🌍 Designing a Talk for the Royal Geographical Society on Expedition Planning for Mental Health & Wellbeing 🌍

In my role as an ambassador for #AdventureMind I’m delivering a workshop at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) on exploring ways that expeditions can be designed with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.

LINK HERE- https://www.rgs.org/in-the-field/explore-festival/explore-symposium

I’ve spent my life immersed in nature and adventure—first as an escape from a challenging home life, then through military training, early expeditions to the Himalayas, and learning jungle survival with the SAS and the Iban hunter-gatherers in Brunei.

When I’m out in nature, removed from our tech-driven dystopia with its environmental crises, rampant inequality, relentless consumerism, and the heartbreak of conflicts in places like the Middle East, it’s in those moments on an adventure, that life truly makes sense.

Are we destined to remain apes with god like technology to destroy the planet?

It’s a sharp question, isn’t it?

We’ve got the brains to wield god-like tech, but the instincts of apes—competitive, hierarchical, survival-focused—that sometimes clash hard with the cooperative, sustainable future we need.

The irony is that as we progress, mastering tech to “improve” life, we’re often out of sync with what really makes life meaningful.

We rush forward with tools that could heal or destroy, but it’s our ancient instincts, shaped long before cities or corporations, that push us to conquer, consume, or control rather than collaborate and conserve.

The big question is: can we harness this awareness, step beyond our raw impulses, and use our advancements to create rather than consume?

The hope lies in those pockets where people and communities are slowing down, thinking long-term, and using our tech for something better than just immediate gratification.

So maybe we’re only destined to repeat history if we don’t question it.

The real challenges we face as a species have emerged over the past 12,000 years… What do you think is next?

#MentalHealth #Adventure #Nature #ExpeditionPlanning #Resilience #Leadership