The mountains as your reset

“I just need to get out of my head again.” one guest said to me last summer on one of my hiking and yoga weekends. “I need to leave everything behind for a bit and just breathe deeply,” another shared. And I kept hearing things like, “The current global situation is overwhelming, I cannot listen to it anymore.” For some, the tension was obvious right away. For others, it only became visible over the course of the tour. But the underlying theme was always the same: many of my guests were under stress. For a few, this even led to strong emotional reactions on the trail, including panic attacks. What I initially saw as isolated cases gradually turned into a recurring pattern over the season.

Before each tour, I ask guests to fill out an online questionnaire with relevant information such as medical conditions or medication. Last year, I also added questions about what they hoped to experience or learn, whether it was flora and fauna, yoga, or meditation. Most people answered that they simply wanted to take the calmness of the mountains back into their daily lives. At the same time, I was increasingly asked how I manage my own tours at Shanti Treks on my own and how I deal with stress.

The turning point was a participant experiencing a panic attack at an exposed section of the trail. That moment made it very clear to me how important it is to not only rely on intuition in such situations, but to be able to respond with solid knowledge and confidence. That was when I decided to explore this topic more deeply. After doing extensive research, I found myself sitting in Jenny’s office in September, discussing how the training to become a resilience and nature coach could complement my work.

At its core, coaching is about supporting people in finding their own solutions, gaining new perspectives and approaching challenges more consciously, rather than giving ready made answers. Especially when it comes to stress and resilience, it is about recognizing patterns and strengthening personal resources. There is now solid research showing why this works particularly well in natural environments. Studies demonstrate that nature reduces stress, restores attention and supports emotional processing. Away from constant stimulation and everyday pressure, there is space for clarity, reflection and a real connection to yourself and your surroundings. Nature is not just a backdrop, it becomes an active co coach that supports change in an intuitive and lasting way.

As a resilience and nature coach, you can in a group setting, where each individual learns to recognize and reflect on their own stressors such as pressure or overwhelm. At the same time, personal resources like mindfulness, self efficacy and inner stability are strengthened. Nature becomes an active space for experience, where movement, sensory input and distance from everyday life support reflection and open up new perspectives. It creates an environment where exchange is possible, while each person leaves feeling stronger as an individual.

Nature has long been more than just a place for movement for me, it is my balance and my anchor. The fact that my primary work is as a hiking guide and only later I added yoga to my portfolio has nothing to do with preferring hiking over yoga, if anything it is the opposite. But I simply prefer being outside rather than inside, and the mountains have always had a calming effect on me. When something is on my mind, I consciously head into the mountains, not to think more intensely about it, but because they calm me down. Most of the time I go alone, I move, I push myself physically and let the fresh air clear my head. As soon as I find my rhythm outdoors, I naturally come back to myself. I often do not actively think about what is bothering me and rarely come back with a clear solution, but I always feel noticeably better afterwards. And that is exactly it for me. Nature does not need to provide answers; it simply brings me back to a state where things begin to sort themselves out.

What felt intuitively right for me was something I already noticed during my office job, and it became increasingly frustrating to feel like I never had enough time for being in nature. This was one of the key reason for leaving my old job and choosing a path where I could consistently do something good for myself and my body. Over the past two years, I have not only seen physical changes, becoming leaner and stronger and my skin looking healthy and radiant even without extensive care. Internally, a lot has shifted as well. I have become calmer, less reactive and I handle stress much better. Even when things go wrong, I tend to stay grounded. This calmness is something my guests often comment on, and it something that spreads to the group. What started as an intuitive process for me is something I now want to share in a more intentional and structured way with people who want to learn how to deal more effectively with stress and are longing for more calm and balance in their lives.

We often overcomplicate change and end up holding ourselves back from actually taking action. Sometimes we simply do not know where to start. I felt the same at the end of last alpine season, when I knew that I wanted more confidence and knowledge in how to support stressed guests. Of course, I could have learned everything through books or online, but I knew I would not realistically dedicate enough focused time to it. So I decided to consciously step out of my routine and fully immerse myself in the topic, learning from the instructors, exchanging with others and experiencing the methods myself. Being in the role of a participant was incredibly valuable and genuinely enjoyable. Within just a few days of training, I gained a lot of inspiration and developed concrete ideas for how to integrate what I learned into my existing tours.

It was a nice coincidence that the training took place in Bonn, where I lived before becoming self employed, which allowed me to combine the trip with a hike in the Siebengebirge. I offered this tour free of charge for old friends and was really happy to welcome some new faces as well. Together, we collected donations for a project I would like to support more actively in the future: JUNO – eine Stimme für geflüchtete Frauen.

Building on that, I plan to offer dedicated resilience and stress seminars in mountain huts. The goal is for guests to better understand their own stress patterns, develop practical tools to regulate them and build a sense of inner calm and stability that they can carry into their daily lives. I will start by offering this as part of Shanti Treks this autumn while continuing to refine the concept. From next year onwards, I also want to bring it into a professional context, for example as company retreats, team development programs or educational leave formats. If this resonates with you or if you have ideas or interests, feel free to reach out.