Jamie Ramsay On Mental Health

This Mental Health Awareness Day, we’re focusing on how the outdoors can help us to stay healthy physically and mentally. We asked brand ambassador Jamie Ramsay how he manages his mental health on his adventures, and how those skills help him with daily life.

The wonderful thing about adventuring is that the pressures that come with it are also the driving forces that make you continue to go back. If you successfully complete an adventure, then you want to get out there and see what else you are capable of. If things don’t go to plan, then you stop, reflect and then retry until you reach where you want to be. And sometimes that might be somewhere completely different to where you intended to be in the first place. 

I think that adventuring takes on a different significance for everyone. For me, it’s my passion, my challenge and my livelihood. Trying to continually push yourself to new levels can be exhausting and sometimes you need to back away to recharge - but not being on an adventure is equally challenging. The exhilaration of adventuring is the fuel that powers all other parts of my life.

Adventure was, and continues to be, the tool that I use to help me navigate my way through the daily struggles of life. When you are on an adventure you have purpose, routine, and objectives. These are the kind of things I try to factor into my everyday. A life without purpose is very hard for me to deal with - I need direction, or I stagnate. 

Being outside is an essential part of maintaining my mental health. I always ran and cycled but lockdown got me into the habit of daily walks and that has transformed things for me. The slower pace of a walk allows your mind to wander, and I can use this time to sort out the things in my mind that need to be addressed rather than supressed. Sometimes, I use this time to listen to podcast interviews with people who are inspiring or just listen to the sounds around. The transformation in the countryside around me during the last two months has been astounding. The continual change of flora is magical and despite walking the same route repetitively, no two walks are the same.  

I have tried various ways of keeping my motivation and mental health on an even keel. The two things I have learned are firstly, a routine that includes productivity, exercise, reflection and eating healthily will, for the most part, see me through. If you have a timetable and do the same things at the same time, then you get into a healthy flow. I use structured routine as a way of framing my adventures and this allows me to add a little predictability to something that inherently isn’t. 

Secondly, accepting that we are going to have down days and find things difficult, and learning to allow ourselves to go through that without feeling pressure to always be happy is really important. We can’t be on all the time and there will be times that we need to ask for help and acknowledge the struggle. Everyone is going to struggle and that is part of being human. Bouncing back is the goal and sometimes we can’t do that alone, but there is always someone willing to help if we just ask.