Wellness in the Wilderness Sydney Williams

Clearly we are not okay - as a society, as a community, as humans. After a nice weekend with some friends, we realized we had forgotten how to hang out, but only after remembering how good it felt. This might blow your mind, I know it did for me since the time period shared is from the year I graduated high school until near-present day. This article in The Atlantic⁠ talks about this phenomenon:

"From 2003 to 2022, American men reduced their average hours of face-to-face socializing by about 30 percent. For unmarried Americans, the decline was even bigger—more than 35 percent. For teenagers, it was more than 45 percent. Boys and girls ages 15 to 19 reduced their weekly social hangouts by more than three hours a week. In short, there is no statistical record of any other period in U.S. history when people have spent more time on their own."

In this episode, Sydney and Barry discuss:


Hiking Your Feelings' themes and the universal application of the lessons and topics within
"If it all ends tomorrow, I'm grateful that we've been doing the work we've been doing, and that I've gotten to know myself this well." - Sydney
Sydney and Barry have a moment where language moves to embodied understanding, and then Sydney unpacks in real time, how that transition happens - finding the language -> understanding in context -> embodied understanding
The benefits of having conversations on the trail vs. our tendency to rush through it face-to-face
Barry shares a skydiving metaphor for how he's been feeling lately
How to not die in the wilderness (and why Mount Washington in New Hampshire is so underestimated)

UPCOMING EVENTS:


March 4: Intentional Hiking - join us for a chance to win a Kula Cloth and a signed copy of Hiking Your Feelings: Blazing a Trail to Self-Love!
March 5: Public Lands Alliance Conference
March 9: Hiking Your Feelings launch at SXSW + Book Signing at SXSW
March 10: Hike around Austin with Hiking My Feelings x The Trail Conservancy, sponsored by Gossamer Gear
March 12: Hiking Your Feelings Publication Day! Join us for the launch party in San Diego at Diesel in Del Mar, sponsored by Babe Kombucha and Muffin But Good Vibes
March 19: Hiking Your Feelings Virtual Launch Party
March 20: Blaze Your Own Trail to Self-Love Open House


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wellnessinthewilderness/message

Sydney and Barry bring you up to speed with everything Hiking My Feelings, or should we say Hiking Your Feelings?


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wellnessinthewilderness/message

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Gladys McGarey began her medical practice at a time when women couldn’t even own their own bank accounts. Over the past sixty years, she has pioneered a new way of thinking about disease and health that has transformed the way we imagine health care and self-care around the world. The cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association, Dr. McGarey has mentored everyone from Dr. Mark Hyman to Dr. Edith Eger and has helped hundreds of patients live happier and healthier lives. In a voice that is both practical and inspiring, Dr. McGarey shares her own extraordinary stories and eternal wisdom from her early childhood in India and chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhi to her life as a physician and a mother of six children, to her survival of both heartbreak and illness. And she doesn’t just look backward, she looks forward. At 102, Dr. McGarey has a ten-year plan and an eye on a healthier and more joyful future for all.



IN THIS EPISODE


Dr. McGarey shares her six actionable secrets to enjoying a a life that is long, happy, and purpose-driven.


She teaches you how to spend your energy wildly in order to embrace your life fully and feel motivated every day.


You’ll learn that you are here for a reason, and how to find the “juice” that helps you stay grounded in your life’s purpose.


She shows you how to move—spiritually, mentally, and physically—helping you let go of trauma and other roadblocks, and how to discover the deep learning that comes from pain and setbacks.


Orienting you in the love she considers the most powerful medicine, she’ll show you that you are not alone, and guide you on how to build a community that’s meaningful to you.




---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wellnessinthewilderness/message

This week we are thrilled to have Katie Wightman, former Field Institute Director for the Sequoia Parks Conservancy, joining us for a conversation about the courage to revisit a dream from an earlier chapter in life, managing fear around trying something new, and how she finds wellness in the wilderness!

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Katie Wightman worked for the Sequoia Parks Conservancy in Sequoia + Kings Canyon National Parks for 11 years and loved every minute. She had the privilege to work underground in Crystal Cave, organize the Dark Sky Festival, organize Science and Nature Camps for youth in the Central Valley, the backcountry Pear Lake Winter Ski Hut, and also Directed the Education Program for the SPC where she worked to provide as many opportunities as possible for people to connect with their public lands. Currently she is working on her Bachelor's of science in Nursing and is hoping to work in Emergency and Critical Care as well as continue in Wilderness Medicine. In her downtime she loves ultra running, amateur astronomy, and playing with her loving pup Sierra dog!

