talking about, like, what is the theme that I'm moving
through here? So each chapter hasits own theme. Chapter one Grief and
(20:26):
loss. We also talk about bodyimage, we talk about relationships, we
talk about career stress, like wetalk about everything. So Trail of Life
is like zooming out, so youcan find your version of your story in
mind. And then we have asection called Mindful Miles, and Mindful Miles
serves two purposes and two audiences.One as an individual. These are prompts
(20:48):
that you can use to reflect onyour own experience. And there they are
the questions that I was literally askingmyself as I was moving through these different
topics, and they also serve asa really great way to start discussions on
the trailer off. So if you'rein a book club, I've already written
the prompts for you. If youknow that you have a friend that is
just really grieving after the loss ofa job or a pet or a human
(21:12):
that they love, then you cantake chapter one and you can use those
prompts as a way to discuss whileyou go for a hike with your friend.
One you're getting the healing power ofnature. Two, you're connecting on
a deeper level. And three,the power of self reflection knows no end
Because we have to do this workfor ourselves. I can't ask you like
(21:33):
I can give you the prompts,but I can't answer them for you.
Much like your doctor can prescribe medication, but you have to take it.
They can prescribe you an nutrition plan, you have to eat it. So
while this work is so deeply personal, we don't have to do it alone.
So Mindful Mile serves as like thatfrontline for your own personal self reflection,
but also expands out into your communityas well. And then the last
(21:53):
section of each chapter is called nextSteps, and that is exactly what it
sounds like, how can I takethe next steps to heal this area of
my life? And I offer aritual or some kind of activity or things
to think about, tasks, actionitems that you can take to take the
next steps in your healing journey.So throughout all of that, we've got
(22:17):
prompts for self reflection, we've gotphysical action you can take to then bring
that and integrate it on the trail. And all of this from a mental
health, physical health, spiritual healthperspective, all of it is beneficial because
you're getting that fresh air, you'regetting your body moving, you're feeling seen
and supported, whether that's just inyour relationship to self because you're actually asking
(22:37):
yourself, hey, how am Idoing. You're taking time with yourself instead
of wearing all the hats that youwear. You're not being a dad,
you're not being a mom, You'renot being a partner. You're not a
teacher, you're not whatever your professionalroles are, or you're not a parent,
you're not a spouse, like you'rejust you, And we don't give
ourselves enough time and space to justbe us without the hats that we wear
(22:57):
and the roles that we hold.So it's a really beautiful frontline. But
then also the benefits of spending thiskind of time in this deep level of
community and connection with the people thatwe care about most. Like when I
do this work for myself, Ishow up as my best self and my
(23:17):
most expressed self, and my mostconfident self, and my most ground itself
and my most healthy self, whichthat inspires literally everybody that I interact with.
When I am having a great daybecause all my needs are met,
that carries it into every interaction thatI have. And the opposite is true
when I know I'm not feeling great, but I like try to push through
it and go out and get stuffdone. It never goes the way I
(23:41):
want to, and then I'm doublydisappointed because I'm like, I knew I
should have listened to myself, andalso this didn't work out. So it
just gives like a really beautiful frameworkto start a self reflection practice. But
also, don't keep this healing toyourself. If it's working for you,
it's going to work for your friendsand family too, So share it absolutely.
And I love the fact when youget to the end of each chapter,
(24:02):
and I'm one that develops mantras,so I'll think about things and then
I'll I'll develop a mantra that fitsfor me. And that's what I felt
that you were setting up for Youknow, it's whatever it is. It
individually people will find whatever it isit works for you. But I feel
like you're giving them all the toolsto pick the mantra that's going to work
(24:23):
best for you. And then Iutilize that for the rest of my walk
or the rest of my meditation orwhatever it is. But I'll put a
mantra in and that will set meup for the rest of that day or
for however long is left in thatday. So again, everybody out there,
so the first book was hiking myfeelings. The new book is hiking
(24:45):
your Feelings. So Sidney, let'stalk a little bit about self love.
