the adventurous nature of healing
Journey Bound offers a range of therapeutic services (including therapy!) that help people tackle life's challenges more actively.
Consider, for a moment, something hard you've overcome.
I bet it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, sure you fell a time or two (and man, weren't some of those just spectacular) so why'd you persist instead of rolling over? I have a hunch it's some of the same stuff that makes adventure therapy work.
Did little moments have big impact?
PERSPECTIVE
Adventure is ripe with small moments that plant seeds for big changes. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the PCT isn't hiked in an afternoon. And yet, the only way to complete the 2,650 mile trail is to walk it, one foot at a time. Any experience, even major ones, are made up of a million miniscule moments that put the big thing in perspective. It's often these down-to-earth "in-between" moments that shape the experience and reach far beyond its ending to reshape us.
Did you eventually have to do something about your situation, not just think about doing something?
RISK
​I bet that shift was terrifying to finally make. No wonder our brains interfere when we consider taking it... trying to talk our way out of our problems is like debating against the world's best lawyer, meaning we lose a lot of the time. We regain balance by engaging our bodies. Adventure helps us do just that, so that our brain and body begin to work in tandem better.
Were some of the things you learned along the way surprising?
NOVELTY
If we got to choose the lesson upfront, we sure would miss out on a lot of valuable ones, including those we may need the most! Adventure positions us directly in front of the thing we humans fear the most: the fact that we can't see the future, let alone guarantee it! When we realize the present moment is life's perfect teacher, we can open our arms to the unknown and take a more accepting stance for the lessons to come. Ironically enough, taking this stance gives us more control over our reality.
Could you have done it on your own?
BELONGING
No one else could have done what you did for you. And yet, it's the larger-than-us connection to our friends, family, and earth that is the very reason we could do it ourselves. Adventure requires us to lean on and at times rely on sources of strength beyond us. These connections cultivate the trust and confidence necessary to do hard things and believe me, when it comes to hard things, changing the very way your life is going is some seriously hard shit.
In a nutshell, adventure therapy engages people's learning edge through experiences that challenge us to get out of our well-worn ruts that keep us disconnected, discontent and disempowered. By trying out new things through adventure, we build muscles that help us engage life on its terms rather than ours. It shifts "safety" from something we expect the world to give us to something we cultivate for ourselves through self-acceptance, mastery and meaningful connections.
Ultimately, the work we do leads to a more fulfilling, joyful existence.