Life is hard, but a hike can help! Especially when it reconnects you with nature and creates lifelong friendships with amazing women. Adam Nugent and Kate Strong speak with Angelique Fish, co-founder of The Women’s Wine Hiking Society. She describes in detail the issues she has faced and how she has transitioned to an incredibly fulfilling life. There is empowerment and healing through hiking and backpacking, and it truly can change your life from one of fear to one of freedom.
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In this podcast excerpt, Angelique Fish, co-founder of The Women’s Wine Hiking Society, talks about shifting the dynamic between women from one of competition to one of community and support.
AN: With 3,200 Facebook members, you have other women who have joined this organization looking for some of the same building blocks when you came into it. I’m guessing that there are several women who are experiencing toxic relationships, just like you were.
AF: As women, most of our lives we’re taught to be in competition with each other, which is really sad. But then I think as we get older, we start to realize that we’re all on the same team because a lot of us have had the same experiences. So we’re not alone in the things that we’re going through. And that’s why I think a group like ours is so important because it creates that community where people see that there are other people who have experienced the same thing. [Just recently] we did a beginner backpacking trip to Canyon Lands, where we took 10 women who have never backpacked before for two nights and three days.
And one of the women expressed that she had just gotten out of relationship and was kind of struggling because her boyfriend had been cheating on her. A lot of things came up on the trail where it wasn’t just physically challenging, but it was also emotionally challenging because she’d been thinking about all these things that she feels about herself, but a lot of it had come from this relationship—feeling incapable, feeling weak, and here she is struggling on the trail. This is just confirmation in her mind that he’s right. And so, she’s sharing the story with all of us, and we’re all right there with her because we’ve all been there in that same situation feeling the same way. And so I think that’s one reason why something like this is so important for women.
KS: That’s the beauty and creating community and circles of women. When women come together, there’s so much power that comes. And when I say power, it’s power in healing and power in creation. And to be able to come together and to say, “I’ve walked in your shoes and I actually know how that feels,” It’s very different than a doctor. There’s just something that comes from being in that scenario and having the language to talk to someone and say, “I know what you’re thinking right now.” And overcoming this mountain is a metaphor for you overcoming your challenges.
To learn more, visit winehikingsociety.com or find them on Facebook.
► You’ll also like: Episode 23: Bold. Brave. Beautiful. with Jenn Drummond