You talk about it a lot inthe book, and I think it's probably
one of the most powerful things thatyou go into. So share a little
bit about and you know, maybesome of some of the struggles and then
how you've been able to focus onself love through the book and through your
(25:11):
uh you know, your group now, yeah, thank you. I it's
you know, self love gets abad rap, and I think, uh,
the reason that it gets a badrap is because it's been commercialized and
commoditized and turned into a product thatyou can purchase. Granted, I'm selling
a book, so that is whatit is. But like, self love
is so much deeper than bubble bathsand candles and like the things that we
(25:37):
think of when we think of selfcare or self love, like to love
yourself is a radically transformative act.And and in today's day and age where
we're so just aligned to meeting otherpeople's needs first, whether that's business or
family or anything, to take timeand carve out time for ourselves to be
(25:59):
with ourselves and buy ourselves and forourselves is radical in and of itself.
To be able to carve out timeto do this work is also a really
deep privilege. To be able tohave time to step away from whatever your
other responsibilities are in life, evenif it's only for a few minutes at
a time per day, is stillit's still a layer of privilege that I
(26:19):
don't think that this industry gives enougharticulation to. So for me, the
struggle has been all right. Ibought the bath bombs, I bought the
candles, and I still don't lovemyself right, Like I signed up for
the program. I started a business. This was way before this chapter of
my life. I started a business, and I still don't love myself.
(26:41):
Like I I'm following all of thelike coaches and influencers and like all the
people that say, like, dothis, here's the formula. Do this
thing, then you'll love yourself andthen life is never hard. Again,
That's not how this works. SoI think when I talk about self love
and the struggle of it, firstand foremost, we got to talk about,
like, let's break down what thisactually is. It's on a movie
like life is not a rom com, Like it's not you don't get discovered,
(27:04):
you don't get saved, like tosome extent, we have to save
ourselves. And that's not to sayfrom a selfish perspective. Again, we
have to do this work for ourselves. And actually it wasn't until I was
diagnosed with type two diabetes that Ilearned what that meant. Because you hear
that and it sounds nice, you'relike your phrases like everything is a choice
or everybody has a choice. Firstof all, that's kind of bypassing,
(27:25):
like we are not all born onthe same foundation from which to make choices.
So yes, we always have achoice, but like the choices that
you're presented with alan are very differentfrom the choices that I'm presented with.
I live in a nineteen ninety eightChevy van that's old enough to buy beer,
so I can afford to go dothe work that I do. Like
we are on the precipice of everythingthat we've ever wanted. And also we
(27:47):
aren't the well resourced group. Likeyou can do self love at a budget.
You don't have to buy all thethings. You don't have to send
yourself on a ten day silent retreatto get to this place. It can
be a Simils And this is anexample I given the book. If you're
going out on the hike and you'dlike to give self love and self trust
a little try, if you gota p GOP. How many times do
(28:08):
we ignore our body's signals when weneed to use the restroom and we're like,
nah, body, you don't knowwhat you're talking about. I'll just
hold it. The second that wejust allow ourselves to figure out a way
to relieve ourselves physically, we werealready starting to reconnect that self trust,
in that mind body connection. Sothe struggle for me initially was like I
followed what all the salespeople told meto buy, and I'm still not happy
(28:33):
and I'm still not healthy because thepositionality of the things that I was trying
was by this solution, and thenlife will never be hard anymore. What
I've learned in this journey, especiallyover the last six years, and I
was trying to do this for likedecades before, and hiking was the missing
piece that clicked it all together.As I mentioned before the break, but
it was in this space of okay, I thought that I would stop learning
(29:00):
these lessons once I learned them,and I thought once I do the thing,
then everything is fine and I willnever feel pain again. I will
never experience struggle again. It willbe all sunshine and rainbows. And for
the last six months, definitely,since the beginning of this year, I
have felt like a petulant toddler becauseI'm like, no, I was told
I shouldn't have any more pain.Once I learned these skills, and what's
(29:22):
actually happening is and I don't havechildren. I'm child free by choice,
but I liken myself, love,my self, growth, my self trust,
journey to contractions. So like inprior chapters of my life, I
would have some kind of thing thatactivated me, and then it could take
weeks or months or years or decadesuntil I figured out, like, what
(29:42):
was that thing that activated me?And why does that impact my life today?
