two years ago I was on a climb – Chandra
Sheila it’s a summit in Uttarakhand and
as I came up early enough in the morning
dawn was just breaking and I watched
this magical sunrise happening in the
mountains one by one our trekkers came
up to the summit and when more or less
everyone was up I give myself some time
to look in to this view now these are
very rare moments in our lifetime we
don’t really get to see them in a normal
city life so as I was taking in this
view I heard a noise from somewhere
below as if someone was coming up I was
quite surprised because whoever had
expected to be up on the summit we’re
already there so I went closer to the
edge to take a look and I was surprised
to find Susheela one of the ladies whom
I had asked to turn around was coming up
the summit now I had a good reason to
turn around Susheela because she was
someone who’s absolutely unprepared and
unfit for this Trek but there she was
hardly 15 20 min metres below the summit
laborious ly making our way up to the
summit which she eventually did and when
she came up to the summit she went to
the shrine that you see in this picture
right here stood in front of the shrine
with folded hands and in a deep prayer
of gratitude like a about a big prayer I
as a water from a distance I saw tears
in her eyes and after some time the
tears became a weep and after a while
the we became a sob and she was crying
uncontrollably after a while it took a
colleague of hers who was also on the
trek to give her a warm hug and
bris to settle and calm down later that
evening when I went back to the camp
I asked Susheela a story susheela’s
pent-up emotions had a much deeper past
Susheela
was in a mid-30s almost touching 40s she
had recently recently been promoted as a
project manager in the German company
that she worked
now she was very surprised at the
promotion she wasn’t expecting it
Susheela was one of those who was
usually very soft-spoken kept to the
background would do her routine work and
go home she was someone who you would
say under confident and lacked self
belief the trick had a profound impact
on Susheela she discovered on the climb
to Chandra Sheila that she had inner
resolve and inner strength which went
much beyond herself that she could
overcome difficulties wishes she did not
know she was capable of the trick filled
her with positivity a positivity which
no amount of pep talk all counselling
could do and this positivity stayed with
her for long when she got back to her
work and home she was a changed person
and this change was permanent this is
not a stray incident we see this every
day on a treks and I’m in a position of
authority to say this because we’re on
India hikes and it is India’s largest
trekking organization more than 20,000
people trek with us every year and we
see this events happening every day and
only reconfirms what scientists have
been telling us for a very long time
that the mountains or trekking has a
very big impact on the mind body and
spirit a much bigger impact than what we
have ever imagined it to be now when we
are on the mountains and when we are
trekking
we have nothing to distract us it’s just
us and nature we are constantly
surrounded by the positive imagery of
nature every second every hour every
minute of a trek this constant imagery
of nature’s around us we are seeing at
mountains and valleys we are seeing snow
and grasslands meadows jungles and
forests we are seeing sunrises and
sunsets we are seeing moon rises and
stars and this is a constant positive
imagery which is always around us so
much so that it removes negative
thoughts from a mind forget negative
thoughts it removes any thoughts from
our mind we even forget what day and
time it is now this has a miracle as
impact on our minds it has a calming
effect the buzz that is in our mind
starts to move and Trust to failed the
nerves that we have starts to soothe we
start feeling happier we become lighter
and laughter flow simile immediately and
a lot there’s a spring in a step but
there’s a science behind this and the
science has got to do with hormones when
we trick we get a big boost of
endorphins the hormones that makes us
happy we get a large boost of serotonin
the hormone that relaxes us there’s also
a push of dopamine the hormone that
triggers a reward centers which makes us
feel accomplished there’s also if this
was not enough there’s lots of oxytocin
getting pushed into us oxytocin helps us
to feel tranquil and a feeling of love
all these hormones put together makes us
now it’s known to us that nature has a
big impact on a mental state it has been
known to us for tens and hundreds and
thousands of years years yet in the
modern world we seem to be ignoring this
forget a mental strength trekking has a
big impact on a body 1r of tricks can
burn about 450 to 550 calories imagine
what a six-hour trek can do which is
usually a trekking time on a five or six
days trek I have seen our trekkers lose
between three to four kilos of body
weight and with someone like me body
now trekking uphill is almost like
climbing stairs are doing lunges our
glutes our quads our hamstring our
curves are working over and over and
again and they’re getting stronger now
it trick is not an even surf it’s not
like a road and a body is always making
micro adjustments every second every
minute no two steps are like we’re
making micro adjustments these micro
adjustments are done by our abs and I
lower back muscles this is nothing but
strengthening a core and if you’re
wearing a backpack it’s also an
additional weight training but this
strengthening of a core scientists have
told us long ago that if you want a
longer and a fitter body you need to
have a strong cold because a core gives
us a sense of balance and stability and
that’s what this micro adjustments are
doing it’s giving us a sense of balance
and stability as we are trekking I was
on a trek to Dave Kara about two months
ago and the terrain was bit rough I had
lots of streams and boulders and rocks
to cross over almost every day of the
trek now you would say I have been
tracking for almost two and a half
