Talk in Inverness tells how walks can improve mental health
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PEOPLE in Inverness are being urged to ditch technology for just an hour in a bid to reconnect with the real world and improve their mental health.
Matt Wallace, who organises Clarity Walks, gave a talk entitled Born Into The Machine: Mental Health And Technology at the Centre for Health Science in Old Perth Road to highlight the issue.
It aimed to show the audience simple ways to manage technology to help improve their mental health, and around 50 people turned up to hear the 28-year-old former personal trainer speak.
He started organising walks, which are aimed at getting people away from the pressures of social media and technology, in August and they have gone from strength to strength. Since they were launched, around 580 people have taken part.
Mr Wallace, of Dunain Road in the Dalneigh area of the city, said the idea to start the Clarity Walks came after his personal battle with his mental health while working in Glasgow. He said he was not enjoying his work, felt alone and his relationship suffered. He added: “I was spending way too much time on my phone. I was in a deep depression with suicidal thoughts.”
However, he found that walking in the city’s green spaces greatly improved his condition and he realised he needed a career change.
Mr Wallace decided to organise the “no phone nature walks” in a bid to help others who were in a similar position that he had found himself in.
He said: “It’s not the walks that I am selling to people, it is getting off your phone for an hour – not connecting with technology but connecting with the real world.
“When someone takes time off their phone and joins a walk they realise other things in their life that they need to do.”
For further information, visit www.claritywalk.co.uk or email matt@claritywalk.co.uk
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