How Hike 4 The Culture Got It’s Start

Today I decided to be brave and share the REAL reason that I’ve organized the  Hike 4 The Culture event. Over the last two weeks I’ve been battling if I wanted to share but have decided that if I want people to come and experience the event as intended I should be honest..

Over the last two years, the news been pretty much been everything Covid, political, economical, death, murder…and on and on. Soo much heaviness.

One day an idea sparked within (God gave it to me)to host an event so that people can have just one second to breathe. I sat with that for a while and began to visualize what that would look like for me. Nothing brings me more peace than being surrounded by nature. As a kid my dad would take the the family fishing regularly and although I’m terrified of bugs what I realize now is that it felt like I was able to be in the moment and have fun. 

I started to really turn my thinking inward and realized that I had been not breathing properly and was quite frankly a ball of stress. Everything about my body was tight. When I took an intentionally long breath and blew out I could feel how tight I was, the breath gave me a small relief. My next thought was that I hadn’t event noticed! How long had I not been breathing properly! It really freaked me out. I had not been paying attention to myself.

I had been having success with The Urban Keys virtual events but behind the scenes I was looking for full time employment. I had job interviews booked on most days of the week. Meeting with 4-5 people on a team only to have the communication go completely silent. I felt like such a failure and I was extremely disappointed.  But what did I do??.. Kept it moving because what else was I going to do. 

On top of that, I had been secretly going through treatments for infertility. Which turned into me having two hysteroscopies for fibroids. I was so stressed that I cut my hair into a shorter style to switch things up since I was still quarantining for the most part. Listen I was falling apart fast…I was depressed. No energy but still trying to drag myself to the finish line. However when my passion left me, my motivating factor, I could no longer see the vision for my life. I begin to withdraw in order to not have to explain to those who may judge or criticize when I was at my most vulnerable. 

On top of all of that, many people that I knew professionally and personally were depressed. I have had countless zoom meetings and phone calls where the conversation goes towards people expressing to me how down they were but they too had to keep it moving because they have to pay the mortgage or they had to keep their image up since everyone is a “Brand” now. There was nothing that I could do but listen to them and try to be encouraging but eventually had to cut those important conversations off because I didn’t have the capacity to take on any one else’s pain.  

One thing that I knew was that this feeling that had taken over would not stop me.

The planning of this event has been my own personal saving grace. I have worked on this event even when I couldn’t see the direction, when no-one would listen when I needed to discuss it except for my loving and supportive husband. I’ve planned when I could barely keep my eyes open because of the different medications I was on for fertility and I’ve planned despite of knowing if it would even peak the curiosity for the people who need it. What I do know is nothing or no one but God can stop my from having this event. 

So why the long post you may ask?? 

What I need is help. Although I would love to I can not do this alone. What I need to make this a success are connections to mental and physical health groups, so that I may provide resources to people who want and need help to change the direction of their life.. To literally catch their breath. I also need sponsors in the health and wellness space. 

If you find yourself in a dark place please know that you are not alone. For anyone who’s never been in this space I want to encourage you to uplift someone else who’s struggling. It could be a smile, a kind gesture, listening, tactfully recommending resources to help them help themselves. 

Thanks for reading! I know that was a lot on a Monday. 🙂

If you know someone in this space please tag, like, share!!🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

For more information check out the website at http://www.hike4theculture.com.

Also, connect with me at [email protected]