For a long time, I moved through life on autopilot – disconnected, going through the motions, unsure of what I was really feeling and being eager to push everything down with distractions. I used escapism as a way to ignore my big feelings, never sitting still enough to let them enter my waking thoughts. But these feelings never go away when you ignore them. They are always there just under the surface, waiting to come up at the worst possible moment in the worst possible way. Mine always erupted in anger and I lashed out at people closest to me. The noise in my head never quieted down until I took my first hike. In those 4hrs, I felt a peace that I had never felt before. My mind, body & spirit was renewed and I felt like a brand new person. Hiking quickly became my therapy as I did the work of coming back to myself and recognizing when I needed breaks instead of staying in GO-mode all the time. Along the way, I became someone that others turned to during their own periods of distress.