decades so I would be pretty experienced
and I would be able to tackle this but
I’ll tell you what I observed were the
first two days of the trek the first two
days I was very tentative on a steep
descent I would be extremely careful but
on the same track when I was getting
back five days later my footing had
become firm I knew exactly where
put my foot and for how long even in
this four or five days my core had
become stronger now the biggest impact
of trekking is on the human spirit human
spirit is nothing but a human nature
that we are the person who we are or the
person who we become tricks have this
way of repairing or you know getting a
relationships together and making good
friends we become better human beings
now on a track there’s nothing to
distract us there aren’t any electronic
device there’s not even anybody to
interrupt our thoughts the conversation
that we have with of trek mates are very
free and frank and free-flowing add it
to that we have a common adventure to go
to we are sharing a same tent we are
pitching our tents we are rolling our
sleeping bags there is this common
adventure to navigate and this common
adventure and the free-flowing
conversations that flow has a very big
impact it makes us form deep bonds with
our fellow mates our trek mates because
the conversations that we have here are
very free and frank and honest’ we
become ourselves we allow ourselves to
become vulnerable we allow answers to
open up on a trek people talk more
intimately with the trek mates in that
five or seven days than they do with
their friends for over many years now in
this modern world when acquaintances are
fleeting and friendships are fickle
the chance to bond with somebody for a
tricks help those who are struggling in
life who are facing difficulties because
a trek is almost like a journey of
difficulties which mirrors it because a
trek we are always battling an adventure
which we had which were overcoming
difficulties the difficulties of terrain
difficulties of altitude difficulty of
the weather difficulty of our own
physicality and when we overcome this we
become more resilient we are
able to tackle life’s problem easier the
more difficult situations we are able to
tackle it’s almost like if I can do this
trick then I can do anything in life and
this helps us to overcome difficulties
it also helps us become more creative
and think more clearly there was a time
at India hikes when we ran out of money
it was on a second year of operations
and we ran out of money because in one
september/october season we got smashed
by rains we had invested all the money
on our equipment and gear on the slopes
the food and ration was bought the staff
had been hired and yet we couldn’t run a
single group because it was raining all
the time and we were totally smashed we
had to pay the staff the food went waste
and we had to refund all the trekkers it
wiped out a bank balance we had nothing
left and so much so that we had to
request our staff if they were willing
to work part-time and at half pay and
I’m happy that they agreed to do that
and we thought that the coming winter
program that was coming up that would
help us tide over this crisis because
that would give us some income to tackle
this situation but good times didn’t
come every day we was stare at the
computer waiting for a registration to
come in but it wouldn’t days on days
went by life and then a day came at
India hikes when we had to ask everyone
to leave and it was only my partner
Sandhya and I who were left at India
hikes just the two of us our nose was
short
we are absolutely petrified about the
future we were wondering if there was at
all a future at India hikes in this when
we are at a lowest we decided to go on a
winter Trek we were anyway committed to
this winter trick because 17 or 18
people had already registered long ago
for this program so we went on this Trek
and the moment we went on this Trek it
had an immediate calming effect on us
on this track we were able to discuss a
problems long and hard and clearly and
we started thinking what was going wrong
with us and we understood during this
winter Trek that in our anxiety to
appear stuff in her anxiety to honor to
pay her next bills we had forgotten what
a core and basic was which was to make a
great website for people to get a great
tracking information that’s what we
stood for when we went back to the city
we started rebuilding our website we
left aside all our thoughts about you
know trying to earn our income but we
started making a website where people
could find this golden content about
getting information about tricking in
our country and as in a month or two as
people found this content more and more
people came to our website to find this
information about trekking in our
country and we noticed that it also
reflected immediately on a registrations
for a summer program and slowly little
by little we limped back into business
this winter Trek helped us to think
clearly and creatively about the problem
most of the innovative solutions that
were brought about about trekking in our
country have come about when we were
when we thought about them on our tricks
and not really in our offices where we
work tricks helps us to think creatively
we have seen that tricks people change
the profession the careers they did they
dive into something new after they
finish a trek they make or get out of
relationships after they finish a trek
they start something new when they
finish a trek trek has this profound
impact on people it makes us overcome
challenges makes us overcome
difficulties it helps us to take on new
things it helps us more focused more
creative and more sensitive it makes us
healthier and a body’s better and we
have a large database of information
that we have been
seeing this we take 20,000 people on
tricks every year the database of our
collective information is very large and
very clear what it says and it says this
that tricks have a huge impact on a mind
body and spirit and so big that we
cannot ignore it and if you haven’t
started trekking then perhaps you must
thank you [Applause]
