I'll be trekking 570km across the Eastern Alps for 30-ish days with my good friend Frank to raise awareness for Mental Health. We'll be starting in Munich, passing through the German Bavaria then Austria before entering the Italian Tyrol, ending in Venice.

Not only is this event about fundraising BUT it's also about what can we proactively do on a personal level to spread awareness and help anyone suffering as well ourselves. It's very easy to cover up how we are feeling, on the outside acting all smiles, but it takes great strength to discuss our inner mental dialogue and disturbances. 

MIND was introduced to me when I was younger and it's where I first heard of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy/Stress Reduction (MBCT/MBSR). I went on to take various training's in this field. During that time I found Yoga which taught me to live in the present moment while actively working on my mentality, reducing my 1-2 x hourly panic attacks to not remembering the last time I properly experienced one, which is a tremendous achievement. 

Mental health and stability has been my priority in life for a very long time, which led me to my present career as Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher. My aim is to implement a healthy lifestyle, mentally and physically, to cease suffering of any kind and turn it into something beautiful.

As a teacher, finding a balance in life and creating a stable mentality is what I live for and is what I’ve been practising most of my adult life. I’ve worked with many students/clients over the past couple of years and together we learnt further about the importance of mental health and finding the calm in the storm.

I adopted this mindful way of life from 2012 while suffering from severe depression, anxiety and PTSD. I was first introduced to
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) by a wonderful councillor at 15 when dealing with anxiety, not knowing it would shape my future life.

Knowing how severe my mentality was at 22, developing a social anxiety and not being able to get out of bed, go outside and do everyday things, I know the importance of raising awareness on the subject as I honestly didn't think there was hope to get back on track and live a 'normal' life at the time and I didn’t want to because the suffering was too much.

When you have experienced this and have ever felt stuck in that bubble
of depression, fear, anxiety etc. It's very hard to remove yourself from your mindset and the situation; to separate yourself from your thoughts and to become the observer of the mind, that’s what Mindfulness teaches us.

From the of age 22 I had almost 1 year worth of counselling trying many techniques such as yoga, tapping, CBT, mindfulness meditation as well as continuing study on different philosophies, traditions and attended a serious amount of workshops and programs. It took a while to become connected with various techniques and some were just natural but with continuous dedication and practice I was lucky enough to be able to share the story which now inspires my teaching and yoga practice. I think our experiences mould us into who we are today and if we can find a way to honour that we can eventually begin to live with gratitude with a great support network.

Mindfulness combined with Yoga is my approach, my therapy and what I live for. I genuinely believe everyone can find something they connect with to relieve their struggles. 

This hike is also in the remembrance of a dear friend Carl Malik who passed in April this year - Although Carl was suffering himself he was one of the first to support and check to see how I was doing and feeling and anyone else for that matter. He understood my mentality and the importance of the topic as you’ll know from the awareness he spread in his posts. He was always there to give support and had all the time in the world for anyone. We'd share books and audiotapes which we’d feel would help with our anxiety. Losing a friend is extremely difficult and losing someone in your support group will
always be a big challenge to overcome but it truly isn't impossible with the right support and communication.

As well as fundraising for this great cause I hope to achieve personal
growth and development throughout this process while deeply challenging my mentality, overcoming any obstacles which may arise and to share the experience in the future.