Turn The Corner: Recent Episodes
Zack Dymond-Drake
Conversations with people, their activities and hobbies and the positive impacts it’s had on mental health.
This week I was fortunate enough to be able to talk with Heather Benton.
Heather was kind enough to spend some time sharing how backpacking has had a significant impact on her mental health and the amazing places around the world she’s been able to see because of it.
Her site Mountains for Mental Health chronicles her past journeys and looking ahead to her upcoming trips.
She’s also been an incredible resource raising awareness and funds for The Jed Foundation an amazing organization that’s been working tirelessly for over 20 years to protecting emotional health and preventing suicide.
Heather also mentions Climb for Quent and their incredible work alongside The Jed Foundation. Take a look at their journey as well.
Please take the time to check out both sites and if you’re able to contribute in any way, please do so.
Follow Heather:
IG https://www.instagram.com/mountainsformentalhealth/
Vimeo https://vimeo.com/user12071380
Follow The Jed Foundation:
IG https://www.instagram.com/jedfoundation/
Twitter https://twitter.com/jedfoundation
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JedFoundation
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJedFoundation
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jed-foundation?trk=nav_type_overview
I had the pleasure of talking with Ross Cunningham for this opening episode. Ross lives in Scotland and is the creator and editor of the site Mountains Mend Minds; a relatively new venture started early this year.
Taken from the site, Ross describes it as:
'A project started in January 2020 with the aim of encouraging more people to take up hiking mountains and hills. The benefits of hiking include improved mental and physical health, learning new skills, discovering parts of the country you would never have visited before and meeting new people!'
I highly encourage you to go take a look and take the couple of minutes to watch the video on the main page, Munro bagging with my westie.
It’s an incredibly well done video with a very important message. Speaking of the production quality of the video, Gavin Hugh was responsible for that fantastic work.
Go check out the site Midgie Bite Media to see more of his work and all the other services they offer. Hopefully, we can throw him some work his way in addition to encouraging people to get out and hike or share this with someone that could benefit from a day hiking the hills or mountains.
Maybe they won’t bag a munro their first hike, but as long as you’re out there enjoying the time that’s all you need.
Alright, here’s the conversation between Ross and I.