And as I started to pay attentionto these things, I started to
understand the signals that I'm getting frommy body and what and like actually feel
my feelings instead of numbing them.And I was like, oh, oh,
okay, I get it. Likeit's not that I'll never ever experience
(30:03):
struggle or doubt again, it's thatnow those contractions are getting shorter. So
now I'm so in tune with mybody that if my needs are met and
i'm regulated before something comes at me, I can identify the feeling in my
body before it takes over my wholelife. So the struggle of moving out
of like a commercialized, capitalistic viewof self love and into a journey that
(30:26):
works really well for you is themechanism here. And to the point that
you've made before the break, youwere saying about how this offers a lot
of resources and there's so many differentactivities you can do, and how you
set personal mantras. I love that, and I love that you find that
inspiration from here. And one ofthe mechanisms that was kind of holding me
back from expressing my work in thisway was like, I don't want to
(30:48):
tell people what to think. Iwant to encourage them to think differently.
And the way that I draw inspirationfrom the wilderness that surrounds me and how
that mirrors what's happening in my body, mind, and spirit, that inner
wilderness, outer wilderness, dot connecting. That's the that's the magic, and
that's where the profound growth and healingcomes from. Is being able to draw
(31:10):
that inspiration from the places that I'mexperiencing and think of life through that lens
rather than through the lens of mypain and my past. I mean,
I first five, I just lovewhat you just said. And it brought
so many different thoughts to my mind. One of them, I think has
to do or that I got alsofrom the book was along the lines of
(31:34):
self love. Was also self appreciation, to appreciate the things that we have
and to appreciate what we bring tothe table because it is going to be
something different. And for some reason, it's I feel like through whatever,
you know, whatever forces that areout there are just focusing so much on
(32:00):
on on the negative, on fear, on not trying to to figure out
what is the best. And I'veI've said to my own sweetheart, and
I'll say something and I and Isaid, I said, you know,
if I say something and if youdon't quite get it and you think,
(32:20):
wow, I could take it likethis, which would be very positive,
or I could take it like thisand it'd be very negative. I said,
always take the positive, because that'swhat I meant. But for some
reason, you know, I feelthere's been a conditioning or something out there
that if it can be taken twodifferent ways. People will will slide towards
(32:42):
the negative and it's affecting them ina negative way. So I'll say,
assume it was the positive. Andthen if you're not sure, ask you
know, you know, And butthese are the things that again when we're
out there and again your high andyou're talking and we go on hikes together,
uh, you know, to beable to you know, communicate on
(33:08):
a level that you know that we'remaking sure that that there isn't a misunderstanding
and that we're not being slanted towardswhat seems to be society slanting towards whatever
it is is negative or whatever itis that should be fearful. I know
that when we first got on thiscall, we talked about how beautiful the
(33:32):
weather is. Right now, theweather is just incredible. It's to me,
it's perfect. And yet last weekthere was some rain or whatever.
But we live in this place wheremost of the time it's great. And
yet I was around some friends whileit was it was raining, and there
were two issues. One was wasthat they didn't say it was raining,
(33:57):
they said it's pouring down, sothey were pushing it to a negative.
And then the second part was Ihate this, and I was like,
well, you know, actually therain is good because we haven't gotten any
in a while and stuff, andyou know, there is a positive to
so many of these things, andwe shouldn't spend so much time focusing on
(34:17):
those little negatives. So anyway,that's as you were speaking, these are
the things that were popping into myhead. And I hope that everybody out
there that's listening or watching is recognizingthat as Sydney's telling us these things,
which you would also get from thebook, it's going to make you think.
And if it makes you think,you're going to start making decisions,
(34:38):
you're going to start communicating, andit's all going to benefit all of us.
Yeah. Well, and there's acouple of things in your reflection of
my reflections that I wanted to touchon because it's worth calling out. When
we talk about appreciation, I thinkone of the things that is the most
detrimental to society, especially to womenand girls, is this concept that you
(35:02):
can't nobody else can love you unlessyou love yourself. And I lovingly and
respectfully and forcefully call bs on thatbecause it wasn't until my relationship with my
husband that I felt that I had, true unconditional love mirrored back to me
and I could understand how to providethat for myself. And it was at
(35:22):
his suggestion of backpacking that I startedto have this relationship with the world around
me in the way that I do. And the thing that I want to
call out about the appreciation side iswe don't when we're in the forest.
