Stepping into the Healing Power of Nature

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When former collegiate athlete and competitive skydiver Sydney Williams unexpectedly found herself on the receiving end of a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis, while grappling with unresolved trauma from a decades-old sexual assault, she set out on a mission: turn her pain into power. Two hikes across Catalina Island and 80 miles later, she founded Hiking My Feelings to help others tap into the mind-body connection and healing power of nature that helped kick her self-limiting beliefs and disease into remission.

Having more than 12 years of marketing experience with Fortune 500 companies and emerging brands, Sydney serves up her “truth juice” style of storytelling to break wide open tough conversations with practical, powerful content and experiences. Over the years, she’s been featured on the SXSW stage, as well as in Health Magazine, Diabetic Living Magazine, Huffington Post, Psychology Today, US News & World Report, and numerous other publications. Today, she is the author of Hiking My Feelings: Stepping Into the Healing Power of Nature and travels across the country empowering others to summit their personal mountains on their way to becoming Well Beings.

On March 3, 2021, Sydney joined us as a guest speaker.

Share Ideas for Future Speakers

If you’d like to present at an upcoming session or if you have an idea for a speaker, please email us at natureandhealth@uw.edu.

Learn About Upcoming Events

Check out our calendar of events and connect with us on Facebook and Instagram to learn about upcoming talks.

Community Highlight: Wild Grief Virtual Hike Habits

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Wild Grief Virtual Hike Habits are an opportunity to come together for grief peer support and nature connection from the comfort of your own home.

This Virtual Hike Habit will start with an opening circle via video chat, similar to the opening circle on our in-person hikes. We will introduce ourselves, share who we are carrying in our hearts, and offer some activities for your individual walk/hike. We will then ask everyone to find a place close by to be in nature for 30-45 minutes. This could be a walk around your neighborhood, a sit spot in your yard, or even just opening a window to feel the fresh air and see the sky. After our time in nature, we will reconvene for a closing circle.

February Hike Habit (virtual)
Saturday, February 13, 2021
11:00 AM  1:00 PM

This event is free and open for anyone to participate. Please register below!

This event is at 8AM HAST/10AM AKDT/ 11AM PST/12PM MDT/1PM CDT/2PM EST. Wild Grief is located in Olympia, Washington, but love it when folks join from other time zones!