Sheila it’s a summit in Uttarakhand and
as I came up early enough in the morning
dawn was just breaking and I watched
this magical sunrise happening in the
mountains one by one our trekkers came
up to the summit and when more or less
everyone was up I give myself some time
to look in to this view now these are
very rare moments in our lifetime we
don’t really get to see them in a normal
city life so as I was taking in this
view I heard a noise from somewhere
below as if someone was coming up I was
quite surprised because whoever had
expected to be up on the summit we’re
already there so I went closer to the
edge to take a look and I was surprised
to find Susheela one of the ladies whom
I had asked to turn around was coming up
the summit now I had a good reason to
turn around Susheela because she was
someone who’s absolutely unprepared and
unfit for this Trek but there she was
hardly 15 20 min metres below the summit
laborious ly making our way up to the
summit which she eventually did and when
she came up to the summit she went to
the shrine that you see in this picture
right here stood in front of the shrine
with folded hands and in a deep prayer
of gratitude like a about a big prayer I
as a water from a distance I saw tears
in her eyes and after some time the
tears became a weep and after a while
the we became a sob and she was crying
uncontrollably after a while it took a
colleague of hers who was also on the
trek to give her a warm hug and
bris to settle and calm down later that
evening when I went back to the camp
I asked Susheela a story susheela’s
pent-up emotions had a much deeper past
Susheela
was in a mid-30s almost touching 40s she
had recently recently been promoted as a
project manager in the German company
that she worked
now she was very surprised at the
promotion she wasn’t expecting it
Susheela was one of those who was
usually very soft-spoken kept to the
background would do her routine work and
go home she was someone who you would
say under confident and lacked self
belief the trick had a profound impact
on Susheela she discovered on the climb
to Chandra Sheila that she had inner
resolve and inner strength which went
much beyond herself that she could
overcome difficulties wishes she did not
know she was capable of the trick filled
her with positivity a positivity which
no amount of pep talk all counselling
could do and this positivity stayed with
her for long when she got back to her
work and home she was a changed person
and this change was permanent this is
not a stray incident we see this every
day on a treks and I’m in a position of
authority to say this because we’re on
India hikes and it is India’s largest
trekking organization more than 20,000
people trek with us every year and we
see this events happening every day and
only reconfirms what scientists have
been telling us for a very long time
that the mountains or trekking has a
very big impact on the mind body and
spirit a much bigger impact than what we
have ever imagined it to be now when we
are on the mountains and when we are
trekking
we have nothing to distract us it’s just
us and nature we are constantly
surrounded by the positive imagery of
nature every second every hour every
minute of a trek this constant imagery
of nature’s around us we are seeing at
mountains and valleys we are seeing snow
and grasslands meadows jungles and
forests we are seeing sunrises and
sunsets we are seeing moon rises and
stars and this is a constant positive
imagery which is always around us so
much so that it removes negative
thoughts from a mind forget negative
thoughts it removes any thoughts from
our mind we even forget what day and
time it is now this has a miracle as
impact on our minds it has a calming
effect the buzz that is in our mind
starts to move and Trust to failed the
nerves that we have starts to soothe we
start feeling happier we become lighter
and laughter flow simile immediately and
a lot there’s a spring in a step but
there’s a science behind this and the
science has got to do with hormones when
we trick we get a big boost of
endorphins the hormones that makes us
happy we get a large boost of serotonin
the hormone that relaxes us there’s also
a push of dopamine the hormone that
triggers a reward centers which makes us
feel accomplished there’s also if this
was not enough there’s lots of oxytocin
getting pushed into us oxytocin helps us
to feel tranquil and a feeling of love
all these hormones put together makes us
now it’s known to us that nature has a
big impact on a mental state it has been
known to us for tens and hundreds and
thousands of years years yet in the
modern world we seem to be ignoring this
forget a mental strength trekking has a
big impact on a body 1r of tricks can
burn about 450 to 550 calories imagine
what a six-hour trek can do which is
usually a trekking time on a five or six
days trek I have seen our trekkers lose
between three to four kilos of body
weight and with someone like me body
now trekking uphill is almost like
climbing stairs are doing lunges our
glutes our quads our hamstring our
curves are working over and over and
again and they’re getting stronger now
it trick is not an even surf it’s not
like a road and a body is always making
micro adjustments every second every
minute no two steps are like we’re
making micro adjustments these micro
adjustments are done by our abs and I
lower back muscles this is nothing but
strengthening a core and if you’re
wearing a backpack it’s also an
additional weight training but this
strengthening of a core scientists have
told us long ago that if you want a
longer and a fitter body you need to
have a strong cold because a core gives
us a sense of balance and stability and
that’s what this micro adjustments are
doing it’s giving us a sense of balance
and stability as we are trekking I was
on a trek to Dave Kara about two months
ago and the terrain was bit rough I had
lots of streams and boulders and rocks
to cross over almost every day of the
trek now you would say I have been
tracking for almost two and a half
decades so I would be pretty experienced