We don't go around looking at thetrees and being like, did you see
that fat tree? Look at thebranches on that thing? Gross? Did
you see what that tree is wearing? Nasty? We don't listen to bird
(35:44):
song and we're like, oh mygod, that bird is so annoying.
We're like delighted by how different thebirds sound and how the different the trees
look. If we can take inspirationfrom that, And that's where stuff started
to switch for me, talking abouttaking inspiration from our surroundings. I walk
through the forest and I just appreciatethe heck out of those trees. Thank
you for the oxygen. Thank youfor pulling the carbon out of the environment
(36:05):
or out of the atmosphere and givingit so so we can breathe it.
Thank you for all the stories andall the things that you hold you,
big, wise son of a gun. I love you. I do a
lot of work in Sequoi National Parkand those trees are ancient and they are
my friends. And I'm not kidding. The other thing that I think is
interesting that you pulled out was likethe positivity side of things, specifically for
those of us that are in southernCalifornia that don't know what to do with
(36:27):
rain. Y'all, good things happenwhen it rains, whether you live in
Seattle or you live in Southern California, Kentucky or main Like, good things
happen when it rains. And ifyou allow yourself to remember that, that's
how plants grow, that's how badthings go away. They get washed away
in the rain. The earth iscleansed, however you want to frame it.
(36:50):
If we take inspiration from that andwe just stop hating the rain,
like that's gonna be hard for alot of us, But if we just
stop feeling inconvenienced by things that wedon't have control over, like the weather,
and we instead are like allow ourselvesto be curious and delighted by a
shift in weather, specifically rain,then if we know that it's true when
rain happens, good things happen.What else is like that? If that's
(37:15):
true, what else is true?And then you can follow that positivity rabbit
hole through every facet of your lifeand just reframe really quickly all the things
that you think about negatively first.And I learned this for my skydiving career.
I did not anticipate that skydiving wouldgive me silver lining capacities and superpowers.
But when I was a competitive skydiver. On my first training camp,
(37:37):
we got down from our first trainingjump, we watched the video and I
watched my performance on that skydive andI was just like I immediately, I
was like, I missed this,I miss this. I screwed this up.
I didn't perform well. And mycoach was like, hold hold on
a minute. We have a systemand you are directly going against it because
you're so negative automatically. What wasthe system? And I was like,
(38:00):
hey, coach, I'm sorry.The system was. We watched the video,
We don't say anything. We pickout two to three things that went
well. We pick out two tothree things we'd like to improve on,
and then we figure out how wecan improve those. And if we don't
know how to improve them. Thenwe ask you as our coach, to
guide us through that. Sometimes ona skydive, the only things that were
(38:21):
good was that I woke up,I exited the plane, and I landed
safely, and I was still breathing. And the same is true for life.
You don't have to go skydiving tolearn that lesson. You can learn
it right now. Welcome to itCity's classroom on Answers Network. You can
whenever you want to decide to juststart to look for two or three things
(38:43):
that went well first. And it'shard because we grow up with the fear
prioritized. There's a lot that weneed to keep ourselves safe from. There's
a lot that is being done onour behalf, on our behalf to protect
us. Like it's just so muchfear and so much negativity. So similar
to like how self love is kindof a radical thing to do. Thinking
(39:06):
positive, especially in this day andage, is also kind of radical too.
And if it starts with, well, I woke up today, I'm
breathing, and as of right nowtoday specifically, I have all my needs
met. I have shower, Ihave or I have shower, I have
a shelter, I have food,I have enough money in the bank to
buy whatever I might need to buytoday. Am I going to go buy
a boat tomorrow? No, Butlike that's not my priority. So when
(39:30):
we think about that very specific tous work that we must do, if
we can take inspiration from the worldaround us and start to appreciate the things
that are naturally occurring in nature,like there's no there's no opinion about this.
We're not like, Wow, thatgiraffe little too tall for me.
