As we celebrate with the Mental Health Foundation, ‘Mental Health Awareness Week 2024’, we empathise with this year’s chosen theme ‘movement’ and its ability to enhance mental wellbeing.
It’s fitting therefore that during this time, we’re able to re-affirm our ongoing partnership with the Mind Over Mountains charity. This inspiring charity is dedicated to mental health advocacy, organising group walking events and outdoor experiences aimed at fostering wellness in the community.
Named recent winners of the ‘Best Charity Initiative Of The Year’ awards at the inaugural National Outdoor Expo Awards, we want to congratulate Alex, Chris and all the team who work so hard for this worthy cause.
Through our recent fundraising efforts, Bath House, also a Mind Over Mountains partner, has raised £2500 to help the charity continue its important work. We would like to thank the community’s support who joined us at our head office in Sedbergh, Cumbria for a fundraising sale a few weeks ago. Our donation, along with match funding from the Big Give’s ‘Kind2Mind’ fund, will provide fully funded places for people attending the charity’s Wasdale Hall retreat, due to take place later this year. Such retreats run by the Mind Over Mountains team aim to provide individuals with transformative life experiences, focusing on promoting mental wellbeing through immersion in nature and walking.
Located in the picturesque Cumbrian Lake District, Wasdale Hall is a 19th-century country manor that boasts ‘Britain’s favourite view’. This National Trust-owned property (now a Youth Hostel) is set on its own grounds, with an uninterrupted view of Wastwater, England’s deepest lake. A true wilderness retreat for those looking to relax and unwind amidst breathtaking scenery this is a special place of peace, quiet and natural unspoiled beauty, offering a perfect chance to take some time for individuals, to reconnect with others in one of the UK’s most beautiful landscapes. Within this safe environment, a professional team of experienced coaches, counsellors and outdoor experts creates the perfect opportunity for relaxed conversations and a chance to reflect and share without any pressure or expectation. The retreat enables participants to experience nature at its most beautiful and explore the benefits and proven healing power of the outdoors.
Mind Over Mountains also offers single-day walks across some of Britain’s most beautiful and unspoiled landscapes in the Peak District and the Lake District. Such walks encourage participants to explore their inner landscapes without fear of judgement or pressure, helping to foster a sense of trust, openness and acceptance. The ultimate goal is to inspire lasting positive change, cultivating resilience and a renewed sense of purpose in the lives of participants. Appreciating nature, in the wilds of a national park, a park a quiet space in a city or a back garden can all be a safe, and free space to return to and recharge the soul whenever the need is there. This is an enduring legacy of the experience and one that everyone can access.
At Bath House, we share Mind Over Mountains’ belief in the transformative power of nature and movement within nature. Many of our customers who visit our stores in the Lake District have also just experienced the benefits of exercising and moving through nature as they step inside from a bracing day out walking on the fells or by the lakes.
We believe there is a connection between the benefits of simple daily practices using products made of natural ingredients from daily cleansing and skin care rituals to meditation and exercise experienced outside. Beauty and nature are completely interlinked and by living within nature, benefiting from its healing, and soothing calm we radiate a deeper inner beauty that is visible to all. By supporting initiatives like the Wastwater Retreat and the benefits it bestows individuals we reaffirm our commitment to improving the lives of others and promoting holistic wellness through nature.
Together, let’s take this week to champion the importance of walking and physical movement in nature, perhaps ask someone for a walk or step outside for a stroll and experience the healing power of the natural world. We might also consider and trust in our own value and worth, choosing to think about our own self-care as well as nurturing others’ mental wellbeing, so that together we can build resilient communities.
Discover more at www.mindovermountains.org.uk and www.mentalhealth.org.uk.
