Melanie Williams: Hiking Your Feelings

Turn your pain into power. Part inspirational memoir, part practical guide, Hiking Your Feelings offers a toolkit to unpack your “trauma pack” and step into the best version of yourself.

Join wellness and wilderness enthusiast Sydney Williams as she shares her healing journey from eating and drinking her feelings to hiking her feelings. When Sydney unexpectedly found herself diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, while grappling with grief and unresolved trauma built up over a decade, she set out on a quest to turn her pain into power. Two hikes across Catalina Island and eighty miles later, she learned to disconnect from distractions and reconnect with herself, all through the power of nature. Now, she’s encouraging others to get outside and blaze their own trail to self-love, turning buried traumas into healthy coping mechanisms. With affirmations, prompts, and reflection exercises throughout—all presented from Sydney’s supportive and self-effacing perspective—Hiking Your Feelings offers a toolkit to unpack your “trauma pack” and step into the best version of yourself.

INSPIRATIONAL & INSIGHTFUL: Follow Sydney as she reflects on her own journey from buried traumas and poor body image to acceptance, healthy coping mechanisms, and self-love.

RELATABLE & UNIVERSAL: Touches on themes and problems that many struggle with, including grief and loss, sexual assault, poor body image, career stress, and the stigma of diabetes, all presented from Sydney’s supportive and self-effacing perspective.

HEALING POWER OF NATURE: Discover how getting outside—even just for a walk around the block—can help you tune into your body better.

HIKE YOUR OWN HIKE: Learn to love yourself as you are now. Go from eating, drinking, working, or spending your feelings to hiking your feelings.

UNPACK YOUR TRAUMA PACK: Identify new activities and rituals that will allow you to choose love over fear and lift the invisible weight from your shoulders.

PROMPTS, ACTIVITIES & EXERCISES: Apply the lessons Sydney has learned to your own life, through thoughtful tasks at the end of each chapter.

Sydney Williams is the founder of Hiking My Feelings®, a nonprofit dedicated to the healing power of nature. Williams has 15+ years of communications experience and is a former competitive skydiver. She has been featured in HuffPost, Psychology Today, U.S. News & World Report, and on the SXSW stage.