(39:50):
Giraff's giraffe. That's what they do, right, So it's just like I
just want to like really hone inon the fact that, like, if
you can go out and appreciate andobserve instead of judge, then we can
look at that from a curiosity perspectiveversus a judgment perspective, and life when
you're curious is way more fun,way more warm, and way more rewarding
(40:13):
when we're coming at it from curiosityrather than judging and reacting. Well,
first of all, I think Ithink that your book and your speech right
now should be should be mandatory inschools. Oh, if we can have
this and I would put it in, I think i'd put it in.
(40:34):
Maybe about sixth seventh grade and go, Okay, this is going to be
one of the lessons that you're goingto get that you're going to take with
you, and it is going tobenefit you throughout life, and believe me,
far more than trigonometry is. Ican't still can't say I've ever used
trig in my life outside of theclassroom. That's my point. All right,
(40:59):
I'd like to talk a little bitmore about the community driven platform now,
which is Hiking my Feelings. Howdo you envision its future and its
impact on individuals seeking personal growth andhealing. That's a great question. So
Hiking my Feelings started in twenty eighteen, and it started just as a mountaintop
(41:20):
idea, Like I had discovered thatI was hiking my feelings instead of eating
or drinking them, and that framingfor that opened up this container for healing.
That this framing for healing that reallyspoke to me and felt approachable and
understandable. So after my experiences onthe Trans Catalina Trail, I was like,
(41:43):
how do we replicate this? Likethe first call that I made in
twenty eighteen when we got back tocell service, wasn't my friends who were
curious about my progress on the trip. Wasn't my family, who like wanted
to know I didn't die in thewilderness. It was to the Catalina Island
Conservancy because what I had discovered formyself was, Oh, for the period
of those two hikes, I hadtwo transformative experiences, and the first thing
(42:05):
I wanted to do was figure outhow can I protect and promote these places
so more people have the awareness thatthey exist and access to these experiences for
generations to come. So it startedwith a speaking tour that we did in
twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen. Wehosted more than one hundred and forty events
that year, and I spoke atlike sixty different ARII stores around the United
(42:27):
States. We hosted hikes in everyplace that we went. And then at
the end of twenty nineteen, afterI self published my first book, we
incorporated as a nonprofit organization and wereceived our IRS exemption the week that the
pandemic hit, so all of thethings that we thought would be funding our
programs were actually all of those fundswere redirected to COVID relief, as they
(42:49):
should have been. But I waslike, this is wildly inconvenient we've been
taking people outside off their devices intothe wilderness, and now I got to
figure out how to flip that modelon its head and make everything we do
in the field available virtually. Okay, So that was a lot, and
I have to interject in regards tothat particular point. And as it turns
(43:09):
out, with all of the knowledgethat we now have after the fact,
that had they just allowed everybody tobe outside and do the things that you
were doing, it would have beenbetter for everybody thousand percent. So that
and that's what was deeply frustrating.I was like because for myself personally,
before the pandemic, I completely,like eradicated the capacity to have a panic
(43:35):
attack. Like I became so balancedand so aware and developed so many healthy
coping mechanisms that panic attacks were likenot a thing for me anymore. I
reversed the type two diabetes that Iwas diagnosed with within a year of being
diagnosed. So, like, thehealing power of nature is real. It's
not just like some hippie tippy stuffwe do out here in California. It
is scientifically proven. But to thatend, that was the first moment where
(44:00):
I was like, Okay, whatdo we want to do here because like
the touring model and hosting events outsidewas then thwarted by the pandemic. So
we took everything that we planned todo through the US and Canada on that
tour in twenty twenty that got squashedand we condensed it into a twelve week
program called Blazier on trellal Self,Love, absolutely Lovely, all kinds of
workshops building resilience, encouraging people nowduring the pandemic, like go out for
(44:22):
a hike by yourself, soleame,but get outside. And so that like
bridged the gap between where we wereand where we wanted to be an accommodating
for the way that our business hadchanged as a result of the pandemic.
Now, since twenty twenty, twentytwenty one, we've had the honor and
distinct privilege of hosting events in someof our most beautiful public lands here in
(44:45):
America. So we we've been partneringwith the Joshua Tree National Park Association,
which is the official nonprofit arm ofJoshua Tree National Park. Since twenty twenty,
we developed a series of events forthe Desert Institute called Wilderness Wellness,
where we host our events in partnershipwith the Joshua Tree National Park Association.