IN THIS EPISODE:


Katie and I sit down to chat from the historic Wolverton Service Camp in Sequoia National Park, home of the Volunteers in Parks Project in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks


We are greeted by a yellow rumped warbler and a golden crowned kinglet - get pumped, birders!


Katie shares about the relationships between the National Park Service and their official nonprofit partners. In the case of Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, their official partner is the Sequoia Parks Conservancy.


We talk about her transition out of Director of the Field Institute at Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks and returning to a dream from an earlier chapter in life - nursing.


How Katie finds wellness in the wilderness - and how trail running was a “very Katie solution” to getting far out in the backcountry in a limited amount of time.


You’re never too old to change your mind, and just because you fail at something doesn’t mean you’re a failure.




---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wellnessinthewilderness/message

This week we are thrilled to have Liz “Snorkel” Thomas joining us for a conversation about, well, all the things - manifesting your dreams, accomplishing huge goals, failure, teamwork, knowing your weaknesses, finding joy in the wilderness - this chat really does have something to inspire anyone and everyone.

I supposed at the end of the day, this is a chat with a legendary human about her legendary hiking career, and all the traits that helps one become legendary.

---

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Liz Thomas is a professional hiker, speaker, and outdoor writer who held the women’s self-supported speed record on the 2,181-mile long Appalachian Trail from 2011-2015. Called a "thru-hiking legend" by Outside Magazine, Liz has hiked 20+ other long distance trails including the Triple Crown of Hiking (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail) and first known traverses of the Wasatch Range and Chinook Trail.

Her innovative urban thru-hikes of 14 cities led The Guardian to call her “The Queen of Urban Hiking.” Liz is a former staff writer for the New York Times/Wirecutter and current Editor-in- Chief for the outdoor webmagazine Treeline Review as well as Backpacker Magazine contributing editor and columnist of “Ask a Thru-hiker.” She's the author of Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-hike, which received the National Outdoor Book Award for Best Instructional book with judges calling it destined to become the “Bible of the Sport.”

Liz has talked hiking and gear on Good Morning America (TV), in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Washington Post, Men’s Journal, Women’s Health, Gizmodo, and Outside Magazine. She represented the sport of hiking at President Obama’s Great American Outdoors Initiative. Liz’s keynote speaking engagements have included colleges and universities including Yale and MIT, the Trust for Public Land National Leaders Conference, American Hiking Society, and on Capitol Hill.

Learn more at www.eathomas.com or @lizthomashiking or Treeline Review.

IN THIS EPISODE:


We reconnect with Liz, who we originally connected with in 2020 during an episode of the Virtual Campfire podcast


Did Liz plan to be this epic or did this just happen? (Spoiler alert, she’s a goal-setter and a go-getter!)


The art of letting go, knowing your weaknesses, and asking for help


The magic of the trail - like losing a bite valve on a thru-hike and finding a new one on the side of the trail 10 miles later


Bringing those backcountry lessons to your front-country life


What is failure and how do we move through it?


Finding joy in the wilderness


AND SO MUCH MORE




---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wellnessinthewilderness/message

This week we are thrilled to have Sirena Rana joining us for a conversation about her work in trail design - she is quite literally blazing trails and making outdoor experiences more accessible through intentional and inclusive trail design via her company, Trails Inspire.



ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Sirena Rana shares her love for the outdoors through writing, photography, public speaking and trail design through her company, Trails Inspire. An avid hiker, backpacker, rafter and canyoneer, Sirena's favorite places are the Grand Canyon and the Sky Islands of Southern Arizona.

Inspiring and empowering others to take on their own adventures is her passion. She is especially interested in reaching people like her who didn't grow up hiking and camping. Sirena is the author of Best Day Hikes on the Arizona National Scenic Trail by Wilderness Press.



IN THIS EPISODE:


We catch up with Sirena, who was on the original 20-night season of our Virtual Campfire podcast


Sydney gushes about some Saguaro fruit leather Sirena sent, and Sirena educates about the use of the fruit in indigenous cultures, demonstrating one of the many reasons we love being in community with Sirena - we always learn something whenever we’re out exploring or in conversation with each other.


Sirena tells us all about the trail system she recently completed in the Texas Canyon Nature Preserve and the finer details of trail design and trail building


Part of her trail design includes honoring the indigenous people who have stewarded this land for thousands of years, and protecting native species of plants that are used by the local indigenous communities. Sirena shares the story of seeing the Tohono Oʼodham harvesting bear grass used for basket weaving for the first time on the trail and how the trail names are inspired by the Tohono Oʼodham and Apache


Who is Sirena building trails for? “Suburban Sirena, who moved to Arizona 29 years ago and knew nothing about hiking.”




---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wellnessinthewilderness/message