Gone Wild!

I'm sat writing this blog a couple of days after getting back from an amazing festival holiday of fun and adventure - 'Gone Wild' with Bear Grylls.

The theme of the festival is all about getting outside and experiencing the great outdoors, participating in some adventurous activities that you may not have done before, listening to some amazing speakers, and all with the backdrop of some good music, good food and drink and plenty of chances to make some good friends.

We went last year and we were massively inspired by the whole event - being an outdoors themed festival there are so many activities like abseiling, climbing, a commando assault course, and especially when they have a military presence in the form of the Royal Marines offering fitness challenges and information about all that they do, you can't help but want to be fitter so that you can participate in as many activities as possible!

This year I was a lot more active than I was last year, and despite not being any fitter I felt a real urge to take part in as much as possible, and what better way to start off than with a brilliant colour run!

The colour run is organised by a non-profit organisation called RV One and their mission is: “To rehabilitate the mind through functional fitness, creativity and adventure”.

They are really big on providing mental health support, something we are really keen on at Knixter Wellbeing as having a healthy mind is one of the key things we all need to help us lead happy and healthy lives.

Another activity that I pushed myself to take part in at the festival was a 'Commando Assault Course' - a 2.7km course with over 12 obstacles, including wading through water, crawling through small pipes, carrying a stretcher with a heavy weight - it was very hard work, but the buzz I felt at the end was brilliant - sometimes we need to push ourselves and test the limits of what we see as possible, whilst remaining careful to not injure ourselves!

Over the years I have focused a lot on my mental health, and I have dove deep into meditation, energy work, healing - all with the aim of being in the best mental state possible. Life has definitely presented its challenges along the way but I have always been able to bounce back. My physical health though has not been so great - having been classed as 'obese' just a couple of years ago, I am now back in the 'overweight' category, and I will be doing all that I can to continue losing weight, getting fitter and getting back into a healthy weight range.

I truly believe that we need a balance of both physical and mental fitness to be happy in life - though I would add another category - spiritual fitness. Knowing how you feel about where you fit into this great cosmos of life can assist you in living the best life you can.

To be the most aligned to your true self, you need to try and discover what it is you need to do to be in the best physical, mental and spiritual fitness shape that you can be. At Knixter we can assist you in this with some of the products and services that we offer, as well as through reading through our blogs to get a little bit of inspiration and advice.

Being physical, getting out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself is a great way to do this, and I have already started setting myself fitness goals so that I can be in the best physical shape of my life - something that was a big goal of mine when I turned 40.

Goals, and especially stretch goals, are something that I believe are really important. I love the following definition I found somewhere online - "A stretch goal is a seemingly impossible goal that challenges people to re-evaluate what they thought was possible".

Having a stretch goal can give you an extra push and extra incentive if you are feeling a bit down and are unsure about what to do.

One of my personal stretch goals is to complete a 24-hour 3 peak challenge, climbing up Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis, and Snowdon and I'm now doing the work needed to make sure that I am in the best shape possible to be able to complete the challenge. After that, who knows, maybe a trip to Mount Everest?! I also want to complete another marathon - the last one I did I completed in just over 6 hours with no training and being very overweight.

Since coming back from the festival, I have also set myself a couple of exercise challenges - to do 100 push ups every day, and 100 squats every day and to make sure that I always do 10,000 steps every day, even if I need to go for a quick run at the end of the day.

Are there any goals, stretch goals or even just a small exercise challenge that you think you could come up with to help you improve your mental, physical or spiritual fitness?

We'd love to know any ideas you have!