We also do work with Sequoia andKing's Canyon National Park in partnership with the
(45:07):
Sequoia Parks Conservancy. And when Ithink about that moment that I had on
the dock in two Harbors on CatalinaIsland getting ready to board the ferry back
home after that hike in twenty eighteen, and that question in my mind,
like can we replicate what just happenedfor me? Can I create an environment
that mimics what I had, thesupport I had from my husband, from
(45:30):
myself, the resources, and alsothe nature that's holding me through these experiences.
And what we've done in Sequoia NationalPark for this will be our third
season now is exactly that. Soit's taking three organizations that are doing really
profound work and getting out of oursilos and coming together in collaboration. So
we're working with the Volunteers and ParksDepartment at Sequoia King's Canyon National Park,
(45:53):
which is a function of the NationalPark Service. We also work with the
Sequoia Parks Conservancy, which is theofficial nonprofit partner from a philanthropic and educational
perspective at Sequoia Kings Kannon National Parkand then hiking my feelings. As our
nonprofit, we bring in our programming. So the way that our work is
expressed now is the most creative workI've ever done. It's the most aligned
(46:15):
I've ever felt, and it's byfar the most impactful. And the way
that we do this is the Volunteersand Parks Department assigns my group a conservation
project. So for the last threeyears we've been supporting a meadow restoration in
Sequoia National Park where back between IndigenousDays and National Park Service officially designated the
(46:36):
boundaries of that park, there wascattle grazing in the early nineteen hundreds,
late eighteen hundreds, and at somepoint along the way a species of grass
came and just infiltrated this meadow.They've been working on this meta restoration for
seven years, which is already abeautiful metaphor to say, you don't just
come to one retreat, you don'tjust listen to one podcast, you don't
read one book, and then everysign forever, it's a continual tending to
(47:01):
and so what we do and thereason why this is so profound is one
for me it's not enough to goto a place and experience healing. If
I say that I have a relationshipwith the outdoors, relationships ideally are both
both parties bringing one hundred percent together. But say it's fifty to fifty.
Whatever the division is, when wasthe last time I gave back to the
(47:22):
places that helped me heal? Sowe tie in this conservation project and I
develop a program that mirrors what we'redoing in the field to connect the dots
between inner and outer wilderness. Soas it pertains to sequoia and our metal
restoration, we're removing an invasive speciesof grass. So I teach about invasive
invasive thoughts and limiting beliefs, andwhen we do that, we're able to
(47:44):
connect these dots so profoundly that peopleare not only giving back to the park,
but they're giving back to themselves.And when we have a deeper connection
to place than we want to protectit and we want to share it.
So what we've seen is increased creativity, increased productivity, increased resiliency, increased
emotional awareness, a deep connection toself, community, and planet. And
(48:07):
it is by far the most profoundwork that we do, and we're really
excited to be expanding that into otherareas this year and beyond now and unfortunately
we've run out of time. Butwhere can people get more information? If
people want to get involved at somelevel, what's the website or what is
the best way for them to getin contact with you? Hikingmyfeelings dot org.
(48:29):
Okay, there you go, everybodyhikingmfeelings dot org. There is a
comment that came. I just wantto read this comment before we sign off,
and this one says, as amom of four children between eleven and
seventeen years old, I can saythat moving from the city to more rural
area is one of the best decisionsmy husband and I made for our family.
Instead of hanging out on the streetsand getting into drugs and trouble as
(48:51):
are too oldest did before we moved, they enjoy and exploring the woods right
out our backyard. I believe thatwe are all happier and healthier as a
family in this environment. This isfrom Samantha in Helena, Montana. So
Samantha, thank you for sharing thatwith us. Sidney, thank you so
(49:13):
much for coming on. Thank youfor everything that you're doing. And the
next time that you have an eventcoming up. Please let me know if
I can share it on the line, if I can help get it out
to more people, I would loveto do that. Fantastic. Thank you
so much for having me Alan,It was a pleasure to speak with you
today. All right, So foreverybody out there, just be good human
beings and be with us again nextweek on Answers Network.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com