ST. GEORGE — The Hiking Your Feelings Tour features the healing power of nature and giving back through service during Mental Health Month in May.

Author Sydney Williams told St. George News she has partnered with AutoCamp and Field Station to present a transformative event series. Williams is a wellness advocate, wilderness guide and creator of Hiking My Feelings. Her company creates mental health programming through outdoor experiences to improve community health by allowing people to experience nature’s healing power.

“Nothing is a one-size-fits-all approach, right? So we try to create an environment where people can find healing in nature and then give something back to the land because, for me, it needs to be a reciprocal relationship to be intentional and meaningful,” Williams said.

This year, Williams is touring seven national parks and monuments and has released a new book “Hiking Your Feelings: Blazing a Trail to Self-Love.” The book provides a self-reflection framework that helped her recover from career burnout, reverse diabetes and improve her mental health.

To celebrate her new book launch, AutoCamp and Field Station will host events encouraging guests to disconnect from distractions and reconnect with themselves, reflecting a shared dedication to finding inspiration and healing in the great outdoors.

Williams hosts various events, including fireside book discussions, group hikes with local nonprofits and environmental stewardship projects.

She also offers Wilderness Wellness workshops in single and multiday formats. Williams said her intention is to offer an opportunity to slow down for a day (or four) to disconnect from the distractions, reconnect with oneself and explore how spending time outside can help us bring our best selves to life, love and work.

On May 10, Williams will lead a fireside group discussion at Field Station in Moab. She will join attendees in doing a service project with the Canyonlands Field Office.

Then on May 17, she will be in Washington County. Williams has partnered with the Zion National Park Forever Project nonprofit and the AutoCamp in Virgin, Utah. There will be a fireside book discussion and assisting the Zion Forever Project. Attendees will help the nonprofit project work on a plot of land near the border of Zion National Park that was deeded to the Zion Forever Project. They are requesting assistance to see what kind of natural resources are there.

Participants will help check to see if there are any cultural artifacts by surveying the land during a walking workshop with Williams.

“For example, what can we learn from how long petrified wood has been around and how small that makes our problems?” Williams said. “It’s also connecting the dots between the inner and outer wilderness and supporting the Zion Forever Project with some critical volunteer hours.”

In September 2017, Williams was diagnosed with diabetes. In the summer of 2018, she began to hike around Catalina Island near her home in San Diego, California. She wrote her first book about her experience.

Williams’ latest book is similar to the first she released in 2019, “Hiking My Feelings: Stepping into the Healing Power of Nature.” It is based on two hikes across Catalina Island that helped Sydney Williams heal her mind and body.

Her second book, “Hiking Your Feelings: Blazing a Trail to Self Love,” adds lessons, resources and things she teaches now in her online and in-person programs. This book includes journal and discussion prompts that you can use to build a relationship with yourself. This book offers a tool kit to unpack your “trauma pack” and become your best version.

“Hiking helped me heal my mind and my body and helped me reverse Type 2 diabetes. It is my greatest teacher,” Williams said. “It is the place where I feel most at home in my body and with myself. And once I saw that, I couldn’t unsee it. ‘Hiking My Feelings’ is also the name of the nonprofit organization I founded in 2020.”

To learn more about the tour, visit this website.

 

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.