Heard of the phrase? No? Neither had I until recently when I took a group of clients on an off-the-grid hiking trip in Canada. We travelled to the alpine coast mountains, 12 hours north west of Vancouver in British Columbia.
We went to Nuk Tessli, which is owned by Doran Erel, the 45th person ever and 1st Israeli to climb Mount Everest. To say this place is remote and magical is an understatement. No roads, no electricity, no running water, no phones (almost) and no people besides us and Erel’s team of volunteers and family.
A flout plane, the oldest De Havilland Beaver that breaks a world record every time its flies, gets you in and out of Nuk Tessli and for seven days we walked, canoed, yarned, laughed, looked for grizzly bears with some trepidation and reconnected with ourselves and the environment without distraction. Not something we tend to do in our everyday life.
It was fascinating to see Erel and his team of volunteers work as their own subsistence community, building new additions to the log cabins using basic equipment, making and baking their own bread and catching trout from the pristine lake. They make do with what they have, simple but very efficient and effective living. We did not go hungry and we can learn a lot from trips like this.
I ran into one of my client’s colleagues after our return and he noted how much Brian’s frown lines had disappeared, and, during their monthly board meeting, he wondered why. He then remembered that Brian had been away for some “wilderness therapy”.
These types of wild therapy set-ups are happening here in Australia, with many therapists ditching the traditional couch and four walls approach and taking clients on ‘walk and talk’ sessions, art therapy and bush adventure therapy trips.
My ethos of using exercise as medicine for both physical and mental wellbeing is combined with this type of trip. Reducing anxiety, it improves depression and is also helpful with better sleep patterns. With no TVs, phones or internet it’s amazing how much clearer and de-cluttered the mind can get. Any takers for my next wilderness therapy trip?
Inside Construction takes health and wellness in the construction space seriously and Annis-Brown has been invited to write a regular column – Building health – about monitoring and maintaining physical and mental wellbeing.
Peter Annis-Brown is the founder and director of new start up business ManageHealth. His business delivers a range of flexible and innovative health services giving individuals and corporate organisations the freedom and convenience of healthcare that is now required in this 24/7 world.