and I would be able to tackle this but
I’ll tell you what I observed were the
first two days of the trek the first two
days I was very tentative on a steep
descent I would be extremely careful but
on the same track when I was getting
back five days later my footing had
become firm I knew exactly where
put my foot and for how long even in
this four or five days my core had
become stronger now the biggest impact
of trekking is on the human spirit human
spirit is nothing but a human nature
that we are the person who we are or the
person who we become tricks have this
way of repairing or you know getting a
relationships together and making good
friends we become better human beings
now on a track there’s nothing to
distract us there aren’t any electronic
device there’s not even anybody to
interrupt our thoughts the conversation
that we have with of trek mates are very
free and frank and free-flowing add it
to that we have a common adventure to go
to we are sharing a same tent we are
pitching our tents we are rolling our
sleeping bags there is this common
adventure to navigate and this common
adventure and the free-flowing
conversations that flow has a very big
impact it makes us form deep bonds with
our fellow mates our trek mates because
the conversations that we have here are
very free and frank and honest’ we
become ourselves we allow ourselves to
become vulnerable we allow answers to
open up on a trek people talk more
intimately with the trek mates in that
five or seven days than they do with
their friends for over many years now in
this modern world when acquaintances are
fleeting and friendships are fickle
the chance to bond with somebody for a
tricks help those who are struggling in
life who are facing difficulties because
a trek is almost like a journey of
difficulties which mirrors it because a
trek we are always battling an adventure
which we had which were overcoming
difficulties the difficulties of terrain
difficulties of altitude difficulty of
the weather difficulty of our own
physicality and when we overcome this we
become more resilient we are
able to tackle life’s problem easier the
more difficult situations we are able to
tackle it’s almost like if I can do this
trick then I can do anything in life and
this helps us to overcome difficulties
it also helps us become more creative
and think more clearly there was a time
at India hikes when we ran out of money
it was on a second year of operations
and we ran out of money because in one
september/october season we got smashed
by rains we had invested all the money
on our equipment and gear on the slopes
the food and ration was bought the staff
had been hired and yet we couldn’t run a
single group because it was raining all
the time and we were totally smashed we
had to pay the staff the food went waste
and we had to refund all the trekkers it
wiped out a bank balance we had nothing
left and so much so that we had to
request our staff if they were willing
to work part-time and at half pay and
I’m happy that they agreed to do that
and we thought that the coming winter
program that was coming up that would
help us tide over this crisis because
that would give us some income to tackle
this situation but good times didn’t
come every day we was stare at the
computer waiting for a registration to
come in but it wouldn’t days on days
went by life and then a day came at
India hikes when we had to ask everyone
to leave and it was only my partner
Sandhya and I who were left at India
hikes just the two of us our nose was
short
we are absolutely petrified about the
future we were wondering if there was at
all a future at India hikes in this when
we are at a lowest we decided to go on a
winter Trek we were anyway committed to
this winter trick because 17 or 18
people had already registered long ago
for this program so we went on this Trek
and the moment we went on this Trek it
had an immediate calming effect on us
on this track we were able to discuss a
problems long and hard and clearly and
we started thinking what was going wrong
with us and we understood during this
winter Trek that in our anxiety to
appear stuff in her anxiety to honor to
pay her next bills we had forgotten what
a core and basic was which was to make a
great website for people to get a great
tracking information that’s what we
stood for when we went back to the city
we started rebuilding our website we
left aside all our thoughts about you
know trying to earn our income but we
started making a website where people
could find this golden content about
getting information about tricking in
our country and as in a month or two as
people found this content more and more
people came to our website to find this
information about trekking in our
country and we noticed that it also
reflected immediately on a registrations
for a summer program and slowly little
by little we limped back into business
this winter Trek helped us to think
clearly and creatively about the problem
most of the innovative solutions that
were brought about about trekking in our
country have come about when we were
when we thought about them on our tricks
and not really in our offices where we
work tricks helps us to think creatively
we have seen that tricks people change
the profession the careers they did they
dive into something new after they
finish a trek they make or get out of
relationships after they finish a trek
they start something new when they
finish a trek trek has this profound
impact on people it makes us overcome
challenges makes us overcome
difficulties it helps us to take on new
things it helps us more focused more
creative and more sensitive it makes us
healthier and a body’s better and we
have a large database of information
that we have been
seeing this we take 20,000 people on
tricks every year the database of our
collective information is very large and
very clear what it says and it says this
that tricks have a huge impact on a mind
body and spirit and so big that we
cannot ignore it and if you haven’t
started trekking then perhaps you must
thank you [Applause]
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